Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire

This game let me be a bad person and suffer the consequences. I wanted to role-play an ambitious, morally compromised person that constantly struggled between his own self-interest and protecting the people he loved. Bootlegger definitely let me do that, and my eventual downfall was very satisfying. Everyone I cared about left me! The 1920s setting is full of great details. The writer's enthusiasm for the period is obvious.

Closest thing to a Boardwalk Empire game I’ve played. Short and sweet but not a game I think I’ll come back to after getting the 100% in about seven hours.

This is a fairly decent story if you're into crime and Prohibition era stuff like I am. There's some really good choices you can make and the story events are pretty engaging. However, I would recommend buying it on sale, as it isn't very long and I've already gotten 2/3 of all the achievements after a little less than two hours of play.

I liked it. I don't know if I played it way it was intended - since I think I got through the entire story without killing anyone or losing anyone important - but I liked it. I'll have a go at some point as a remorselessly evil gangster. Should be fun. Since being a pillar of the community felt a bit off, for the title.

I can't recommend this game. As a historical novel 'Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire' doesn't really take much actual inspiration from history. There's no interaction with or even mention of real life events or figures of Prohibition era New York City. The lack of references to the player character's chosen gender and sexual orientation was a major disappointment for me, as I would have loved a more serious exploration of things like the woman's rights movement or a look into an historical queer experience. This is not to say that this is a bad game! It is well written and the plot is entertaining, though the mechanics of the stat system could be explained a little bit more. I just feel that as a ''Historical Novel', it's underwhelming, and relies too heavily on common pop culture influenced assumptions about organized crime during prohibition.

I achieved something along the way, but at the time I've become not interested in things that are going on already.