Crime Boss: Rockay City is a good starting point for players new to the heist genre
Leading up to its launch last year I was intrigued by Crime Boss: Rockay City, mainly because it is filled with so many recognizable faces and it looked like goofy fun. I didn’t get around to playing it in the end, and once the reviews arrived with less-than-appealing write-ups, it dropped to the bottom of my list. However, after more than a year of updates, I’ve now shot my way through Rockay City and feel like it’s a decent enough entry point for players looking to try the heisting genre without committing to a multiplayer-focused game like Payday.
Although designed as a Payday competitor with its multiplayer modes, I’ve found that Crime Boss is just as enjoyable when playing solo due to its somewhat-okay AI. The AI isn’t perfect (when is it ever), but it helps out enough for you to be able to enjoy the single-player rogue-like mode on its normal difficulty, as well as the co-op enabled Missions and Urban Legends on your own. Whatever you decide to play, you gain experience towards your player level, unlocking weapons, equipment, teammates, and cosmetics across the campaign and multiplayer modes, which is a particular highlight. There is a decent selection of weapons on offer, as well as a perk system for creating your own builds, but the lack of weapon customization is disappointing. Right now, the basic progression system does little to make me want to grind out the Missions.
The Missions play similarly to Payday, with bank heists, jewelry store robberies, cash truck robberies, and more on offer, as well as larger gigs that have you opening underground vaults or fending off waves of police robots as you rob a train. If you’ve played heist games before, you’ll recognize familiar mechanics such as knocking out camera systems, controlling civilians, drilling into vaults, and whatnot, although Crime Boss doesn’t offer deeper mechanics like guard radios needing to be answered or hostage swapping. NPC teammates seem to get the job done, and heists generally feel a little simpler here, which is why I’d recommend it for players looking to dip their toes into the genre. While there’s plenty to unlock along the way, and Ingame has more content planned for the coming months, the multiplayer side of the game hasn’t interested me as much as the solo campaign.
The main campaign features all of the missions found in the multiplayer mode and wraps it in a roguelike experience with storylines featuring several celebrities, for better or for worse. While Ingame has fought to upgrade Crime Boss’ gameplay over the last year, or so there is no helping the lackluster writing found in the cutscenes, and the poorly-voiced dialogue. For those of us old enough to have regularly seen the likes of Michael Madsen, Kim Basinger, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, and Chuck Norris cast in action movies throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, it’s a fun cast that sets the scene for Rockay City’s setting. However, their recognizable faces don’t dull the pain you feel from their half-baked voiceovers — Damien Poitier (who also voices Chains in Payday) as Nasara is a saving grace, however. Hearing Madsen call someone a “sh*theel” for the tenth time during a mission gets very tiresome — I didn’t even know what that meant until I looked it up on Uban Dictionary, which offers the following analogy: “He’s a real sh*theel; as in, he’s so low that he’s like the heel of a shoe dragging in dog sh*t.” There are plenty of moments which have caused a good chuckle, however, such as Michael Rooker’s stream of nonsense when battling for turf, so it’s not all bad.
Looking past that, I’ve found the single-player mode, Baker’s Dream, a lot of fun. It plays much like a rogue-like game of Risk and puts you in control of Baker’s growing criminal empire after the city’s former head honcho peacefully passes away during a large explosion. Each run starts with each district in the city split between five crime bosses: Baker (Michael Madsen), Dollar Dragon (Trejo), Hielo (Vanilla Ice), Khan, and Cagnali. Your job is to destroy everyone and claim your crown as the king of Rockay City.
The aim is to wipe out your competitors and control every district in Rockay City before Sherrif Norris’s investigation has concluded and he brings the hammer down. Norris’ investigation progresses each in-game day, and once he makes a move on you, your run ends — that’s if Baker didn’t die during a mission before then, which also ends your run. Each day you can use your army to attack and defend your turf (led by the fairly amusing Michael Rooker), take on various one-shot and multi-story missions to make the cash needed to expand your empire, assassinate opposing gangs’ captains, and run through randomized story content with the various teammates you unlock along the way. This mode also has a Boss Level, which is separate from your overall player level and unlocks upgrades for the campaign similar to other roguelikes.
I’ve enjoyed the single-player mode a fair bit recently, which makes Crime Boss: Rockay City stand out among other games in the genre. Its mix of heists, assassinations, attrition-style turf wars, and the like have been entertaining, and I’m sure it’ll only get better as more missions are added to the pool in the coming months. With a decent amount of fun, and a price tag of $19.99 / £15.99 / €19.99, I think it’s safe to say you get your money’s worth here.
I’d really like to see a more fleshed-out customization system in the future as it’s currently a little too basic for my tastes. While the cutscenes can’t be helped at this point, the repetitive in-mission dialogue could use some more help — shouting “there’s a camera here” when standing in the middle of a bank isn’t suspicious at all, so perhaps toning it down would be best. Ingame Studios’ commitment is clear as day, however, so I look forward to seeing the team continue to improve the gunplay and the overall Crime Boss experience in the coming months.
Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased I finally gave this shooter a shot, and it has exceeded the expectations I had. With a few more updates, Ingame Studios could have a real gem on their hands, although deeper customization options with a progression system would be needed if Crime Boss hopes to take on Payday as a multiplayer co-op shooter. It’s an easy recommendation as a single-player shooter, however, as the campaign features the same missions as the multiplayer mode along with other activities, offering an entertaining and easy-going heisting experience as you juggle your empire’s expansion with an ever-growing police presence.
