Crime Boss: Rockay City

Last updated
Crime Boss: Rockay City
Crime Boss Rockay City cover art.jpg
Developer(s) Ingame Studios
Publisher(s) 505 Games
Engine Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
Release
28 March 2023
  • Windows
    • WW: 28 March 2023
  • PS5, Xbox Series X/S
    • WW: 15 June 2023
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a 2023 cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Ingame Studios and published by 505 Games. The player assembles a team of criminals and is sent on missions to infiltrate, steal, and defeat enemies in shooter gameplay. The game features a cast of prominent actors including Michael Madsen, Chuck Norris, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker, Kim Basinger, Vanilla Ice, and Damion Poitier.

Contents

The game was initially released for Windows through the Epic Games Store on 28 March 2023. The game released a few months later for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 15 June 2023. Crime Boss was released on Steam on 18 June 2024. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Gameplay

Crime Boss: Rockay City is focused around missions undertaken by teams of four criminals. The player controls one of the criminals and cooperates with either other players or AI-controlled teammates to pull off heists in a first-person perspective. The gameplay has frequently been compared to the Payday series of games. The players need to collect enough loot from the target (banks, trucks, jewelry stores, etc.), but the longer they take, the greater the likelihood of police reinforcements arriving.

There are several ways that the missions are set up. The simplest option is as quick play one-ofs. There are also six mini-campaigns of three missions chained in a row with a loose connecting story for each called "Urban Legends". There is a single-player campaign with roguelike elements where the player attempts to expand their territory across Rockay City after the previous leader of the underground dies. The player allocates gang members to fight turf wars, buys new weapons, and goes on missions to attempt to take new territory—but if the player character dies in a mission, their quest to become Crime Boss is over. In the same way, hired crew members who die or are arrested on missions are also lost forever.

The feel of the game is consciously imitative of 1990s crime movies such as Heat . [1] Rockay City itself is set in a Florida reminiscent of Miami Vice. [2]

Development and release

Crime Boss is the first game produced by Ingame Studios, a new developer of around 70 employees based in Brno, Czech Republic. [3]

The game released in late March 2023 exclusively to the Epic Games Store for PC. [2] It was later released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2023. [4] The game was released on Steam on 18 June 2024, alongside the "Cagnali's Order" DLC that features a corporation's robot cops helping the police. [5]

Reception

Crime Boss: Rockay City received "mixed or average" reviews from critics for the PC and Xbox Series X/S versions, while the PS5 version received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. [6] Metacritic listed the PlayStation 5 version the sixth worst game of 2023. [11]

Many of the reviews wrote that most of the hired voice cast, despite their fame in movies, put in underwhelming performances. Another complaint common to most reviews was that the stealth system to the game was overly finicky and not well-supported, with the game eventually prompting players to get to the shooting regardless of how carefully an attempt at a stealthy approach was made. Alice Bell of Rock Paper Shotgun said the game was a worse Payday, already a twelve-year old game in 2023. [12] Wesley LeBlanc of Game Informer was harsh, saying the gameplay was buggy and boring, and that the plot and characters were poorly written. He gave the game a mere 3/10 overall score. [13] Cory Wells of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a cautiously positive review, warning that the game was neither exactly like Payday nor an open-world freeform game in the vein of the Grand Theft Auto series that many expected, but that gamers who didn't mind repetition would find a solid basic gameplay experience in the heists. [2] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku was derisive, writing that Crime Boss "gets absolutely everything it sets out to do wrong". Writing a month after the PC release in April 2023, he said that the game had attracted little comment and notice on the Internet, even negative, and noted the lack of a Steam release as a potential reason why. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Payday: The Heist</i> 2011 video game

Payday: The Heist is a cooperative first-person shooter game developed by Overkill Software and published by Sony Online Entertainment. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 in North America on 18 October 2011, and in Europe on 2 November. It was released then for Windows on 20 October.

<i>Payday 2</i> 2013 video game

Payday 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The game is a sequel to 2011's Payday: The Heist. It was released in August 2013 for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A remastered version of the game, subtitled Crimewave Edition, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2015 and for the Nintendo Switch in February 2018.

Nacon is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020, Bigben Group was consolidated to form Nacon.

<i>Samurai Shodown</i> (2019 video game) 2019 video game

Samurai Shodown is a 2019 fighting game developed and published by SNK for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, Xbox Series X and Series S, Android and iOS via Netflix Games, and Windows as an entry in the Samurai Shodown series, as well as a reboot to the series. An arcade version was released by Taito.

<i>Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot</i> 2020 video game

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is an action role-playing game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, based on the Dragon Ball franchise. It was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows in January 2020, Nintendo Switch in September 2021, Stadia in October 2021, PlayStation 5 in January 2023, and Xbox Series X/S in February 2023. The game follows the main protagonist Goku and the Z-Fighters throughout the events of the Dragon Ball Z anime, including anime-original storylines and moments.

<i>Godfall</i> 2020 action role-playing video game

Godfall is an action role-playing game developed by Counterplay Games and published by Gearbox Publishing. The game was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows on November 12, 2020. It was also released for the PlayStation 4 on August 10, 2021. An enhanced version of the game containing all downloadable content up to that point, titled Godfall: Ultimate Edition, was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 7, 2022. It received mixed reviews from critics.

In the video game industry, 2021 saw the release of many new titles. The numerous delays in software and hardware releases due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted development schedules, leading to several games being delayed into 2022 or even postponed indefinitely. Additionally, computer and console hardware were impacted by the combined effects of a semiconductor shortage and a rising growth of bitcoin mining that strained the supply of critical components.

