Crime Boss: Rockay City, heists, the 90s and Chuck Norris | Tried

Crime Boss

Arsenals of endless weapons, money galore, drugs galore and US beaches. No, this is not a new film by Tarantino, nor a leak on the elusive GTA 6, but the setting of Crime Boss: Rockay City, a title developed by INGAME Studios, published by 505 Games and out on March 28 on PC (but later also on PS5 and Xbox Series X | S). A few days ago I had the opportunity to try out the work for a few hours, and in the following lines I will therefore tell you about my first impressions.

Let's start from a simple but effective premise: if you are a fan of Payday, you will like Crime Boss. It is in fact, as well as the work of Overkill Software, a game focused on robberies and organized crime, in which first-person shooting, action and strategy are combined. The whole thing is set in Rockay City, a thriving US metropolis that extends between lush bright neighborhoods and financial districts with skyscrapers that touch the sky; However, all that glitters is not gold, and by removing the first layer of the onion that makes up the city, the real beating heart emerges: fights between gangs, dirty money, drugs and lots and lots of blood.

Rockay City crime boss throne it is indeed vacant, and a war between the city's clans flares up. We will take on the role of Travis Baker, a drug trafficker who, together with his team, has a single goal in mind: to eliminate all rivals and reign over the city. The strong point of Crime Boss lies precisely in his characters - or rather, in their interpreters -, given that we find an excellent cast that makes us immerse ourselves perfectly in the Hollywood climate of the 90s.

A dive into the 90s

The protagonist is played by none other than Michael Madsen , famous actor for films such as Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Donny Brasco (right to name a few). In the cast we also find Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Damion Poitier, Michael Rooker, Vanilla Ice and, to close the circle, Chuck Norris, who plays the main sheriff of the city, called, precisely, Norris.



All the actors have been recreated in the game with the appearance they had in the 90s, thus resulting in an ultra-nostalgic climate that makes us breathe that era deeply. We will be able to enjoy their skill especially in the " Baker's Battle " mode, as well as the main campaign of Crime Boss: Rockay City, designed as a kind of roguelike in which, in the role of Travis, we would have to deal at all times with the fierce sheriff and with rival gangs.

We will only talk about this campaign mode, as well as the "Crime Time", in which players can take part in quick robberies, in the complete review of the title, since during the test I was able to discover only the "Urban Legends" mode, designed above all to be played in online multiplayer. In fact, teams of four players get together to carry out short campaigns, each with three missions long, to be completed one after the other.

4 players, infinite bullets

In “Urban Legends” every the player can choose the team member he prefers (each with unique skills and weapons) and has a certain number of lives available, which must last for all three missions, since once they are exhausted, another character must be chosen. I was able to carry out two of the six mini-campaigns in the company of two colleagues and a member of the 505 Games team and the first impression is that it is certainly a fun mode to play online with friends; collaboration and teamwork are indeed essential to succeed in businesses, and playing with AI there will hardly be the same taste.

The importance of coordination is mainly due to the fact that the missions can be approached in different ways: clearly the good old "jump into the fray and kill everyone" always works, but it is also possible to infiltrate enemy areas stealthily, paying attention not to be noticed and killing silently with bricks, stones and knives. It goes without saying therefore that all the players must be on the same wavelength, given that, if the second method is chosen, one misstep is fatal for the whole team and compromises its tactics.



Other than that, the difficulty of the missions is also entirely up to the players. In each there is in fact a main objective and some secondary ones, and it is up to the team to decide how much to continue; the higher the loot, the higher the level of refinement will be (to be clear, a bit like the stars on GTA). We will therefore go from simple policemen to real juggernauts with armored armor and weapons capable of shottarci. In short, you can choose whether to play it safe and take home the nest egg or take a risk and make a fortune, and in this INGAME has succeeded in an excellent way.

Good premises

Also the The enemy AI seems to have been developed well, as spawn points depend on player positioning and are therefore unpredictable by default, while the maps are vast and rich in detail. As for the guns, from what I've seen there is a fairly classic selection, and during the missions we will be able to carry a main and a secondary weapon with us (which can vary from a pistol, a baseball bat, a knife and so on); then there is a slot for tools such as grenades, remote explosives or vials to increase defense for a few minutes.

Completing the mini-campaigns will unlock characters for the "Crime Time" mode, as well as other rewards in-game, thus making the work well interconnected and pushing players not to focus solely on one part of the game, but pushing them to explore all of them.

In short, Crime Boss: Rockay City promises well and looks like a title decidedly interesting to play in the company of friends, also thanks to the decidedly low selling price for the era in which we find ourselves. In fact, the title will be launched on the market (at least in the PC version) for €39.99, which, compared to the €70.00 required for most Triple A titles, is a much more accessible sum. After trying the "Urban Legends" mode, I can therefore only be curious to discover the others, especially the main campaign, both to see the cast of actors in action who represent the spearhead of the work, and to actually understand their potential in single player. We just have to wait for March 28 to find out the final verdict!