One of the ultra-popular mobile gaming hits in the early days of the App Store was Zynga’s Mafia Wars, which was *ahem* heavily inspired by the Facebook gaming phenomenon Mob Wars to the point that the creator of Mob Wars actually sued Zynga over it. All that stuff aside, Mafia Wars was a neat crime game that was about building up your own crew and taking down other crews, fighting, murdering, and collecting loot along the way. Wholesome stuff. It was practically an institution on iOS back in the day, and while Mafia Wars ceased all operations a few years ago, there is another mafia-style game called TORN which has a 14-year history and boasts over 2 million registered users and 27,000 daily players. It’s currently playable in your browser, but at the end of this month it’ll be releasing as a native iOS app.
While TORN is primarily about starting out as a lowly thug and building up your criminal empire, there’s actually a surprising amount of stuff you can do in the game and not all of it is crime related. There are multiple legitimate jobs you can apply for, or you can start your own business, or you can focus on building a relationship with a love interest. It’s text-based, but this is truly an MMORPG that gives you a ton of leeway in how you spend your time and live out your fantasy life. There’s a strong community behind the game that has built up over the years as TORN has grown and evolved, and I think its bite-sized style of play ...