The idea behind Crime Boss: Rockay City, the new video game of Ingame Studios e 505 Games certainly has genius: to combine the typical themes of a Mafia title with the “PayDay“, managerial, strategic mechanics and that atmosphere of the 80s movies. To do this, the developers have brought into play the faces of some of the most beloved Hollywood actors such as Kim Basinger and Chuck Norris but will it be enough to make the game great? Let’s find out in this one Crime Boss Rockay City review.
Our review of Crime Boss Rockay City
As per the title, the game is set in the fictitious Rockay City, an American city ruled by organized crime, the scene of constant fights between gangs for control of the territory, respect and money. The protagonist of the main campaign is Travis Bakerplayed by Michael Madsen, a rising criminal with the goal of ruling the entire city and become the new Boss of Rockay City.
However, the road to the podium of crime is far from simple and he will have to face a thousand obstacles before succeeding, among the other gangs who will hardly give up power and the police who will try to oppose him. Luckily we will have worthy allies on our side like the excellent advisor Nasara (Damion Poitier) and the perceptive Casey (Kim Basinger) and other members who will join the gang soon. Among the enemies to face, we will have to be particularly careful of the Sheriff Norrisinterpreted, needless to say, by Chuck Norris who will try to bring order and legality to the city.
Then begins a series of adventures, vicissitudes, thefts, robberies, alliances, betrayals … all those themes that characterize the underworld and we are here for them.
At my 3…
Crimbe Boss is a first person shooter in which we will control the protagonist of the campaign or the other gang members. Depending on the missions and the amount of allies available, we will be able to cquickly change character and act accordingly. The target? Well, make tons of money! No Crime Boss would be defined as such without an avalanche of cash. Robbery and drug trafficking they will be important to increase our income to acquire new gang members, improve our organizational center and gain power. We will choose each mission from our base which will serve as a central hub for managing team elements and their weapons. Some missions will advance the main story, with others we will earn money and with others we will conquer goods and districts of the city.
The missions take place mostly in small and well-defined maps (forget the Open World) and the target to be achieved will be nearby. The real mission will be how to achieve it. For most missions in fact, there is not only one way but we can choose our preferred approach which is a healthy entry into the scene with guns blazing or a more subtle and controlled stealth session. In fact, having control will be essential if you don’t want to risk starting all over again as there is the permadeth. Well yes, any gang member who falls in battle is permanently killed and if you take dear Travis Baker on a mission, it’s game over. This is an interesting mechanic that makes everything more “realistic”.
The missions, needless to say, will be full of shootings, rifles, pistols, automatic weapons and grenades will dominate and we will need to eliminate rival gangs and members of the police. In fact, the latter will increase in strength as we kill them, a bit like Grand Theft Auto and believe us, you will want to leave before the difficulty level increases. All in all, the gameplay is satisfactory but it is not particularly deep and in the long run it will seem to you that you are playing a title that still needs a lot of finishing work. Added to this is a really basic and often lacking in logic artificial intelligence of the enemies.
The modalities
In addition to the campaign we have just seen, entitled “Baker’s War”we will have two more available arcade modes: Crime Time and Urban Legends. In Crime Time we will have to face simple rapid missions. With Urban Legends the situation moves a bit thanks to longer missions that can be tackled in co-op for an extra dose of adrenaline. Without a doubt, acting as a team greatly improves the degree of involvement in the game even if the gameplay remains unchanged, with strengths and weaknesses that we have just read.
Rhythm issue
Regarding the defects, Crime Boss sins above all in terms of rhythm. Even if the situation improves as we become more powerful, most of the missions are exhausted in a matter of minutes. The non-linearity of the objectives allows us great freedom in terms of possibilities, but clashes terribly with the timing of the game. A robbery can last 10 minutes or 3 minutes, depending on our actions. This does not give us not even the time to experience that adrenaline provided by the game, which is a pity.
Pacing errors also occur in the main campaign. Returning to our central hub, choosing how to spend the money or reviewing our gang, creates a too long and boring break from the gameplay of the game, damaging both the action part and the management part.
From a technical point of view…
…we certainly can’t say that Crime Boss particularly shines. We are facing a pleasant and well-made graphic style, with excellent textures and reflections but with a rather dated sector. The style of the scenarios and of the city is well done but lacks of uniqueness and besides looking like any other city X, after a while we will have the impression of always redoing the same maps. Good, but not all, even the models of the characters that reflect the features of Hollywood stars, more or less similar to their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
On the other hand, the audio and music used in the game are excellent (some licensed) that manage to give the right atmosphere to the game. On the other hand, the original dubbing of the Hollywood actors is very disappointing, in English with Italian subtitles. Although their presence gives a certain value to the game, the rendering of the dubbing did not give justice to the commitment made by the developers and no, Chuck Norris is not exempt from this criticism either, on the contrary.
Finally, despite some graphical glitches here and there, we have never encountered serious bugs that have ruined our gaming experience.
Crime Boss: Rockay City review in a nutshell
Crime Boss: Rockay City could have been a new milestone of the genre but a series of defects and problems do not allow it to fly. The prestige expected from the presence of Hollywood stars was not up to the final result, which makes us wonder if it was really worth it to involve such important and, we imagine, expensive names.
Apart from these defects, however, Crime Boss remains a light and fun game especially if played with friends. Added to this is the absolutely competitive price compared to contemporary standards of € 39.99 on the Epic Games Store.
505 Games has also reassured that many new contents will be published in the future and we can’t wait to discover them!