Remember Crime Boss: Rockay City?
Crime Boss: Rockay City is often seen as the Payday that almost could. It was clowned on during its early release mainly due to its horrendous performance from both its frame rate and its actors. However, I’m a sucker for cheesy media. For example, Miami Connection may be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen but it guarantees a smile out of me anytime I see it. However, this is not a 1987 film, it’s a video game released in 2023. This means it unfortunately followed the trend of “release now, fix later”. Now, Crime Boss has just released an update after celebrating one year on Steam. During the Summer Sale, you can pick the game up less than the price of three Snickers bars. I’m here to tell you why you should.
In case you may be unfamiliar, Crime Boss is a first person shooter with a focus on heist missions. This ranges from doing your standard bank heist to some more wacky things like invading a Soviet base to steal a bomb. The game is goofy, but it plays into its campy nature and never at any point should it be taken seriously. Taken seriously in the sense that this is not a game meant to redefine the genre of first person shooting. It’s meant to allow you and three buddies to just drop into a mission and just start heisting without much fuss.
To just clear it up now, Crime Boss is not trying to be another Payday. It’s more of an omage to older films such as Heat or Set it Off, with a UE4 (Unreal Engine 4) color palette akin to the transitions of That 70s Show. However, the two just being first person shooters about robbing being the focus is about where the comparisons end. Payday succeeds with its buildcrafting which allows for some unique playstyles. Crime Boss on the other hand has characters with rather arbitrary traits that ultimately don’t impact playstyles as everyone runs and guns with mirrored accuracy.
This makes it seem like Crime Boss is simple, maybe even too simple. However to some that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For example, if you’re playing on higher difficulties in Payday chances are your build isn’t procking correctly on top of the enemies hitting harder. In Crime Boss, enemies are only hitting harder. That sounds like it will hurt the longevity but honestly the simplistic nature of Crime Boss’ heists make for a very addicting gameplay loop, especially with the right crew of course.
The problem I often ran into was simply finding a session that didn’t have insufferable ping. The server browser does not allow for much filtering. Quickplay often ends up with a 50/50 gamble of a match in progress or an empty lobby. That’s where finding buddies to play with becomes essential, but there are wonders made to the AI to feel like viable assets to the team. They will pick up loose loot, they’ll carry two bags you throw at them, plus they can follow/revive you with ease. Needless to say, there are options to pick from to play. In fact, the aforementioned recently released update improves the bots even further.
Crime Boss offers two main modes: a single player roguelite campaign with the goal of taking over Rockay City, and the traditional multiplayer experience. Even if all you purchase is the base game, you’re free to join any DLC heist as long as the host owns it.
While I haven’t played too much of the single player, it does feature some very engaging decision making. You have to figure out the best way to allocate your resources and it’s very easy to lose everything as quickly as you gain it. Given it doesn’t take much for the hammer to fall here, it encourages you to experiment and try different methods to see how you can reach the very end. I was shocked at just how unforgiving it can be given the campy nature of the game. However, I argue it makes for a more engaging experience, albeit a frightening one.
There is a roadmap in place for the future of Crime Boss and honestly I’m always happy to see things work out. I know that it’s a case of “this is how it should have been at launch” and I fully agree. However, the game has proven to be more than its licensed actors. It’s a surprisingly addictive loop that keeps you wanting to go back for more.
Every time you level up you unlock an item of three choices in the store. They range from weapons to character skins to you name it. Due to the random nature, it’s always exciting to trigger that gambling mentality whether we admit it or not. Most likely you’ll be just shy of enough XP to reach the next level which is what leans into that addiction. At least that’s what made the monkey in my head finally play his cymbals.
All in all, Crime Boss: Rockay City is a goofy time but such a fun time, especially with the right people. Laugh at the cutscenes, mow down as much opposition as possible with the surprisingly punchy gunplay, and just embask in the chaos that is Rockay City. Trust me, there are worse ways to spend $3 during the Steam Summer Sale.
