Review

The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire review: Schedule 1 meets old GTA

By George In The Meta · 28 Oct 2026

Short answer: The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire is almost exactly what I wanted Schedule 1 to become, and I've got 77 hours in Schedule 1. It's giving old-school, top-down Grand Theft Auto vibes, with way more to do than growing and selling drugs: taxi driving, a hot dog stand, pickpocketing, stealing cars. I'd buy it for the price, $15.19 with 20% off at launch, because it's very streamable. The camera is the weak spot. This is from about 20 minutes with the demo, so there may be more depth than I've seen.

What is The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire?

The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire is a single-player crime game where you build a criminal empire from the streets up: commit crimes in third person, run illegal businesses, recruit your own crime family and take over the city. It came out on Steam on 27 October 2026, for Windows, at $18.99, or $15.19 with 20% off at launch. It's made by BEF GAMES and published by Tripwire Presents, and it has full controller support (Steam).

Is The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire better than Schedule 1?

Yes, from what I've played. This is almost exactly what I want Schedule 1 to have become. The idea of just growing drugs and selling drugs is very one-dimensional compared to all the extra stuff going on around this. In its own trailer you can serve someone a hot dog and be punching in the ring, and that solves what I was worried about with Schedule 1. Obviously I've only played the demo, so maybe there's even more depth than I've seen, but we don't know yet.

The driving feels very Schedule 1-esque too. The first car I got in handled like butt cheeks, but the next one handled fine, and it makes sense for the game world. I did a sick drift that I should have captured.

What's the start of The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire like?

You make your character first, and you get skill points to spend on Power, Fight, Vision, Charisma, Pickpocket, Craft, Trade and Lockpicking. I got some sick hair and some baller accessories, went for Charisma and Trade to try and trade my way to money, and started with $31.

The first mission is a shipment deal that goes wrong. Someone pulls a gun, the police cut down the door, and you have to fight your way out. The police were running like absolute jankers and not really moving, which made them kind of easy to kill, and I think I killed two of my own team members. It's chaotically janky. Then you escape through the back, get in a boat and get away.

How do the controls and camera work in The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire?

On foot, The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire is click to move, from a camera above you, and right click attacks. I kind of like it, and you can zoom in. Press Tab and you get an over-the-shoulder third-person mode with WASD, which is a good option to have, but the camera control in that mode sucks balls. Even in click-to-move mode, the camera swivel is kind of shit: right click doesn't spin it, Q and E do. In the car, I couldn't find a handbrake to slow me down.

The lockpicking mini-game throws you in without showing you the buttons. It's your mouse, then Space. Pickpocketing is easy as hell: it's just a mini-game where you press Space to stop a slider in the right spot, and I pickpocketed three people for the mission without any trouble.

What is there to do in The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire?

There's loads to do in The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire, and it's spewing information onto you from the start. The newspaper has jobs: taxi driver, hot dog vendor, doorman and car washer. There's a gym, but membership is $1,000. You can mug people with a bat, search them, steal their cars and pickpocket around the city, and there's a whole bunch of criminal activities on top.

The Feature Vault is where the larger game is. It has upgrade trees for Criminal Activities, the Office, Properties, a Club and a Warehouse. I went in with Charisma and Trade, so the hot dog stand would probably be my starting point, or maybe the drug side.

Can you scam taxi passengers in The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire?

Not for long. I tried to exploit the taxi job by driving my passenger up and down without dropping him off, because the meter just kept going: I had him on a $200 bill, then about $300. Then he got out and didn't pay. They're wise to that, so there's a finite amount of piss you can take. The game does warn you: take customers on a longer route to pocket more money and they may report you to the police, and keep driving them around for too long and they might teach you a lesson.

Does The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire run well on a laptop?

It was playable on my gaming laptop, but the laptop got loud and there was a stutter every time the next area loaded in. It's something you notice if you've played Minecraft, because Minecraft chunks are what taught me to spot a new chunk loading from the stutter. It might be optimised a bit badly.

Is The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire multiplayer?

No, The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire is single-player only. That doesn't matter to me: I would play this single player. But it would fit having your mates in there with you, the same way Schedule 1 does, maybe 16 people on a server, and I don't believe that would be too complex an ask to add.

Would I buy The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire?

Yes, I'd buy it for the price, because I could stream it. It's very streamable, and I think it's going to be one of the ones where we see a lot of content coming out of it, the same way we did with Schedule 1.

The Boss Gangster: Criminal Empire at a glance