Video Game / Crime Boss: Rockay City

The town is wide open, and they're all for war. They'll go for the turf. Every bit of it.

"Forget the past. That's the key. Try again!"

— Sheriff Norris upon defeating the player

Crime Boss: Rockay City (CB:RC) is a 2023 single-player / co-op crime game, developed by Brno-based Czech Ingame Studios and published by 505 Games. Set in the titular Rockay City (a fictional version of Miami) some time during The '90s, the game's multiplayer modes depict the daily ordeals of local heisters in their morally questionable pursuit of wealth, while the single-player portion chronicles the criminal career of Travis Baker, a small-time drug dealer keen on taking over the criminal empire of the flashy, neon-glaring but ultimately rotten metropolis after the untimely "retirement" of its former kingpin during an explosive rooftop party.

Announced during The Game Awards 2022, CB:RC first gained notoriety with its All-Star Cast, featuring 1990s Household Names like Michael Madsen (playing the protagonist of the game's single-player campaign), Kim Basinger, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Vanilla Ice, Michael Rooker and Chuck Norris, who all lent their likeness and voice to portray their respective characters.

While many gaming outlets and YouTube influencers defined the game as a co-op heist shooter, comparing it to PAYDAY 2, the main attraction of CB:RC is actually its Genre Mashup single-player campaign, combining turf war strategy gameplay, FPS combat, and Roguelike mechanics such as Permadeath, character upgrades carrying over to each subsequent campaign run, and random events presented by the Random Number God.

The game was originally released March 28, 2023 on PC as an Epic Games Store-exclusive launch to generally mixed reviews. The console ports released on June 15, 2023, while a physical boxed release released on September 5.

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"A nominal success. I hope these tropes prove to be lucrative."

