Crime Boss: Rockay City is a love letter to the second-part action film of the late 80s and early 90s. It’s also an interesting mix of genres that promises a breath of fresh air in the FPS genre. We had the chance to meet the developers and ask them how the game was born.
There’s no guarantee that Crime Boss: Rockay City will blow your mind, but it can easily become a fun, nostalgic trip back in time to the glory days of Michael Madsen, Danny Trejo or Chuck Norris. This action cinema is long gone, and if anyone pays homage to it today, it is in a slightly different style in the case of the latest creation from the Ingame studio. It’s saturated, pop, neon-lit, full of lines and limitless action. All this comes in the form of a cooperative FPS with a clear division into a mission structure, which we can either do stealthily or rain lead on everything that moves. Without a doubt, this game has a very specific audience in mind.
Quirky narrative and Hollywood star looks aren’t everything, as you’ll see in Jarek Kolar’s answers. He began his adventure in game development in the 1990s, when he created, with programmer Petr Vlcek, a parody of Monkey Island called The Secret of Donkey Island. In 1997, he founded the Pterodon studio which, with Illusion Softworks, developed the excellent Vietcong. The creator of Crime Boss was also involved in the development of Mafia.
Through an online interview, we learned more about his vision for the game, which will be playable on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 28.
Game Pressure: There are a lot of familiar faces and names in the game. What else do you offer that’s appealing and original?
Jarek Kolar: Famous actors give us good visibility and interest among players. Additionally, his contribution to the characters through his voice acting is extremely valuable. This greatly enhances the storytelling experience.
But it’s in the game itself that we’ve brought innovation to the gamer FPS genre. We want to forget checkpoints and protect the player. This ends the tension in contemporary single-player games. Singleplayer Crime Boss is like a multiplayer experience. You have a limited margin of error. You make a bad decision, you make mistakes, and you get in trouble.
If you make too many mistakes, the mission fails. But failing a mission is not the end. You lose a few guys, but your criminal organization can continue if you still have money to hire more thugs and thieves. Or just go out and fly if you’re feeling brave, you don’t need to share the loot. But if they kill you, it’s really over. Game over. Just as in real life.
However, Crime Boss is designed to fail: starting a new game brings new experiences, new options, new choices. The story never feels the same. And the missions are fast. No travel No exploration. All decisions and pure gameplay.
GP: The gameplay on YouTube mainly focuses on a bank robbery. This immediately evokes Payday. Will multi-location heists be the core of the experience, or are you planning different game modes and activities? Can we expect a center?
JK: Travis Baker owns a club. It’s a former art deco club built in the 1930s, with all of its glamor and glory long gone. The bar downstairs is great for recruiting thugs and thieves for your crew. There is a planning room above the club with a map of the city divided into territories, as well as scrapping plans. Upstairs is the boss’s office, empty and dilapidated at first, but which becomes a showroom of power and wealth after a few successful campaigns by the boss.
The gameplay is an FPS crime game, with heists and territory battles. But the structure is more of a strategy game. Think Mafia played as XCOM or Defender of the Crown. The development team is made up of people who have worked on the Mafia, Hidden and Dangerous, Vietcong, and Silent Hill franchises. So expect a mixture of these ingredients. The result is a story-driven, non-linear boss campaign, and then there’s also a series of co-op mini-campaigns, free-form heists, and earn money in single-player and co-op.
GP: How did you manage to convince so many actors to participate?
JK: For the publisher, who participated in Death Stranding and Control, it doesn’t matter.
Signing up all these Hollywood talents took a long time and it was quite difficult to make everything work with their busy schedules. As with any game or movie, there are negotiations with Hollywood stars (and their agents), and we felt it was important to spend as much time as necessary to get the stars we wanted, due to the cinematography of this game.
Crime Boss: Rockay City, 505 games, 2023
In Crime Boss, Hollywood superstars are inspired by the most iconic characters of the 90s. We didn’t include them in our story, we invited them to go back in time, allowing them to discover the things for which they are famous. 30 years ago. . Using Unreal Engine technology, we gave them younger bodies and allowed them to dive right into the story of Rockay City.
