Crime Boss: Rockay City

by JesseGatt
reviewed on PC
A taste for crime
After the complete letdown of Payday 3, lovers of the heisting genre have been left with an itch unsatisfied. Published by 505 Games, developers being InGame Studios, Crime Boss: Rockay City 'might' be the title for gamers wanting to get back in action. Rated M, the solo/co-op game invites players into the underworld of organised crime - infested with police forces, rival gangs and piles of cash! However, I say 'might' as some aspects of this game are just downright unbearable, driving even the most invested heisting fan away.
An Epic Recovery
Crime Boss was first released in March 2023 on the Epic Games Store and let's just say, at the time it was not great. It received a fair share of negative reviews from hopeful gamers, and honestly was not ready to be released. But thanks to its dedicated team at InGame Studious the game has had a re-release on Steam with 9 major updates, 5 DLCs along with revamping the campaign system, adding new features and much more.
How do you want to play?
I just want to talk about the value of this game on its Steam "re-release". For just over 20 dollars, Crime Boss: Rockay City offers a diverse range of solo, multiplayer and campaign modes, and to top that off, includes all DLC for free to celebrate their re-release. There just isn't a better deal when it comes to games these days, and I hope that other publishers take some notes from 505 Games here.
In the solo mode, players can add bots to their lobby, which they can command to do tasks such as steal loot and subdue security guards, helping you with your heisting endeavours. Players have the freedom to have a stealthy heist execution or go in guns blazing, fighting waves of cops as you load up the truck. However, the bots could use some work. When trying to stay stealthy and commanding them to subdue a guard, they usually take a path that gets them spotted which ultimately ruins your plans. Because of this, I mostly just used the bots to help me with looting. This could be remedied by adding a system that would allow you to ping multiple guards but only engage once you and your team have moved into position, then a second command can be given either by subduing another guard yourself or via pressing another button, similar to Ghost Recon Breakpoint's engagement system. By doing this, players would be able to use the bots for a more stealthy approach instead of relying on themselves to eliminate threats and only use the bots to help collect loot and perform simple tasks.
In multiplayer co-op, you can play with 1 to 3 friends (max 4 in one lobby) or enter quick matches with other players, although during my time with the review code, I had trouble finding any viable lobbies due to low player counts. Having said that, co-op is where Crime Boss shines, having the ability to communicate with friends and plan a strategy out before flawlessly executing it, is one of the most satisfying things about this game. Finding new ways to complete a heist through trial and error or careful planning adds tremendously to the replay value. There are a variety of missions that you can choose from ranging from short to long with more coming in the future. I've spent most of my time playing multiplayer on extreme difficulty because of how hectic a mission can get, running around the map and just trying to survive with as much loot as we can hold.
Rule over Rockay City
The campaign mode offers a unique experience, playing as Travis Baker, trying to build a criminal empire to rule over Rockay City. However, other gangs are competing to become the "Crime Boss". Each day you have important decisions to make for your gang - do you want to recruit more members, attack rival territories, or take out other gang leaders, wiping them off the map. 505 Games have implemented a randomised system, so each run is never the same, keeping the gameplay fresh and replayable. Although I didn't enjoy the campaign as much due problems mentioned below, I appreciate the approach they took.
Please stop talking
Now, even with how far Crime Boss has come from its original state - thanks to its dedicated developers at InGame Studios - some reminders of its horrible past are still embedded in the game. I'm talking about the writing. It was a little funny at first, but man, it gets old quickly. Considering they have legitimately great actors as part of the cast means they spent a large portion of their budget on the voice acting. As such, you would think there would be some great writing to pair with them. But no, it's so cheesy and cringe-worthy that I couldn't bear to listen to Touch Down (a campaign character) say another word without reconsidering my life choices. And does my character really need to say the same voice line to the 15 guards I've zip-tied? These are all just nitpicks from me that do not affect the gameplay but it's such poor work that I can't help to call it out.
Going back to the cast, if you're going to introduce famous actors into your game and make it your selling point, make sure they actually want to do the role. The character Chuck Norris for example, sounds so lifeless that it's like they AI-generated his voice for every line. This goes for a lot of the other casts too, I feel like none of the cast actually took their role seriously and honestly I don't blame them. They probably saw the script and faced palmed knowing that they were going to have to say it.
Not only is the writing bad but the music is too, I went a little under 2 hours before I completely muted the music. It was like there was one song on a loop for the entirety of a mission. The best music I heard was the loading screen music and that wasn't even that good.
Going Forward
To be upfront, this by no means is the best thing that has been released to the heisting genre, but having said that, it is also not the worst *cough Payday 3 cough*. Crime Boss has a lot to offer and is fairly priced unlike a lot of the games we see today. Players also need to keep in mind that Crime Boss is receiving continuous support and improvements with 4 major updates planned for the future. The one thing that lets this game down is the writing and poor NPC design. If you are looking into purchasing Crime Boss, I would recommend getting a friend to tag along with you, as the solo gameplay loop can get boring very fast. With how dedicated InGame Studious is towards this title, I have no doubt it is going to get better over time, but currently, there is a lot of refining that needs to be done.
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6.0
fun score
Pros
Unique game mechanics, Heaps of content, Great gameplay loop, Low Price
Cons
Low quality music, Low(ish) player count, Unbearable voice acting, Frustrating team bots