Crime Boss: Rockay City Review (Ash//Fox)
When Rockay first launched I had heard it was a disasterous low budget Payday rip off, and Epic exclusivity didn't help it. Having played it now I have to assume 505 have pulled off a No Mans Sky or something. Although this game has a multiplayer mode it plays far better IMO as a single player Roguelite take on the old Payday premise, heists are smaller and faster but with no trading hostages or doc bags to refresh downs the thrill is really kept up. There are still larger heists on par with Payday's Big Bank and they really lean into the cool heist asthetic but they are comperatively rare.
The game has a lot of refreshing refines on core gameplay compared to Payday 2, gunsmithing is sadly gone and there are no huge RPG leveling systems but almost everything else is dramatically improved. Drills now encourage player to guard them by giving you the ability to speed them up, rather than random breaking and requiring lengthy interactions to repair, instead you can hold the drill to boost it for a time with a needle moving towards a green zone that will 3x the speed of the drill however the boost wears off after a few seconds so players will need to maintain their presence and if a player overshoots the green zone the drill will break and need to be restarted however this is far quicker than the old Payday 2 system. Bots are now far more useful and independent, with many missions they will dive in on the loot and bag it then run to the van on their own with little handholding from the player needed although they can be a little overly brave when doing so. You can also pick up fallen weapons from enemies now too!
Player characters, with the exception of Troy Baker the boss, are mostly generic feeling but are meant to be disposable and function on a tier system. Common low tier characters will try their best with shovels and crowbars but can be upgraded with experience and reequiped with weapons from a shop. Some characters however are even given full on stories from a Vietnam war vet going through flashbacks to a cursed Jamican drug smuggler tracking down a voodoo witch.
Stealth is also subtly reworked but for the best. You have a 3 strikes and your out system before stealth is broken and the cops are called. Eliminating guards or cameras will count as a strike, as well as trespassing in secure areas. However cameras can be disabled by finding a computer in a security room and simply shutting them off, and guards can be pacified by sneaking up on them and "intimidating" them through a sharp shoulder punch. These refinements feel a lot more rewarding and fair compared to trying to dodge guards while worrying about your 4 pager limit. Alternatively some missions have you infiltrating the territory of rival gangs which is a very different situation, gangsters do not warn you and shoot on sight but in return there are no off limit actions with them either and killing them with a silenced pistol or throwing knife is not penalized so long as the body is out of sight. This actually gives stealth gameplay two fun and different feelings to it.
It's also worth mentioning the game is down right charming: inspired by 90s action movies and proud of it with many characters just being almost perfect copies of classic actors (in many cases voiced by them even); the game knows it's cheesy and is happy to have fun with it but never jumps the shark into being annoyingly goofy. The characters laugh with each other and shoot goofy one liners but it's played like friends having fun with each other; one particular scene featuring "Gloves" (Danny Glover) giggling to each other about Gloves wearing gloves was so goofy their laughter became infectious. Gloves as your heist planner and coordinator frequently chews up the scenery and it's clear Mr. Glover had a lot of fun with his role... unfortunately Chuck Norris, voicing the main antagonist Sherriff Norris either clearly did not take a video game role seriously at all, or regretted agreeing to the project; in either case every single line from Norris is bored and monotone, as if he just read through the script once not even trying to do more than say the right words, before stepping out of the recording booth and warning the devs his contract only required him to do one take. If he got paid a turkey sandwich with just tomato for this performance it was too much. Aside from him though the voice actors all do a great job with their performances; MIchael Rooker as Touchdown, the gang's enforcer is another stand out performance.
Overall for 20 dollars I thought this was a great game and I'm happy to find myself coming back to it.