Crime Boss: Rockay City Critic Reviews

I’m really enjoying Crime Boss Rockay City and highly recommend it! If you have a soft spot for the cast then that’s a good draw card… but if you have a big ol’ spot of nostalgia for music of the 90’s… it will be hard to suppress the smile as you enter a shopping mall only to hear Freestyler playing. If you want a great heist game that involves a bit more thinking and planning than GTA or even Payday… grab a copy!

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a pleasant surprise considering all of the aspects that make its foundations usually crumble from the weight. Just get ready to die, try and die again until you take the throne.

If the developers keep their promise to publish new free content and solve some problems, the first work of the Brno-based studio could carve out a small space in the gaming landscape, also thanks to its affordable cost.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a heist game clearly inspired by Payday, but with a strategic twist that adds a pinch of depth to the experience, also due to the thrill of the roguelite approach and permadeath. The game features a surprising cast of Hollywood stars from the 80s and the 90s, but when it comes to gameplay the experience feels simplistic and repetitive.

If you're looking for something similar to Payday 2 as a shooting experience to be played in a GTA-style metropolitan setting with some micro-management elements, Crime Boss: Rockay City might give you some satisfaction.

If you like rogue-like games and 90s crime movies and don’t mind repetitiveness, Crime Boss: Rockay City might be up your alley. But those thinking this may be a Payday or GTA clone, it’s not either of those completely.

Crime Boss: Rockay City doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, but I would have expected the content to be a bit more varied. Just about every piece of dialog is cringe, but so are many of the 80s and 90s B-movies these actors are known for, so I guess it fits them perfectly. The mix of resource management and first-person shooter mechanics is interesting but doesn’t save the game from mediocrity. Everything about Crime Boss: Rockay City screams “obsolete,” but the co-op mode might offer players some fun, even if it’s just for a limited time. This isn’t a bad game, just one that feels like it traveled forward in time from the 90s.

Being a gangster in the 90s was not easy, but this "simulator" makes it clear to me that a group of good actors does not look good when the narrative is not well done. Crime Boss: Rockay City is an ambitious but uncreative game in some ways. You can have a good time alone or in coop mode, although the theme isn't bad at all.

Despite its many flaws, Crime Boss Rockay City is often fun and will make you wonder what would have happened if you decided to approach things differently. Unfortunately, the game feels not-so-polished and, apart from some technical issues on PC, its structure doesn't give enough credit to some of its good design idea.

There’s a lot that I hope gets fixed and altered, and it’s crying out for a greater variety of maps and story beats to pull its campaign runs together from. The fundamentals of its design are genuinely great though, and it’ll be a tremendous shame if it just withers away and dies. There’s a shining diamond here, it’s just a bummer that it’s buried under so much muck.

Crime Boss wants to be majestic, but the game doesn't do it very well. It's not exactly bad, but despite all the effort to be pompous, it feels very cheap. The idea is good, but the execution is poor. On the other hand, the game is suitable for beginners in the cooperative action genre.

If you expect a new Payday here, you will inevitably be disappointed. Crime Boss: Rockay City has many interesting features and good ideas, but only half-heartedly pursues most of them.

Crime Boss: Rockay City's execution isn't revolutionary or exceptional, but its shot at an innovative roguelike campaign is a praiseworthy proof of concept. It might not have the most versatile activities, best gunplay, or first-class writing, but Crime Boss: Rockay City does provide an interesting experience that, like a cheap B-movie, has that certain kind of charm you can't help but enjoy.

Rockay City has something interesting in its novel campaign structure, and its modest price tag currently discounted to $31.99 makes it an outright bargain. But there’s not enough to appreciate that warrants anybody to stick around for more than a random night with some buddies. The whole project is clearly a loving homage to the glory days of ‘90s action flicks, but the tone-deaf execution misses the mark. But how long can that hold your attention for when your multiplayer game time is far better spent elsewhere?

A game that falls short of its potential. I like what it’s offering, but the execution is just a little off in almost every aspect. If you play through the single-player campaign, you will have a good time, but it won’t last more than two or three playthroughs, which is not good for a mode that brands itself as a roguelike.

Overall, Crime Boss: Rockay City offers so many conceptually interesting gameplay mechanics that could work well together, but either doesn't give the player enough opportunities to use them, or fails to tie them into other aspects of the game. There is some minor depth to the game, but it's overshadowed by what could have been. On top of that, too many elements feel like they’re out of the players hands, and lead to cheap deaths. If you simply need to play Crime Boss: Rockay City, then you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s only $40, and even less if you wait for a sale.

If the idea of playing a shooter crammed on top of a modern edition of Drug Wars, full of pseudo ironic stunt casting and roguelike gimmicks sounds like a good time, boy do I have a game for you. The only game for you, really. All snark aside I don’t think I’ve ever played a game quite like Crime Boss: Rockay City. It’s a massive swing and a big miss, with enough force to crack the sound barrier while the ball stays in the catcher’s mitt. It’s neither a cynical corporate cringe like Sharknado, nor is it a low-budget dud you’d expect to see a crew of robot puppets heckle. It’s weird, loud and uncanny. Frankly I’m surprised Christopher Walken didn’t show up.

In its current state, Crime Boss: Rockay City feels like a low-level wannabe criminal trying to get rich quick on a street populated with multiplayer shooters who already do better.

For anyone looking for a glitzy, 90s-inspired Payday (because there is enough of a heisting focus for me to want to compare the two) that doubles down on its first-person action shooter gameplay, then this will give you at least a few hours of fun before you want to devote your time to something with more longevity.

Crime Boss: Rockay City isn't a terrible game, but it is one that fails to even scratch the surface of its own potential. Sometimes mediocrity is worse than being bad, though, especially when all of the game's most unique concepts feel half-baked and the core gameplay experience is average at best. For a game that draws immediate parallels to other highly successful co-op crime games, Crime Boss fails to make itself stand out and tries to cover that up with gimmick-y Hollywood performances.