A-F

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: As the game is more of a roguelike action game than a realistic organized crime simulator, this trope is fully in effect to ensure fun and playability.
  • Similar to the PAYDAY-series (which heavily inspired the game's heist portion), CB:RC always sends an army of law enforcement officers against players if a mission turns loud, with the cops not really keen on following any sensible police tactics, but instead rushing heisters with patrol cops, SWAT officers, and special police units (essentially the local versions of PAYDAY's Taser and Bulldozer specialists).
  • All playable heisters have Regenerating Health. Also, even though they have no separate armor meter (and most of them seem not to wear any body armor In-Universe anyway), all of them can take generally quite a beating before getting incapacitated (and after which they can still be revived a couple times before permanently dying for the remainder of the campaign).
  • Baker and his heisters are apparently also experts in Clark Kenting, as they can walk around freely in the streets of Rockay City without being recognized by bystanders and security guards, despite taking part in heists without masking their face (a fact that Baker even lampshades in a cutscene), and despite the fact that Sheriff Norris is well aware of Baker's identity. That said, the game also averts this trope to some extent, as frequently running in guns blazing to missions and causing Collateral Damage by killing civilians or subdued guards speeds up Norris' investigation against Baker, overall reducing the time available to take over the city.
  • During stealth, players carry an infinite amount of bodybags and zipties. Also, once getting ziptied, subdued civilians and security guards become completely passive: they never attempt to call for help or run away, even when left unguarded. Justified, as doing so would elevate stealth up to a Nintendo Hard (if not outright impossible) difficulty in the single-player campaign.
• Adam Westing: Applies to most of the cast, as it's difficult not to see their CB:RC characters as expies of their most known characters from other media.
  • Michael Madsen plays Travis Baker, an aspiring career criminal with traits reminiscent of Mr. Blonde and Bud.
  • Kim Basinger plays Casey, a beautiful and well-connected Femme Fatale.
  • Michael Rooker plays Touchdown, an ex-Marine and ex-quarterback turned career criminal who commands Baker's street thugs during turf wars.
  • Vanilla Ice plays Hielo, a drug dealer also involved in the city's rap scene.
  • Danny Trejo plays Dollar Dragon, the right-hand man of the city's former kingpin, now in command of the local Mexican cartel.
  • Taken even further with Chuck Norris, who not only plays a Lawful Good Cowboy Cop who is Cordell Walker in all but name, but is even named Sheriff Norris. Once the memes start rolling in, Hilarity Ensues.
  • Averted with Nasara, Baker's fixer and Mission Control, who is played by Damion Poitier, mostly known for his role of Chains from PAYDAY 2, a much less subtle character (to put it mildly).
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Sheriff Norris essentially plays this staple role of the Roguelike genre, making the single-player campaign one complex Timed Mission. When starting a new campaign, Norris starts his investigation soon enough on the warring gangs, with his progress indicated on a separate progress bar (visible when clicking his portrait on the map screen). Once he finished his investigation on Baker, he cracks down on his entourage, triggering a Non-Standard Game Over scenario during which he must escape the city. Collateral Damage (such as killing civilians and subdued guards) generally increases the investigation speed (reducing the number of in-game days available to take over the city), while one of the (stackable) perks of Gloves can slightly decrease it each time it's selected.
• A.K.A.-47: Played straight, with all guns having fictional names, even though they are clearly based off real-life firearms.
• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel bad during a campaign run when we lose a valuable heister who hauled in lots of cash for our cause. In-Universe, this is somewhat the case with Ranger, a Vietnam War veteran who suffers so much from PTSD that he can literally die in his sleep should players fail completing his flashback missions.
• Alliterative Title: The roguelike single-player campaign of the game is named "Baker's Battle".
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: This is basically the goal of the campaign mode, with Baker hell-bent on taking over every city district, and driving out the three other gangs from the city.
• Ambiguous Time Period: Although CB:RC is apparently set in The '90s, it is not clear which year it takes place in exactly. While many in-game posters (and the district map itself) suggests the campaign is set in 1995, most of the taxis and police patrol cars are second-generation Ford Crown Victoria models introduced in December 1997 (but starting to see widespread use as fleet cars throughout 1998). In addition, one of the songs prominently featured in the game is Freestyler by Bomfunk MC's, released in 1999.
  • This is made even more ambiguous with the arsenal, as most of the high-end weapons feature state-of-the-art rail systems, grips and optical attachments which, while already existing back then, would certainly not be available on any Black Market for criminals. Moreover, the Sting (a machine pistol clearly modelled after the Brügger & Thomet MP9) also crosses into Anachronism Stew territory, as it only entered production in 2001.
  • A case of Anachronistic Soundtrack takes this even further, as the game also features Wolf Totem by The HU, a song released in 2019.
• Artificial Brilliance: The allied AI generally does a solid job in supporting players during heists. They can break loot casings, glasses or boxes, can collect loot by themselves, and can even take loot bags to the escape van by themselves. They also do their best to defend locations if ordered by players to hold their position.
• Artificial Stupidity: Despite the above, more difficult heists can still be a chore due to the limitations of our AI allies. Besides the occasional pathfinding issues, AI heisters have a tendency to run into enemy fire guns blazing without taking cover. Moreover, given the fact that carrying two or more loot bags restricts characters to their sidearms only, they often engage enemies after taking up as much loot as they can, reducing their firepower with the expected results.
  • Frankly, the enemy does not fare better either, with most of them rushing us head-on, even if they are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned.
• Armed Blag: Given the premise, it's no surprise that armored trucks are juicy targets for heisters, and a frequently occurring mission type. In most cases, truck heists are loud attacks, but sometimes players can take on transports while the trucks are still being loaded, allowing for a smooth, non-lethal execution.
• Asshole Victim: The rival gangs fall into this category, as they have no qualms in attacking our territories even if we are in neutral standing with them.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: The crew captains during turf wars play this trope straight, just like Sheriff Norris' detectives who occasionally show up to clear out districts. All of them wield high-damage weapons and have a lot more health than regular mooks or cops. Oh, and also there's the sheriff...
• As Himself: ...who is not only played by Chuck Norris, but is actually Chuck Norris.
• Awesome Aussie: One of the available heisters is Silver, a cunning, foul-mouthed Australian girl, armed with an MP5 submachinegun, lots of swear words and a thick accent.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Touchdown's M60 machine gun has a high-capacity box magazine, is loud, and completely fits Touchdown's character. However, the weapon is also clunky, has a rather obtrusive iron sight, long reload times, a somewhat difficult recoil, and a lower damage output than what players would expect from a weapon of that calibre.
