Things almost immediately go sidewise as we trudge past the paddleboards and joggers and through the throngs of people lifting weights and doing yoga along the shore of Rockay City’s beach.

The party at a nearby café erupts in gunfire when we show our faces.

That’s not really a surprise. 

We’re there at the behest of rising crime boss Travis Baker (Michael Madsen) to route an invasion of our turf by a local DJ turned drug dealer, Hielo (Vanilla Ice.) Or as Baker’s flunky, Captain Touchdown (Michael Rooker), puts it, “They took the beach where the guys toss iron.”

What starts as a peaceful stroll quickly devolves into a rolling bloodbath, the four of us hunting down the head of this particular snake as he tries to escape the battle.

This is the kick-off mission for one of six coop mini-campaigns that help fill out upcoming organized crime shooter Crime Boss: Rockay City by developers INGAME STUDIOS.

We had a chance to go hands-on with the game during a recent press event. But before we could kill a single gangbanger, we took a minute to watch a short pre-taped presentation by Damion Poitier, who helped write the game and portrays Nasara.

Crime Boss features a total of three modes: Baker’s Battle, Crime Time, and Urban Legends.

The Campaign

The game’s single-player campaign is called Baker’s Battle, which Poitier called the bulk of the game.

In it, players take on the role of Travis Baker – portrayed by Michael Madson – as you attempt to take over Rockay City while staying one step ahead of Sheriff Norris – portrayed by Chuck Norris. 

What that means in action is that the worse you do in a mission, the more evidence you leave behind and the more Norris and his team can narrow down where you are and what you’re doing next.

Portier said the single-player campaign is designed for replayability with the developers assuming players will lose and get caught or killed the first few attempts. 

The presentation gave us a glance at how the end game screen shows how many days a player lasts, the percentage of Rockay under their control, a point score and the amount of loot stolen. All of that contributes to a permanent Boss Level and points. Those points can be used to level up your character and some of his support staff, like Casey – portrayed by Kim Bassinger. 

In the example we saw, there were options to give Baker an undefined perk, increase his health, or start future campaigns with more cash.

The ultimate goal of Baker’s Battle is to take over the city, which is broken down into territories on your map. You do that by systemically gaining control over all of the turf in the city, one job at a time. To make matters a bit more complicated, though, you’ll also be competing against the game’s rival bosses: Dollar Dragon – portrayed by Danny Trejo, Hielo – portrayed by Vanilla Ice as well as an Asian warlord and an Italian mafioso 

Among your support is Captain Touchdown who “commands an army of thugs to do your bidding; Casey, who helps with your finances; Nasara, portrayed by Poitier, helps you manage your missions; and finally Gloves, portrayed by Danny Glover, who is a cop on your payroll that helps you find high-value targets. 

The money needed to fuel your operation is raised through heists, robberies, theft, and burglaries. As you play, Gloves will offer you big heists, which require more planning and are much harder to complete. 

While you get to decide who you bring on a mission – including Baker – keep in mind the game has permadeath. So if you lose Baker, you lose the game. 

Poitier pointed out that the campaign isn’t structured along a single path, instead your decisions, how well or poorly you are doing, and what missions you decide to take on all impact what the plot lines, missions, and random events that open up to you in a particular run. 

“No one will ever experience the same game twice,” he said.

While the bulk of the game is that single-player campaign, the two other modes have a lot to offer. 

Quickplay

The Crime Time game mode is the game’s take on quickplay. 

“Crime Time is all about instant gratification,” Poitier said. “Quick heists, quick money, and big rewards.”

Small hits are randomly generated on a map. Once you select one, you choose the coop crew you want to bring. But the more real people you bring, the smaller your cut. It sounds like AI-controlled bots won’t take any of the spoils.

You also choose who you will be controlling. The characters have randomized stats, perks and weapons and will always be available. You can also bring on unique teammates who are gradually unlocked in the other game modes as you progress through them. These characters have special skill sets and more powerful specialized weapons. While most teammates will require you to spend cash to recruit them, though, some will cost nothing. 

The Crime Time mode gives players the ability to take on contracts, which are more complicated, more difficult missions. There are also big heists, but you only get access to them once they’re unlocked in Baker’s Battle or by completing it in someone else’s hosted match.

The cash you get in this mode is used to buy better weapons, recruit more folks, bail them out or get them medical treatment.

Co-op

Finally, there is the game’s coop stories mode: Urban Legends.

In the event earlier this month, we had a chance to go hands-on with two stories in Urban Legends, each of which was broken up into three missions. The game’s Urban Legends mode will have six stories in total when it ships.

Poitier describes the game as pure ‘90s action.

“It’s packed with Hollywood stars in high-stakes heists and we have had a blast creating it for you,” he said.

Each story starts off with a short introduction via cut-scene which then drops you into the first of three missions, all of which have to be played consecutively, with each tougher than the last. You start with a total of six characters to choose from to make up your team of four. You can play this mode with AI or with other players online, but once you’ve run out of the six characters, the story ends, if you all die on a mission, it also ends. You also permanently lose any characters that die and aren’t revived in a mission, which means you might end up tackling those harder missions with less than four on your team, or with characters armed with sub-par weapons – like just a pistol.

This mode also lets you unlock unique teammates for Crime Time mode.

Hands-on

And that brings us back to our hands-on introduction to the Urban Legends via the mode’s second story – Juiced Up, Lived Out – and its increasingly bloody beach.

After we manage to chase down the leader of Heilo's invading group and kill him, the mission wraps with us escaping in a nearby orange van.

The next mission requires us to take out a warehouse and steal Heilo’s diamonds. You can approach these missions quietly, trying to avoid being spotted by roaming gang members and cameras, or just pop-off and try to blaze your way through the map.

Once the bad guys are alerted, though, the police inevitably get involved, and they quickly escalate once you start mowing them down. So you might find yourself caught – in this case – between a warehouse of thugs and a SWAT unit repelling from a helicopter directly behind you.

Fortunately, you can revive fallen friends, but that quickly becomes problematic if you stick around too long. Eventually, SWAT gives way to police in fully body armor and what looks like bomb disposal units, they also bring in fast-moving officers with stun rods that look a bit like cattle prods. It’s easy to be quickly overwhelmed by a surrounding force and lose your whole team.

We managed to clear the warehouse of diamonds and even complete the third mission with little to no problem. But each of the missions is clearly more difficult than the one before.

After rolling through the Juiced Out story, our team of four tried our hand at Khan’s Convoy, a much more difficult set of missions that culminated in a raid on a docked yacht. 

By the time we arrived at that final mission we were down to just four characters, two of them only armed with handguns, making it much more difficult to mow down the inevitable heavy response.

But we eked through it, unlocking the story for future replay.

While the Urban Legends missions aren’t lengthy, they do provide a meaty middle ground between what it seems the quick play mode will provide and the game’s campaign. 

Taken as an add-on to the game’s main mode, it’s a surprisingly deep affair, with fairly sizable maps and lots of ways to tackle a particular challenge.

If you’re interested in learning more about INGAME STUDIOS, the team making Crime Boss, and some of the inspirations for the game, make sure to check out our feature from earlier this year.

Crime Boss: Rockay City hits Epic Games Store on March 28, pre-purchase it and save 20 percent.