Crime Boss: Rockay City

Yes it's a bit dated
Yes it's AI is clunky
Yes it has bugs
But also...
Yes it came at a cheap price
Yes you can sink in alot of hours solo or coop
Yes it included all DLC's for free
The cheap price and free DLCs.... I cannot remember another game doing that when releasing their game on a second platform. This alone made me buy it again. Hope this sets a trend.

Similar to Payday in the main premise but with quality of life features and roguelike permadeath for each run. Sort of like crime spree mode for payday you continue to do heists until you, or in this game, your boss character, dies. However, you can also "win" by taking over the city. This game makes it more fun to play as a solo player because you can guide your ai teammates to loot and move bags. You also have the ability to just switch between each of the characters present at any time. Haven't played the multiplayer but I bought this on sale and found it worth the price for singleplayer.

It's a game about pulling off heists in the hope of obtaining a large payday. The single-player mode has 2 types of gameplay: heists, and a GTA: San Andreas style turf war system. It ticks all the boxes for me, and I'm planning on playing it a lot.

Alright here's the gist of it:

It's far better than Payday 3, but no where near as good as Payday 2. It basically sits right in the middle

However, unlike the current version of Payday 3, the game very much has a Soul, you can tell the studio actively WANTED to make this game.

And quite frankly, after a year of constant love from the devs, it's in a very good place right now.

Because here's the thing... this game, isn't just a cheap Payday clone, there are plenty of cool and unique ideas that makes this game stand out on its own 2 feet, like the rogue-lite campaign mode with character perma-death, the bigger heists having some pretty cool Cooperative mechanics that makes it easier to complete, the AI bot system actually being one of best in the entire genre.

To me, this game went from a crappy 3/10 at launch to a solid 7/10 now, which is damn impressive considering it was achieves in the span of a single year.

Overall, this thing went from a complete slop at launch to an actually enjoyable and surprisingly good coop experience, for 20 bucks, you're getting a very decent product that'll last you for a while, with more updates/DLCs on the horizon.

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.

My friend reccommended this game to me saying this is a hidden gem.
After the initial couple of hours I realised that this game doesn't want to be serious, nor wants to be a payday killer. This game wants you to have a fun time stealing stuff and doing criminal activities with your friends, or just simply taking over the City of Rackay. The game is so easy to get into, turn your brain off make some decisions where you spend your hard earned money and just simply have a laugh at the self concious and parodic narrative. This game is genuienly a hidden gem and I'm glad I was reccommended this game because now I'm hooked. Oh and also I have a couple hours in payday 2 as well, so you can stop comparing games and enjoying them both because I said so.
EDIT: Sorry for the misleading information, the game has a fully solo rogue-lite campaign which is obviously about replayability. You can solo every content in the game. Just add some bots to your crew if you want teammates and you're good to go!

Its not exactly what I expected but its pretty fun. It will def scratch the itch until they make a sequel to Payday 2.