REVIEW – Crime Boss: Rockay City is an action-comedy, FPS-style gang warfare game that can be played alone or with friends. Playing as the character Travis Baker, you must fight for the crown of Rockay City as you battle rival gangs and law enforcement. Unfortunately, the game fails to deliver on its promises, and offers a bug-filled, boring and annoying experience.

Rockay City is a bustling metropolis with excitement ranging from sandy bays to towering skyscrapers. But beyond the lights, a ferocious turf war rages… With the previous crime boss dead, there’s a vacancy for the new king of Rockay City – but we’re not the only ones fighting for the throne. Choose your team of characters with different skills and carry out daring missions, hoping to walk away with money, territory and ultimately the crown. But winning won’t be easy – alongside gangs like Dollar Dragon, Hielo and Khan, Sheriff Norris (Chuck Norris) will do anything to stop us. The game was developed by INGAME STUDIOS and published by 505 Games for PC on March 28, 2023.

First Person Loser

The gameplay is Crime Boss: Rockay City’s biggest weakness. The game is a first person shooter action game in which you have to complete various missions such as stealing money or drugs, stealing valuable items or shooting members of rival gangs. During the missions you can use different weapons and vehicles.

All this sounds good, but unfortunately the implementation is terrible. The shooting is imprecise and chaotic, the controls are clunky and buggy, and the enemy AI is stupid and predictable. Vehicle handling is no better: cars are difficult to control and often get stuck or fly off in mid-air. The missions are also boring and monotonous: you always have to do the same thing, just in a different location or with different enemies. There’s no variety or real challenge in the whole thing.

The gameplay is made even more frustrating by the desperately badly written dialogue and lack of story-telling (more on that below), which makes it difficult for players to identify with the characters and situations – even though we are dealing with well-known and popular stars. In addition, the long loading times between tasks add to the game experience.

The graphics are so ugly that Chuck Norris would cry like a baby if he saw them

The graphics don’t make the game any prettier. Crime Boss: Rockay City tries to evoke a 90’s atmosphere, but it doesn’t quite pull it off. The look of the game is dated and ugly: textures are blurry and pixelated, animations are choppy and buggy, and lights and shadows are lifeless.

The city doesn’t look real either: no traffic, no pedestrians, no life. The game is also riddled with graphical glitches: characters move through walls or objects, weapons get stuck or disappear, and textures are often slow to load. The game is not only ugly, but it also runs badly: it lags, hangs and often freezes.

On top of all this, the game does not take advantage of any modern graphics technology, such as ray tracing or DLSS, so it cannot compete with today’s AAA titles. The character models also fall short of the expectations of the time: facial expressions are stiff and emotionless, and hair and clothing look synthetic. The famous actors in the game also fail to save the graphics: their facial features are barely recognizable and their voices don’t match the characters. The graphics in Crime Boss: Rockay City are a crime in themselves.

Even a trained monkey could write better than this story

The story doesn’t save the game. Crime Boss. To do so, he must complete various missions while getting to know the other side of the city.

The story is full of clichéd characters and dialogue that is not interesting or funny, just awkward and boring. The voice actors don’t add anything to the atmosphere either: Michael Madsen’s performance of the main character’s lines is boring and emotionless, and Kim Basinger overacts the female supporting role. The rest of the cast is no better, with Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker and Vanilla Ice all playing themselves. Chuck Norris only makes a cameo appearance. It’s obvious that these stars are only used as gimmicks.

The most interesting of the game’s three different modes is Baker’s Battle, a roguelike campaign in which you take control of the city as Travis Baker. To do this, you have to fight different gangs, each with their own style and weapons. Famous actors from the game also have major roles in this mode, such as Chuck Norris, Danny Trejo and Michael Madsen.

The story, however, is not very exciting or original: clichés and templates abound, and the characters are flat and boring. The game can’t decide whether to take itself seriously or not: the sarcastic and intendedly funny remarks throughout the game are tiresome and forced rather than entertaining, spoiling the game’s mood even more.

It robs your time instead of a bank

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a game I would not recommend to anyone. The gameplay is buggy and boring, the graphics are ugly and outdated, and the story is clichéd and clunky. The game can’t decide whether it wants to take itself seriously or parody the genre. The game is not funny, not exciting and not entertaining – it’s just annoying and takes up our time instead of the banks. Crime Boss: Rockay City really is a sin bad game.

-BadSector-

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: INGAME STUDIOS

Style: Action-comedy FPS

Release: March 28, 2023.