Officially presented at the last The Game Awards, just two months ago we brought you ours impressions of Crime Boss: Rockay Citya new “organized crime” game coming to PC on March 28 (now on the Epic Games Store) and then to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
We use the expression “organized crime game” for all intents and purposes in the world because, although there are robberies and similarities to Payday 2 not a little, This is not a game focused solely and exclusively on robberies. And we have proved that after playing it.
The starting point of Crime Boss: Rockay City is very simple, and we’ve seen it countless times on the big screen. The boss of the city has fallen, and different gangs will fight for the throne, giving rise to a bloody war between them.
One of the best attractions is that Crime Boss has big movie stars who will recreate the style of an action movie from the 90s, and There is no shortage of famous faces such as Chuck Norris, Kim Basinger, Danny Glober, Danny Trejo or Michael Madsen (Reservoir dogs). Because there was even Vanilla Ice, like Ice, the boss of one of the gangs.
All of them not only gave their image for the game but also lent their voices (it comes in English, with Spanish texts). As studio representatives told us. Chuck Norris was the only one who didn’t go to the recording studio, and the developers had to go to his house to record him. Things from the “cache” … or age, we believe.
Each one has a different role (Norris will be the Sheriff, Glober will be a hit advisor, Kim Bassinger will be the accountant…) The player’s campaign mode will show us his rise to the throne of the mafia in Rockay City.
But this time we will not talk to you about the single-player campaign, where we have seen almost nothing, but about the cooperative multiplayer modes, where Crime Boss promises to provide hours of gaming and company fun.
Crime Boss, let the weight of money fall on you
Besides the individual campaign, Crime Boss has two cooperative-oriented modes. The first is “Time of Crime”, a mode designed for quick games, with unique attacks and robberies.
They are generated randomly at a point on the city map, you choose who you want to play and plan the heist (be it a big or a small hit). And you can choose to play alone, with 3 bots, or other real players.
The goal here is simple: earn money with cheap tasks, which can be completed even while playing alone without the help of bots or other players, although doing it with someone is always more fun.
And why is money important? Well, because it will allow us access to many elements that will make our lives easier, starting with better weapons. But that’s not all.
For example, if we play with bots, we can hire the services of more qualified partners because they have superior skills or weapons.
But of course, bots are not infallible: they can be injured by attacks, or captured. In these cases, We can use the money to pay bail or better medical treatment which facilitates your speedy recovery.
Urban Legends, is a challenge even for veteran players
The mode we play is Urban Legends, which is undoubtedly the most challenging of all. As the developers told us, it is a mode consisting of 6 stories as they call them.
For practical purposes, it is 6 small independent campaigns, each consisting of three consecutive missions that we must overcome “once and for all.” The problem is that completing them is not an easy task, they always become more difficult and also have their own rules.
Here we do not control any of the main characters of the game, but we control the teammates, four “main” and two randomly generated. These teammates are unlocked with money, in the individual campaign…
These four main companions are the goal of “better” in terms of weapons and characteristics. If they die, we cannot select them for the following missions.
As a “rogue-lite” component that adds difficulty to these mini-campaigns, but not just one. Every time we play it, some things change, like the position of the enemies, or the point from which we have to flee.
Like other game modes, The idea is that no two games are alike. which is still one of the ideas around which roguelikes and roguelites revolve.
The first of these stories we played pitted us against Ice’s gang, the character played by Vanilla Ice. His people are partying on the beach, what better time to throw them a party? in a visit and bite them… the sand?
Here we see how certain aspects can make a difference when it comes to acting. For example, If we put down the weapon we can act without attracting attention mark the enemies, and decide the best course of action before we start shooting.
On the first try, we went “almost” and miserably bit the dust (I was the last to fall, it must be said). That even an option to heal injured companions before they die completely.
Thus, this is one of those games where you have to play in a coordinated way, try to know where all your teammates are, and advance as a block, or in the most organized way which is possible (in teams with two covering each other).
And it’s not just because the lowly thugs are already making it difficult for us: there are too CREATE with more life and resistance, police officers who, in some of these missions, will send waves of increasingly powerful agents (with shield, armor…).
The truth is that these missions present all kinds of situations: breaking into a warehouse, breaking into boxes in search of drugs to steal, and that we have to carry in bags to an extraction point); open safes with drills to find items and more…
Planning for most of these situations is key: There is no one way to get to the point we are interested in, nor one way to proceed. There are teammates with silenced weapons that can clear a route without alarms; By proxy, we can use the fire escapes and advance to the rooftops.
But despite all this, in most situations, the police will come, and raise the stakes. This was the case with one of the last missions we did, which we repeated twice without success.
This mission invites us to enter a luxury yacht, where a party ends in tragedy and the police are still investigating the crime scene, with fresh bodies and forensic marks on the floor. And lots of drugs, of course. Getting it and getting out there is the goal.
It doesn’t matter how stealthy or coordinated we are. After checking the yacht completely, something that invites us to destroy the statues or matryoshkas to find the bundles of drawers inside and check even under the last towel on board, The hard thing is to always get the point of capture.
Police helicopters releasing new troops, more and more powerful agents, ammunition that is scarce at times … we have not been able to deposit drugs in the van, neither in the two times we have tried. To give you an idea of ​​the level of difficulty and challenge it suggests.
Crime Boss Initial Impressions
If you are a regular in games like Back 4 Blood, the aforementioned Payday, or Borderlands 3, that is, you enjoy shooting with three friends, Crime Boss: Rockay City will become your new favorite game.
Without looking too deeply into the rest of the modes, its formula is committed to replayability, and in a way, it’s something we were thankful for in our first two hours of the game. The “randomization” of certain elements means that the missions are not the same.
There are still things to implement that are not ready for release (eg no kill counter at the end of missions), but in general, everything is in its place and at more than the right level (interface, hud…).
For this one first contact with Crime Boss: Rockay City We play on PC and, although the graphics are not comparable to the heavyweights pushing cards like the RTX 4080, they more than fulfill their purpose, and take us to a city that -switch between dark areas and neon-filled areas.
We will have to wait a little more than a month and play the rest of the modes to see if Crime Boss: Rockay City emerges as one of the surprises of the year, at least for those who enjoy cooperative games more than everything.
