Crime Boss: Rockay City is a star-studded over the top first-person action game on PS5. Learn more in our Crime Boss: Rockay City review!
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Crime Boss: Rockay City is a star-studded over the top first-person action game on PS5. This one comes from Ingame Studios and 505 Games. The members of Ingame Studios have previous experience working on many Czech-developed games, such as the Mafia series, Kingdom Come Deliverance, the Arma franchise, Dead Trigger, and many more. Crime Boss: Rockay City is the studio’s first game completely developed at their offices in Brno – a location nicknamed The Palace. It’s a game that has some elements similar to the Payday franchise, with Payday 2 in particular – which was also published by 505 Games – coming to mind.
As the game’s name suggests, in Crime Boss: Rockay City, you’ll be making a play to become the big boss in the city after an unexpected vacancy opens up due to the death of the former crime boss. Unfortunately – and as is to be expected – you’re not the only one aiming for the top spot. You’ll be taking on a 1990s-infused journey through this Florida location as you work on completing small and not-so-small missions that will hopefully bring you one step closer to your ultimate goal.
How 1990s inspired and star-studded is Crime Boss: Rockay City? Well, the voice cast includes – deep-breath – Michael Madsen as Travis Baker, Kim Basinger as Casey, Danny Trejo as Dollar Dragon, Danny Glover as Gloves, Michael Rooker as Touchdown, Vanilla Ice as Hielo, and even Chuck Norris as Sheriff Norris! And along with lending their voices to some of the game’s characters, they’ve also provided their likeness to this particular adventure, which makes for a very trippy experience.
The single-player campaign will have you playing as Travis Baker as you try to build your empire while battling against other would-be crime bosses and the efforts of Sheriff Norris, who wants to put a stop to your endeavor before you get a chance to make it big. You’ll need to give it your all as you try to complete each heist, inching closer and closer to conquering a turf so that you can become the crime boss you deserve to be.
Crime Boss: Rockay City can be played in one of three different modes: Baker’s Battle, Crime Time, and Urban Legends. Baker’s Battle is a single-player story campaign in which you’ll be helping Travis Baker climb to the top of the crime world. Crime Time is a quick play option that allows you to dive in and get a quick gaming session done in a much faster time compared to playing through a mission in the campaign. As for the last one, Urban Legends offers you the chance to play in co-op mini-campaigns that will shine the light on the different characters you’ll meet in Crime Boss: Rockay City.
But before you do any of that, you should probably play Street Smarts – a.k.a. the game’s tutorial. You’ll be directed by Nasara (Damion Poitier), who will communicate with you through the speaker on the DualSense controller. This is how you’ll learn you can press left on the D-Pad to try and intimidate civilians and security guards before they make a big fuzz about your charming presence. Just remember to tie them up so that they don’t try anything funny as you work on, say, disabling the security cameras or collecting some of the loot.
Since the game is played from a first-person perspective, you’ll control your character with the left analog stick as you look around and aim with the right one. Pressing in on the left analog stick will allow you to sprint. Doing this on the right one will be for a melee attack. The X button is for jumping, and the Circle button is for crouching. Press the L2 button to aim with your weapon and shoot with the R2 button. You can switch weapons with the Triangle button and switch fire mode by pressing right on the D-Pad. To use an item, press the R1 button.
What types of missions will you be working on during your time with Crime Boss: Rockay City? Without spoiling things too much, let’s talk a bit about the first one you’ll be working on when starting Baker’s Battle. In order to be able to make a name for yourself in Rockay City, you need to prove that you have what it takes to run a tight operation that brings in the big bucks to finance your growth plans.
What could probably help you do this? Perhaps you should consider working on moving a shipment of candy to kickstart your business. And yes, given the overall theme of the game, candy is most certainly exactly what you think it is. For this mission, you’ll need to hire a right hand to establish a connection with the underworld so that once you’ve secured that candy shipment, you can meet with the King of Rockay City to get his blessing to get your business going.
Things don’t go as smoothly as planned, and you’ll need to take control of your team members to protect the candy shipment before it’s lost, thus cutting your crime boss run short. Unfortunately, Hielo’s thugs manage to defeat your group and take all of the candy as the prize. It’s now up to you to go pay Hielo a visit to make sure he understands who’s going to be the new boss. This is when you’ll learn that if Baker is part of a mission if he’s killed, then that’s it for your current run!
With this one having roguelite elements, that means that in order to move one step closer to becoming the new crime boss, you’ll need to make the most of the permanent rewards that you can obtain. That way, along with learning from your mistakes, you’ll also get to add some permanent boosts that will make subsequent runs easier to manage. As you increase your boss level, you will be presented with three options to boost either Travis or one of his different crew members.
For example, for Travis, you can get Beast Mode, which will increase the damage he deals on the battlefield, or Toughen Up, which will boost his overall health. For Casey, you could choose from Fully Flush, which will give you some extra money when starting subsequent campaigns, or Land Shark, a valuable perk that will allow you to start campaigns with extra turfs. Focus on Nasara and get More Muscle to start campaigns with extra soldiers or Fitter Fighters so that soldiers can take more damage when trying to take a turf by force. What will you choose first?
The game offers a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy at the end of the road. The list is split into there are 26 Bronze trophies, 7 Silver trophies, and 4 Gold trophies. The first trophy that you’ll get will be for completing the tutorial. After that, trophies will pop as you complete stories in the single-player campaign, get rid of the other bosses, reach boss level thirty, purchase the first asset for the boss’ office, escape from Sheriff Norris, and play the Crime Time Mode so that you can hire every unique character.
Crime Boss: Rockay City is a 1990s-infused star-studded experience on PlayStation 5. After a new vacancy due to the death of the former crime boss, you’ll take a crack at trying to claim the top spot before others extend their turf. Having Michael Madsen, Kim Basinger, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker, Vanilla Ice, and Chuck Norris lend not only their voices but also their likeness is certainly a highlight in this first-person roguelite adventure. It gives the whole thing a B-movie feeling, which is not a bad thing! But since this is a violent Rated M for Mature journey, that is not going to be for everyone given its overall theme and action that pays homage to series such as Payday and, to a degree, the GTA franchise. Crime Boss: Rockay City is out on PlayStation 5 with a $39.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Crime Boss: Rockay City review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by 505 Games.
