Jey's Empire

Review

From the main menu screen, you’ll have the option of either Tutorial or New Game. I’d suggest going over the tutorial before proceeding with a new game. After hitting the Tutorial button, you’ll find yourself (J. Edgar Hoover) sitting at a desk. There’s an American flag on your right; behind the flag is a map of the US of A showing the different states, and there’s a bureau flag to your left. In the top left corner, you’ll find the Month and Year, and on the top right corner there’s Trust and Self-Control bars. Below that there’s the Next Month button for ending your turn. Just then the phone rings; it’s Maestro Cinetik, the game’s author, and he’ll take you through the tutorial explaining how to play the game.

The object of the game is to not get fired, while dealing with crime, mafia, robberies etcetera happening across America. Selecting the map will show you the states and the various FBI Offices. On the left of the map are some icons which, when selected, will show the different threats across the country. The different types of threats are from the Mafia, Communists, White Supremacists, Crimes & Trafficking and the Top Ten Most Dangerous Organisations. Selecting any of these will show you where the biggest threats are currently taking place. On the right of the screen is a police badge icon, which indicates the number of agents you have at your disposal. Below the badge icon is another icon with Special Agent John Maraud’s boat race and telephone. You can use this to help micromanage the country by delegating to FBI Agents.

Selecting one of the regional offices of the FBI will show you details on any pending cases, as well as office information.  You can assign a Special Agent to run that office. Here you’ll find some files on cases which need your attention. Opening one of the files will detail any information, such as Intelligence Level and Strength of Case percentage, Activity, Violence, Size and Threat. Any FBI Operations in Progress, Available Agents, Busy Unassigned Agents, Actions and Important Information are also in the files. You can hover your cursor over any of these, revealing some information about them.

You will need to gather information on each of the file cases so that you can instigate raids and arrests and bring down any of the criminal threats. To do this you need to use the Actions in the files, which consist of Produce Files, Arrest Campaign, Help, FBI Shadow, Plant Undercover Agent, Declare Public Enemy, Look For Informers, Radicalise, Send This Case To The FBI Lab, Offer Bounty, Create Dissent, Legal and Illegal Wiretapping, Police Arrests, Black Bag Pig and Raid.

Using these actions will require a varying number of FBI Agents, indicated on the actions. Opening a Produce File will allow you to gain information on your subjects and will help to strengthen your court case up to a point. However, after exceeding fifty percent of Intelligence Level and Strength of Case this becomes less effective so sending lots of agents to gather this information isn’t required as much. You can also gain information by applying to have wire taps installed. If the Judge decides that you have gained enough information, they will allow you to plant the wiretaps. However, if you apply before having enough information, the Judge won’t allow the wiretap, which could make the organisation wary of your presence.

Using other actions such as Undercover Agents, FBI Shadow and Informers can help you gain extra information. Your undercover agents will need time to infiltrate and gain the trust of those organisations that you’re trying to build a case against. As time goes, by your agents will rise in rank; the higher the rank, the more information they’ll gain for your case. You will need to be carefu,l as your agent's cover can be blown, placing them in danger.  The question then begs; do you pull them, or do you keep them undercover? The decision will be down to you.

Once you gain enough information and have built your case you can start making arrests and bringing down those naughty boys and girls. Checking the files on an organisation will show you the current Intelligence and Strength of Case progress. Also here is how Active and Violent they are, as well as the Size of the organisation and their Threat level; you’ll need to keep an eye on these, as they may seem to be of little threat now, but this can change quickly.

There are six scenarios you can play through, with different difficulties, scenarios and duration of playtime. Apalachin - November 1957 – December 1960 is a good place to start and its difficulty level is very easy. The other campaigns you can play are President Kennedy November 1960 – November 1963, Dead Kennedys November 1963 – June 1968, Burn Baby Burn May 1964 – April 1968, Black Panters May 1967 – May 1972 and By Any Means Necessary November 1960 – May 1972.

Once you have done everything you need to, you can head back to the office screen where you can then hit the Next Month button. This will take you to the next month where you may have new information about undercover agents etcetera with Activity Reports. Any new threats will appear on your map, and those which are becoming a bigger threat will be indicated in red and show their current level of threat. Sometimes you’ll notice handcuffs on the map; when you see these, it means that you’ve gained enough information for your case and that you can now make arrests and hopefully clean the streets of these bad influences. There are also icons at the side of each file which detail their current threat level.

At times you’ll interact with other characters, where your answers will determine your Trust and Self-Confidence. The Trust and Self-Confidence is important; if they reach zero then you’re out of a job and the game ends. Your objective is to keep your job until the end of the campaign, while cleaning the streets of scum. The more crimes you bust, the more trust and confidence you’ll gain.

There is an extra folder on your desk; this is your Personal and Confidential Files, your own personal secret files.  Each month you can work on one of these cases, with more of them coming later as you progress. These cases require your personal attention and are handled by your choice of the most trusted agents.  One of the first cases is to find out who or what has taken a dump on your doorstep.

The options you can access in the top left of the screen on the main menu screen. There aren’t many options, just Quit, Sound On/Off, Language and Difficulty.

It’s quite an interesting game; I wasn’t doing very well at first, but after understanding the game better I started to improve (although I did get fired and the whole of the country was covered in big red circles of threats). You can play the game at your own pace, without any need to rush about against any time limit, which I like. The graphics are nothing special, but it doesn’t matter as everything is good enough and easily identifiable. Quite an enjoyable game to play. 

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!