Would you rather bring a knife to a gunfight, or perhaps a bat?Īfter all the emphasis on this being a game about stealth and strategy and not going in guns blazing, the first mission we played had us shooting up a rival gang’s party to send a message to its ringleader, Hielo, played by Vanilla Ice. Did he… bring them from home, or pick them up outside? Meanwhile, other characters seem woefully unprepared, only packing a sidearm and a melee weapon. There’s something extremely funny to me about a cold-blooded hitman rolling up to a job in his black sharkskin suit, strapped with a Steyr AUG and a gold-plated Desert Eagle, but also carrying eight (8) small rocks which he can throw as distractions. X is “Devoted, Valiant, Rock Solid, Trained, Rock Solid, and Stout,” but he’s also “Tearful” and a “Bleeder.” Did you get all that? Okay, now imagine you’re parsing that information while your three squadmates are waiting for you to ready up so they can go steal cocaine and shoot people, already.Įach character also has a loadout consisting of two weapons and a special item. For example, Booth is “Resilient” and “Trained,” whereas Big Joey is “Vigorous” but also “Deficient.” Meanwhile, Mr. Each character has a list of distinct traits that presumably have some impact on gameplay. The diverse group of characters is fun, aesthetically, but the variety might be to the gameplay’s detriment. In the other modes, these crew members all have to be unlocked with money earned on previous jobs, but in Urban Legends, each job has a specific set of characters to choose from. Unlike Left 4 Dead’s lean arcade-like roster, Rockay City has players picking their character from a sizable rogues’ gallery of royalty-free goons, henchmen, crooks, ne’er-do-wells, rogues, and so on.

Up to four players can play cooperatively, with bots available to pick up the slack. Much like Left 4 Dead, these six “mini-campaigns” consist of several unique missions interspersed with cutscenes to tell a loose story. The mode I previewed, Urban Legends, is the happy medium of the two. Those earn you quick cash to unlock new crew members, gear, or contracts. There’s also Crime Time, which consists of quick heists that can be played alone or cooperatively. There’s Baker’s Battle, the single-player campaign where players take control of Michael Madsen’s character Travis Baker and help him become the titular crime boss of the eponymous Rockay City. The obvious comparison to make is to Payday, the co-op bank heist series, but my time with it felt more like Left 4 Dead. IGN apologises for any inconvenience.Crime Boss is fundamentally a first-person shooter, but it aspires to be an ‘organized crime game,’ meaning stealth, strategy, and careful preparation will likely yield more favorable results than going in guns blazing.

Sadly, Crime Boss: Rockay City’s coked-up ego has been writing cheques its budget-priced body couldn’t cash.'Note: Due to an unforeseen anomaly with our video capture, this review is only available in 720p.

Unfortunately, the hokey charm on display is nowhere near enough to offset the repetitive and regularly frustrating mission design, its roguelike single-player rapidly becomes a total chore, and its co-op juice just isn’t worth the squeeze. There’s an earnestness with which Crime Boss has been put together that I do admire – as a kind of direct-to-VHS knockoff of Payday on a promising ’90s backdrop – and there is an inescapable novelty in seeing these de-aged Hollywood stars steering the story here. 'Crime Boss: Rockay City is an overly ambitious air ball on all fronts, from its sloppy moment-to-moment gameplay to its largely abysmal voice acting – the worst of which sound like single takes spliced in with mistakes intact.

Crime Boss: Rockay City reviewed by Luke Reilly on PC.

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