Cinema transformed old great screen heroes — usually unbeatable soldiers and advocates of justice — into menacing anti-heroes in constant conflict with society and the law.
Many surly faces return to animate the shootings of Crime Boss Rockay City, the Ingame Studios shooter coming next 28 March on PC via Epic Games Store, while the date for already announced versions for the current generation consoles has not yet been determined.
The result of the Brno team's work — including members who have worked on the Mafia, Arma, Shadowgun franchises, among others — is a first-person shooter that is based on cooperative experience, but without sacrificing a single-player sector that will blend seamlessly with the other components of the package:
Travis Baker is a criminal who wants to be the ruler of Rockay City through robberies and confrontations with adversaries. The player is required to memorize every bullet down to the smallest detail before shooting it, choosing the objective, the team to send on the spot, and even the action plan in the most classic b-movie.
The story is "reset", but the user retains some of the gameplay from the previous game (what will be kept is still being reviewed by the team, who are working on an adequate balance) and try the criminal climb again with more options and greater awareness. Furthermore, the insiders promise great variety due to the vast array of choices to be faced during the missions and in the narrative interludes, as well as the fact that the runs will vary from time to time depending on the available objectives.
Baker's love interest is Kim Basinger's Casey, Michael Rooker is a mercenary willing to sacrifice for the most lucrative cause, and Vanilla Ice is one of Rockay's fierce opponents for the throne: Not only are these actors there, but Danny Trejo, who is never left unobserved in any production.
The Baker's Battle will give you the satisfaction of outclassing Chuck Norris, as well as the opportunity to unlock new characters and weapons for the co-op components of the title, which by the way seems to be the most extensive scope of the proposal.
The first of these modes is the fast-paced and light-hearted Crime Time, where you're forced to maneuver through a procedural map in order to fulfill mission demands. These are short levels that can be played with three other players (or alone with the help of bots) in which it is possible to quickly earn some money and wipe away the minutes of boredom. The main experience, on the other hand, is hidden in the six mini-campaigns that make up Urban Legends: The Last Airbender.
Each game consists of three phases of increasing difficulty, from the basic safecracking to the courageous escapes from the police in riot gear. Four players play as many characters selectable from the lobby, with unique abilities and weaknesses capable of giving a decidedly personal touch to the action. In the second part of the campaign, we opted for an agile and fast character, who could pass long sections of the map without being discovered.
The Crime Boss gameplay proved to be simple but effective, for a PvE format that managed to have many fun moments thanks to the presence of a "human" team: the only two usable rifles and the impossibility of altering the own equipment during the mission do not help depth or reasoning, but do add substance to a light-hearted experience, which is well reflected in the shootings with waves of not very bright enemies, although capable of placing a poorly coordinated team in danger (see the Crime Bo
The wide range of adversaries that can be faced does not add anything new to the shooter panorama, but it has proved sufficient to force users to cooperate, being "forced" to remain in the group by troops rushing at them in the event of an emergency: this aspect also weakens the more reasoned component of the gameplay.
The criminals help each other in achieving victory between planned movements and inevitable reanimations, in order to steal the loot and then load it onto the van and escape: from simple patrol officers we soon pass to platoons equipped with anti-riot shields, semi-automatic machine guns, and electric bollards at the most advanced stages of the match.
To bring home the loot in a cloud of bullets that flow almost without stopping, a team of criminals must carefully consider the best time to retreat and avoid returning to base with a scorching game.
The immediate and adrenaline-pumping gameplay guaranteed by the shootings enticed us during our test, as well as a quite solid technical profile. Even in the most severe scenarios, immediate responsiveness and granite frame rate allow you to maintain that steady pace that is vital for this type of experience, while the variety of maps we have tried has taken us from the classic American warehouses to the mooring of a yacht to be robbed.
The tendency to make enemies redundant, devoid of any real specialties to differentiate them from each other, as well as by polygonal models of playable characters that are virtually invisible in comparison to their instantly identifiable faces are a problem for the viewer.
The aesthetic direction is undoubtedly the focal point of a title that was inspired by the best action films of the 1980s and 1990s (find here our interview with the developers of Crime Boss Rockay City, which also discusses the obvious thematic references ), capable of resurrecting on the screen some scenes that have become household names for the genre to which they belong with a saturated color palette that immediately transports you to the troubled streets of the East Coast.
What did not entirely convince us was the nature of the missions suggested by the campaign, which all too often recycled the usual items of loot and escape from enemies, relying almost entirely on the particularities of the maps to create a different experience from the previous.
The environmental foundation does not always achieve its objective, and some missions seem to be insignificant compared to the adrenaline-pumping ones of the more inspired parts, and it is for this reason that the overall judgement of the work will inevitably depart from the total variety offered by the developers, who will have to prove that they are capable of revitalizing each game without becoming dangerously repetitive.
Even relying on a very complicated and punishing stealth strategy, the game soon refers to another daring escape, while the actual size of the level is castrated by the constant spawn of enemies in some areas, a factor that requires to accomplish the goal in a compact manner through the shortest route.