<i>Worms Rumble</i> 2020 video game

Worms Rumble is a 2020 action game developed and published by Team17. As a spin-off of the long-running Worms series, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in December 2020 and for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in June 2021.

<i>Graven</i> (video game) Upcoming video game

Graven is a 2024 dark fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Slipgate Ironworks and published by 3D Realms and Fulqrum Publishing. Often described as a spiritual successor to Hexen II, Graven incorporates elements of the action role-playing game and immersive sim genres to create an "action-adventure puzzler".

<i>Evil Dead: The Game</i> 2022 video game

Evil Dead: The Game is a 2022 asymmetric survival horror game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Boss Team Games. It is part of the Evil Dead franchise. It features Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, along with most of the original cast reprising their roles.

In the video game industry, 2023 saw significant changes within larger publishers and developers. Microsoft, after having satisfied worldwide regulatory bodies, completed its US$69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making them the third largest game publisher in the world. Embracer Group, which had been in an acquisition spree over the previous few years, had an estimated $2 billion deal fall through, causing many of the studios under Embracer to either lay off staff or close entirely. Similar layoffs were seen at Unity, Amazon, ByteDance, Epic Games, Bungie, and Ubisoft, leading to over 9,000 jobs lost in the industry in 2023 and part of a larger trend of layoffs at technology companies in 2023.

<i>Evil Genius 2: World Domination</i> 2021 video game

Evil Genius 2: World Domination is a real-time strategy and simulation video game developed and published by Rebellion Developments. As the sequel to Evil Genius (2004), which was developed by the now-defunct Elixir Studios, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on 30 March 2021, and PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 30 November 2021.

<i>The Falconeer</i> 2020 video game

The Falconeer is a 2020 aerial combat video game developed by Tomas Sala and published by Wired Productions. It was released on November 10, 2020 for Windows, Xbox One and as a launch title for Xbox Series X/S. A version for Amazon Luna was made available on June 17, 2021. It received both good and mixed reviews upon release, with outlets praising its uncompromising vision and homage to the niche dogfighting genre, while the same elements were looked upon less kindly by other reviewers.

<i>PowerWash Simulator</i> 2022 video game

PowerWash Simulator is a simulation video game developed by FuturLab and published by Square Enix Collective. Players take control of a power washing business and complete various jobs to earn money. Gameplay primarily revolves around using a power washer to clean dirt off of objects and buildings. The game was first made available in early access through Steam on 19 May 2021, and was fully released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 14 July 2022. Further ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, were for a 31 January 2023 release. A standalone VR port titled PowerWash Simulator VR for Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro models was released on November 2, 2023.

<i>Kao the Kangaroo</i> (2022 video game) 2022 video game

Kao the Kangaroo is a platform video game developed and published by Tate Multimedia. It was released in May 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It is the fourth installment of the franchise, a reboot of the series, and the first title released after Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano in 2005.

<i>One Piece Odyssey</i> 2023 video game

One Piece Odyssey is a 2023 role-playing video game developed by ILCA and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. A part of the One Piece franchise, it was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. It is also set to release for Nintendo Switch in July 2024.

<i>Endzone: A World Apart</i> 2021 video game

Endzone: A World Apart is a city-building game developed by Gentlymad Studios. Players control a post-apocalyptic settlement that struggles to survive in an irradiated land.

<i>Octopath Traveler II</i> 2023 video game

Octopath Traveler II is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix and Acquire and published by Square Enix. It is a sequel to Octopath Traveler (2018), and the third entry in the series after the prequel mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent (2020), though it features a new cast of characters and setting separate from prior games. It was released worldwide in February 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows; it is the first Octopath game released on PlayStation platforms. Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S versions were released in June 2024. Octopath Traveler II received positive reviews from critics.

<i>Remnant 2</i> 2023 video game

Remnant 2 is a third-person shooter action role-playing video game developed by Gunfire Games and published by Gearbox Publishing San Francisco. A sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, the game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S on July 25, 2023.

In the video game industry, 2025 is expected to see the release of many new video games.

References

  1. ↑ O'Reilly, PJ (June 21, 2023). "Crime Boss: Rockay City Review". Pure XBox. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Wells, Cory (April 1, 2023). "Review: Crime Boss: Rockay City". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Ingame Studios". ingamestudios.com.
  4. ↑ "Crime Boss: Rockay City for PS5 and Xbox Series launches June 15, updates roadmap announced". Gematsu. 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  5. ↑ Romano, Sal (May 21, 2024). "Crime Boss: Rockay City coming to Steam on June 18 alongside DLC 'Cagnali's Order'". Gematsu. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4
  7. ↑ "Crime Boss: Rockay City Review - the City That Sleeps". Game Informer .
  8. ↑ "Crime Boss: Rockay City Review". 6 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "'Crime Boss: Rockay City' review: Take me down to the Rockay City". NME . 31 March 2023.
  10. ↑ "Crime Boss: Rockay City review: Body Count has entered the residence". 28 March 2023.
  11. ↑ Dietz, Jason (19 December 2023). "The Worst Videogames of 2023 - #6: Crime Boss: Rockay City". Metacritic . Fandom . Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  12. ↑ Bell, Alice (March 28, 2023). "Crime Boss: Rockay City review: a baffling and incoherent Paydaylike". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  13. ↑ LeBlanc, Wesley (March 29, 2023). "Crime Boss: Rockay City Review: The City That Sleeps". Game Informer. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  14. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (April 26, 2023). "Crime Boss: Rockay City Is So Bad The Culture Has Rejected It Entirely". Kotaku . Retrieved April 27, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.