Bootleg Steamer

About

"Bootleg Steamer" is a rogue-like game set during American Prohibition, where you play as a captain aiming to become wealthy through alcohol smuggling. Navigate through challenges like weather, Coast Guard, Mafia, and financial difficulties while balancing supply and demand in different cities. Customize your ship, crew, and strategy to outsmart both the Coast Guard and the Mafia, ensuring your path to success in this dangerous yet lucrative endeavor.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

77%

Audience ScoreBased on 22 reviews

gameplay4 positive mentions

optimization2 negative mentions

The game features a unique theme with great art style and fantastic soundtrack, making it visually appealing and enjoyable to play.
There is a lot of depth and variety in gameplay mechanics, allowing for different strategies and replayability.
The boat physics are fun and engaging, adding to the overall enjoyment of navigating the game world.

The game suffers from a lack of tutorials and guidance, making it difficult for players to understand mechanics and navigate the UI.
Performance issues, including mouse lag and a barebones options menu, detract from the overall experience and make gameplay tedious.
Keybinding options are absent, and essential functions like exiting menus are not intuitive, leading to frustration during gameplay.

gameplay
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
42%
25%
The gameplay offers a mix of depth and variety, with engaging mechanics that can lead to immersive experiences, particularly in trading and chase scenarios. However, the lack of tutorials and unclear UI elements can make it challenging for players to grasp certain mechanics, leading to potential frustration. Overall, while some aspects may feel repetitive and could benefit from refinement, many players find the core gameplay loop enjoyable and addictive.
- “The depth and variety of game mechanics is impressive.”
- “The absence of tutorials for some gameplay mechanics makes exploring the game more fun.”
- “Lacking a bit in the UX department, but the gameplay loop is very fun.”
- “Mediocre gameplay that gets repetitive and boring extremely quickly.”
- “The walls of text explaining game mechanics don't have any kind of colored or bold text and cannot be accessed during the pause menu (in a glossary or help section or something). This makes trying to understand new mechanics while the game is unpaused (and you are being chased) quite challenging.”
- “While I appreciate not having explicit tutorials for some parts of the core gameplay loop, some UI elements should be introduced to the player (for example, the option to drop cargo, which is practically hidden).”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
30%
10%
The graphics are widely praised for their amazing art style and charming visuals that enhance the overall experience, reminiscent of classic games. However, some users express frustration over the lack of customizable graphic settings, noting a barebones options menu that limits adjustments. Overall, while the visuals are considered a strong point, there is a desire for more graphical customization options.
- “The graphics are amazing, and it has the feel of an old school Pac-Man type game.”
- “The art style is interesting, and I love all the different ship designs.”
- “Visuals and music are very charming, and controlling the ship is fun.”
- “If it's a graphical issue, then I guess I'll just go f*** myself since you can't change the graphic settings at all. The options menu is super barebones, and you can't change anything outside of volume and window size.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the game's strong replayability, citing the ability to craft unique loadouts and upgrades that vary with each run, enhancing the overall experience. Additionally, the game's value as an indie title contributes to its enjoyable replay potential.
- “Being able to craft the perfect loadout of crew and upgrades to achieve this, which is different in every run, allows for a good amount of replayability.”
- “Well-priced indie game for the level of fun and replayability.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization has been criticized for being poorly constructed, leading to significant performance issues that can be detrimental to PCs. While the gameplay is enjoyable, the overall execution suffers from a lack of polish and refinement.
- “The optimization of how this game works is dangerous to my PC at times for no reason; it is poorly constructed and needed more time to cook.”
- “The game itself is fun, but the performance is atrocious.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is widely praised for its fantastic quality and charm, complementing the amazing art style and enhancing the overall experience. Players find it easy to immerse themselves in the game thanks to the engaging soundtrack.
- “Amazing art style and the soundtrack is fantastic... very easy to get into as well.”
- “Visuals and music are very charming, and controlling the ship is fun.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, primarily due to frustrating mouse controls that hinder navigation through menus, making it difficult to engage with the game for extended periods.
- “You can't open your map or town menus or do literally anything else involving a menu without using your mouse, and when your mouse feels like it's always four steps behind where it should be, it makes the game unbelievably tedious to play for more than five minutes.”
- “The grinding in this game feels endless and repetitive, making it hard to stay engaged with the story.”
- “I spent hours grinding for resources, only to find that the rewards were not worth the time invested.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users report that the game experiences significant stability issues, particularly noting that the map is buggy, which affects overall gameplay.
- “The map is buggy.”
story
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's story immerses players in the life of a bootlegger, filled with challenges such as evading law enforcement and fulfilling various quests related to the alcohol trade, creating an addictive and engaging narrative experience.
- “Extremely addictive, this game throws you into the life of a true blue bootlegger as you struggle to evade the cops while trying to figure out the most in-demand alcohols and completing the other quests that pop up.”