GP: Did the actors only lend their faces and their voices, or did you also do motion capture sessions? And what role will the actors play in the game? Can we expect some kind of movie story with both minor and major roles?
JK: The game portrays these actors as they were in the 80s and 90s. For example, Mr. Chuck Norris is now 82 years old. Therefore, it was not possible to use photoscans or mocaps. But they recorded their characters’ voice lines and sometimes also tweaked the script with their versions of the characters they might have played in the 90s.
GP: What characters can we control?
JK: The Boss campaign will allow players to control Michael Madsen’s character, Travis Baker, as a boss who manages his crime squad and rises through the ranks of the underworld. It can also be played in heists and missions, where it is extremely valuable, risking losing your life and therefore the entire campaign. But you can send other people instead. Michael Rooker’s character Touchdown will lead the rogue army on turf war missions, but when the proverbial shit hits the fan and the enemy gang attacks your turf, Touchdown is also there to help with the defense.
GP: Is Travis Baker a nod to Taxi Driver and Travis Bickle fans?
JK: No. We haven’t had a traumatized veteran in our history. Our Travis is a flamboyant and confident cowboy. Think Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, with Michael Madsen’s sharp tongue and stellar performance.. A little arrogant, a little rude, a little selfish. You don’t always agree with him, sometimes you don’t like him, but he’s fun to be.
GP: Ok, you mentioned Michael Madsen and Reservoir Dogs. Does the game have the same kind of witty, moving dialogue as the postmodern cinema of Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez? Have these films inspired you? If not, what inspired you?
JK: Yeah, you can’t deny the inspiration of those Tarantino films. Pulp Fiction probably has the greatest influence as a collage of interconnected stories around common themes and characters, with surprising, non-linear storytelling. LA Confidential is a story about a corrupt mix of the underworld and the police world, with a femme fatale role from Kim Basinger. Predator 2 is a big inspiration for a decaying metropolis ruled by criminal gangs, with police unable to control anything, with a strong character played by Danny Glover, who also gives us a lot of inspiration in Lethal Weapon. Among the most stylized films, we can mention The Last Action Hero, Rambo, Commando, Machete, Bad Boys or even Sin City. We must also mention the inspiration of more serious films that are dear to us, such as Goodfellas, Scarface or Heat. And we must also mention the memorable TV shows of that time: Miami Vice and Texas Ranger.
Crime Boss: Rockay City, 505 games, 2023
GP: The game takes place in the 1990s, how do you intend to represent this period of the United States in the game? More pop or more realistic?
JK: The Game is a 90s pop crime drama, b action movie tone, with A tons of action, comedy and a dash of satire, which takes place in a realistic but very surreal world. At least in the context of 2023.
In the 90s, the world was almost the same as today, but at the same time very different. Cell phones barely appeared, computers began to be widely used in business, there was no internet for everyone, information was still printed on paper, television was the thing, there was no there was no social media. It was a time we remember as simpler, nicer, brighter. It was the moment that many of us remember from adolescence. Action movies and pop culture in general; rap, rock, grunge, rave and disco music; summer, holidays, sins, neon, MTV and cheesy action movies – we live it all!
Rockay City is full of decay and high crime rates. Criminals rule the city, while law enforcement fights to fight them. It’s far from reality, but it works well in the context of the game. Almost like the Sin City comic book theme. The closest inspiration in real life would be Miami or Los Angeles.
Crime Boss: Rockay City for fans of a forgotten genre
Judging by the responses we received from Jarek Kolar, Crime Boss: Rockay City isn’t going to be a game for everyone. The very choice of actors indicates a focus on a specific style; the focus on co-op, strict mission structure, and randomization surely won’t suit everyone. Many viewers today would probably like to be able to freely explore Rockay City between missions, but that won’t be an option. However, there are some players who will no doubt appeal to the idea of asymmetrical multiplayer, this time referencing 1980s thrillers, rather than slashers of the era. The gameplay footage didn’t impress many viewers, but considering the low budget, the whole thing doesn’t look bad and may positively surprise you. Even for the excellent and very attractive environment and the masterful direction of the scenes. It’s a game worth keeping on your radar; we are definitely crossing our fingers.