Company of Crime - criminal empire builder with tactical turn-based missions set in 1960s London

[Mark Richard]

https://af.gog.com/game/company_of_crime?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Company of Crime is a turn-based tactical combat game that's just been announced for Steam. There's a solid preview with the creative director on hookedgamers which explains. Here's the highlights, but I recommend reading the whole thing:

https://www.hookedgamers.com/pc/company_of_crime/preview/article-1597.html

Set in crime-ridden London of the 1960’s, Company of Crime puts players in the midst of one of the city’s most violent periods. You control either an infamous crime family of the period or London’s prestigious organised crime task force, the Flying Squad.

Most establishments have public areas where your team can go without drawing much attention, but they will also have areas that, should you enter, will cause the staff to raise the alarm and start a fight.

One of Company of Crime’s main gameplay mechanics is its heat meter, which goes up along with your infamy and the amount of ruckus that you create during the mission. As firearms create quite a bit of ruckus, combat decidedly leans towards melee engagements.

Jussi showed me how one of his henchmen picked up a bottle from the bar to hit an adversary on the head. “If you would be standing next to something like a liquor cabinet, you could make your guy throw bottles at an enemy to suppress him”. You can also pick up chairs and smash them on someone’s head. And if someone else turns your fistfight into a gun one, you could try and wrestle the gun away from him.

Company of Crime features a strategy layer in which you get to plan your conquests (or purgings). The layer consists of a satisfyingly large map of London that has been divided into sectors. Each sector has a number of locations that represent your control over a certain area but also provide bonuses. Owning a pub allows you to expand your team, owning a tailor shop will provide them with clothes that offer light armor. My favourite may be the laundry. It will literally allow you to wash away the evidence. Team members using the laundry are taken off the roster for a while, but they come out mostly clean, even changing their appearance.

On the strategy layer, police sergeants patrol sectors to try and undermine the crime families’ operations. They can increase safety, search for informants, organise stakeouts and more.

A full playthrough will cover a couple of in-game years and is expected to last around 30 hours.

 

[Infinitron]

Empire of Sin: London?

 

[cretin]

Sounds cool. Not holding my breath though. This industry is so fucking retarded that a game from 1999 is still the best in the genre.

 

[Alfgart]

Sounds cool. Not holding my breath though. This industry is so fucking retarded that a game from 1999 is still the best in the genre.

Gangsters: Organized Crime?

 

[cretin]

Sounds cool. Not holding my breath though. This industry is so fucking retarded that a game from 1999 is still the best in the genre.

Gangsters: Organized Crime?

Ja2

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

song list?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Zanzoken]

"Company of Crime"? Goddamn we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of titles here.

Game looks pretty cool other than that.

 

[Catacombs]

"Company of Crime"? Goddamn we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of titles here.

Game looks pretty cool other than that.

Not too late to change the title. Look at Disco Elysium.

 

[thesecret1]

"Company of Crime"? Goddamn we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of titles here.

Game looks pretty cool other than that.

Not too late to change the title. Look at Disco Elysium.

No Truce With The Furries was a better title

 

[Aemar]

This game has appeared out of nowhere as an alternative to Romero's Empire of Sin. A LOT of similarities between these two titles.

 

[Saduj]

I get the impression that Empire of Sin combat will heavily feature guns while Company of Crime is mostly melee.

 

[Mark Richard]

A demo is set to release during the upcoming Steam Summer Game Festival June 9th to June 14th.

The demo version of Company of Crime offers a sneak peek of the first steps of the criminal campaign. It introduces the basic game-play elements on the strategic level as well as 4 tactical missions, located in a jewellery shop, a tailor, a laundry and a pub.

We will also be streaming to show you guys the game as well as answer any questions you have.
Here is our streaming calendar, save the dates!
Tuesday 6PM CEST, 7PM EEST, 9AM PDT
Thursday 6PM CEST, 7PM EEST, 9AM PDT
Saturday 5PM CEST, 6P EEST, 8AM PDT

 

[Citizen]

"Company of Crime"? Goddamn we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of titles here.

Game looks pretty cool other than that.

"Ughh so guys I toyed some more with CoC last night..."

 

[Kalin]

Looks like shit

 

[Infinitron]

Steam demo is out.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Played demo for a bit.
Felt very promising indeed. Presentation and musics seems good.

And yes there are grapples and several other melee actions.

I'll be giving this one a second look; demo doesn't seem to allow saving game.

 

[Nortar]

Oh yes, not every game lets you throw a glass at one enemy, crash a bottle on head of another and then smash his face against counter.
The combat looks brutal, dirty and has at lot of interesting and unusual moves. One of the best impressions among the june-demo-bunch.

 

[Aemar]

Interesting options regarding the melee combat, which indeed is quite brutal. Camera view seems locked. Looking forward to more info and probably will watch the dev's streaming session as well.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Camera view seems locked.

It is rotatable with Q and E.

 

[Mark Richard]

Gave the demo a quick look. A few initial thoughts:

- There's a voiced introduction to the chapter. Non-UK residents will have a difficult time understanding the cockney slang contained therein, but the dialect is limited to flavour text and doesn't intrude on the mechanics of the game which are explained in plain simple english.

- Positioning. Is. Everything. The space you occupy, the direction you face, it all needs to be carefully considered in order to set up the right moves.

- Interactable objects are really difficult to spot. Am I missing something here?

- There's a quick deployment phase in addition to a stealth phase. The layout in one mission was favourable enough to where I could load my whole crew at the back door, send one guy to block the only other exit, then proceed to bum-rush the target. Unfortunately restarting the map doesn't also restart the deployment phase.

- The 1960s was a rough place. You think you can push around a couple of hairdressers? Hell no. Minimum wage employees will dive over the tables like action film stars to give you a beating.

- Gangsters can achieve a maximum of 8 levels. Each level they pick from one of two skills, totalling a selection of 16 skills. Some appear to be unique to that class, some aren't.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

[Lyre Mors]

Looks really cool. Thanks for the impressions and screenshots, Mark Richard.

 

[Mark Richard]

The demo ends after two of the three multiple choice missions have been completed, so it'll take two playthroughs to see everything.

Today I took my time to absorb the UI's feedback, decimating the enemy combatants with what could be described as a Blood Bowl team. Linesmen blocking choke points, blitzers charging the target, zones of control, flanking, etc. I find the most valuable move at this early stage is the kick because of the high hit rate and knockback effect. If there's an empty space behind the victim, they'll be flung backwards so you can disengage. If there's a hard surface, extra damage galore. You can also damage two enemies by kicking one into another.

Almost accidentally killed someone by throwing objects. Should've kept a closer eye on the damage types - the move has a chance to cause health damage as well as stamina. A bit confused as to how the initial stealth phase works. Civilians in public areas alerted to my presence? Presumably that changes their behaviour somehow, but the specifics elude me. Some of the game's rules require further explanation.

Overall I quite enjoyed this demo and might pick the game up if the price is reasonable.

 

[Storyteller]

Hi everyone! I'm the narrative designer working on Company of Crime. I've been following this thread quite a while now, and it seems to be the most civil discussion about the game I've seen thus far from all the forums.
I have to be honest, I've never been to rpgcodex, and don't know what I'm stepping into or how developers are received here, but anyway I'm open to answering any questions you might have about the game (barring questions falling under NDA obviously).

 

[Infinitron]

I've been following this thread quite a while now, and it seems to be the most civil discussion about the game I've seen thus far from all the forums.

Compared to where?