Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager, developed and published by Gidib Games, is a mobile app that will be released on Steam. It is a mafia management game where you are able to run your gang of mobsters and conquer the city, being the top gang in this indie mafia tycoon game.
Within Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager, you can build your own mafia empire, recruit loyal mobsters and grow your gang. Within your gang, you’re able to give your mobsters their own weapons and vehicles to help with the crime or extortion you’re about to commit in the city. You have the ability to plan robberies, heists, and assassinations alongside being able to extort other businesses and collect protection fees. You can even buy others’ businesses in the city and gain the ability to manage illegal rackets. Rival mobsters also exist within Pixel Gangsters where you must stand your ground or make peace with them. You can choose to go to war, be neutral, make peace, or just brutally eliminate them by assassination. You’re also able to interrogate rival mobsters and spy in their territories as well to keep tabs on what’s going on in the city. To help stay on the down low for the things you’re doing in the city, you can bribe city officials like the police chief or mayor to gain certain buffs when trouble strikes. You can also bail yourself out of lawsuits.
Each run through is randomly generated, which means there are limitless ways to run your city and different strategies and routes you can do to be the biggest leader in the city. Each gang has a different buff given to you are able to choose during your character customization screen, and you can even give yourself certain stats as well, which gives for limitless combinations. You always start with a different business you are running each time you start over, and the city layout is also changed as well.
To put it in short, Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager is a business simulation game, except mafia themed. You make your preparations and decisions before the start of each week, and you just wait to see what happens. Your business will either grow, or you might get murdered.
During my personal playthrough, I was very, very confused. The instructions and tutorial were quite vague and even though it explained each action as is, I didn’t really understand the weight or strategy on how you are supposed to go about it. In my first playthrough, I kept losing more money than earning it because I was not sure how to earn money. To be honest, I was clicking through random actions just to see if something would change. Later on, when I decided to start another run, I never realized that there was actually a guide you could use on the main menu! It was super helpful, and it helped me understand the game a lot better. As someone who has never played a tycoon simulator before, it was definitely something that I found very useful. It gives you tips and tricks on how to go about the game and some of the different routes you can take if you choose to take that route.
Overall, after figuring out the logistics of the game and playing for a couple hours it became very stale and boring to me. At some point you are just repeating the same things to try to survive, and it gets pretty repetitive (depending on the route you are taking). I started feeling burnt out and it felt a bit lackluster. Alongside that, Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager is a bit buggy on Steam. Sometimes when I flip through the menu, I can’t interact with the city map unless I open the menu and exit it again. It wasn’t that much of a hindrance, but it did happen often. If you’re very interested in tycoon simulators and enjoy managing finances with the thrill of the mafia scene, Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager is definitely for you. For myself, I tried my best to enjoy it, but it felt too complex for me and I felt burnt out towards the end. The experience was new to me though and it was an interesting play through!
Pixel Gangsters: Mafia Manager will be available for PC via Steam. You can wishlist it right now.
Related: Reviews by Belana Labra
I really love playing video games! Growing up, my dad introduced me to video games, the first being Street Fighter. I have always been surrounded by them growing up and even now. They really impacted my life allowing me to share this commonality with my friends and new ones. I play a wide array of games, mostly PC, but sometimes PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Some of my favorite games are Final Fantasy VII, League of Legends, Persona 5, and Stardew Valley. As of recent, I've been playing Fall Guys and Among Us as well!
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