  • This also applies to Ranger's M60 during his third Vietnam War Flashback, with the added drawback that its iron sight and recoil is even worse than that of Touchdown's, due to being an older model.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Technically this happens if players win the campaign and conquer Rockay City. While Baker is certainly not a monster (especially if players play up his Benevolent Boss aspects during the campaign's many random events, such as allowing heisters with personal issues to leave for several in-game days), he is still a career criminal out to take over Rockay City's underworld, and whose criminal journey is littered with robbed shops and warehouses, roughed up civilians and security officers, and hundreds of dead cops.
• Batter Up!: Many of the cheap heisters come equipped with a baseball bat as their primary weapon. While the tool dishes out a respectable amount of damage, it's still quite impractical against thugs with firearms once the mission goes loud.
• The Big Guy: Touchdown fills this trope within Baker's close entourage, captaining his soldiers during turf wars, and fittingly, using nothing less than an M60 machine gun during gunfights.
  • As a somewhat rarer female example, Jupiter fills this role among the available heisters, with shades of a Brawn Hilda. Besides having substantially more health than the average heister, she is also the only accomplice who can carry up to three loot bags at once.
• Black Market: The game features two flavors of this. On the one hand, you can buy new weapons for your crew and yourself from there; on the other hand, every jewellery, precious metal, electronic device or expensive bottle of liquor you looted from heists can be sold there separately for some quick cash. The price of these goods differ each in-game day, so sometimes it's worth stashing them for a couple days, so that you can sell your stash later for a bigger buck.
• Bloodless Carnage: While blood splatters occur in the game during gunfights, wounded and dead characters feature no bloody wounds whatsoever.
• Boring, but Practical: Generally speaking, most uncommon and rare weapons fall into this category. High damage-per-second sub-machineguns, long-barreled shotguns and assault rifles are the bread-and-butter of every loud heist, and should be bought as soon as possible for heisters packing weaker weapons to improve their usability in riskier jobs.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: After some time during the campaign, Sheriff Norris starts deploying his trusted detectives around Rockay City to uncover and root out criminal operations. Even though said detectives are plain clothes officers without any body armor (their appearance reminiscent of the heroes of Miami Vice), they can effortlessly drive away criminals from the districts they operate in (turning said districts neutral and not generating any revenue). They also put up quite a fight when encountered during heists, being able to both tank and dish out a hefty amount of damage before going down.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: A variant of this can occur if players focus on the turfs of a specific faction. Should players take over many of their districts, the attacked faction may offer a temporary truce with a hefty pile of cash to get some breathing room. There is even a random mission for such a scenario (Hit on Hielo) which typically appears early-game during campaign runs. Completing it is highly recommended, as taking over a district from Hielo and completing two relatively easy jobs can net players a substantial amount of cash at that point of the run.
• Chase Scene: In a rare case of subversion, there is a short chase sequence featuring Baker and his cohorts running away in his muscle car from a police helicopter. The catch is that the scene only occurs in the campaign's one-time intro sequence, but never during actual gameplay.
• Combat Resuscitation: Allied characters who run out of health must be revived before their bleedout time runs out. Failure to do so will result in the death of the heister, with two possible consequences:
  • In the Baker's Battle and Urban Legends modes, said heister will be unavailable for the rest of the campaign run.
  • In Crime Time mode, the heister will be unavailable until players can pay their hospital bill.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When a heist turns loud, enemy mobsters and cops have a tendency of spawning nearby players and zeroing in on their position immediately.
• Cool Car: Baker apparently owns a muscle car that resembles a 1974 AMC Javelin AMX coupe. Unfortunately, the car only appears during the intro of the campaign, and cannot be driven during actual gameplay.
• Cooldown: The campaign of CB:RC provides an unusual example in that it's not equipment or weapons, but rather heisters and gangbangers who are affected by this. By default, you can take each heister to a mission only once each day, just as you can send gang members to turf wars only once an in-game day. This is explained away with your "employees" need to rest and recuperate in-between two heists or ambushes. This can be slightly averted with Baker though, once you unlock a perk that allows him to take on two missions a day.
  • A more traditional example occurs with emplaced turrets which not only have finite ammunition, but can also overheat in case of sustained gunfire.
• Corrupt Politician: Although none of these appear during the campaign, the game implies that Rockay City's mayor and its local government are essentially this, doing favors for the various criminal organizations.
• Cowboy Cop: Similar to the PAYDAY-series, the game's police force is essentially this, preferring to show up in full force and Zerg Rush heisters. However, unlike the PAYDAY-series, security guards and police officers do not even attempt to restrain heisters, but instead immediately shoot to kill when detecting them.
  • Sheriff Norris is basically an embodiment of this trope.
• Creator Cameo: A minor example, with the logo of Ingame Studios appearing on many shipping containers.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The enemy captains during turf wars and Sheriff Norris' detectives are clear examples of this trope, able to soak up plenty of bullets before going down.
• A Day in the Limelight: Besides the regular heists and story missions advancing Baker's criminal career, the campaign also features optional missions focusing on the recruitable heisters (restricting character selection only to them). While completing these heister missions is optional, doing so will help you level them up and unlock them for use in Crime Time, the game's quickplay mode.
• Death Is the Only Option: Due to the Roguelike nature of the campaign, you are not expected to take over Rockay City at your first (few) attempts. Dying during the campaign is okay, and is part of Baker's path to glory.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Although it's only implied, the one-time intro animation of the game's campaign suggests that it was actually Baker who blew up the previous kingpin of Rockay City, so that he could take the throne for himself.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Interestingly, the game both plays straight and subverts this trope.
  • When playing the campaign the first time, the game features a cutscene in which Baker, Nasara and Casey discuss how to take over the criminal underworld of Rockay City. During the meeting, Casey wears some quite revealing clothing that distracts Baker so much that he can only focus on his beautiful handler instead of Nasara's battle plan.
  • Subverted with Runaway, one of the high-level female heisters of the game, who is significantly more difficult to be detected in stealth, despite the fact that she is an attractive young woman wearing a short and sexy cocktail dress. In short, the type of dress you would definitely not be wearing for a stealthy robbery.
• Disc-One Nuke: One of the possible perk cards during level-ups (or finishing a campaign) grants a new high-level weapon for Baker whenever selected. If the new firearm turns out to be a silenced weapon, then be very grateful for the Random Number God, as silenced weapons can make early-game heists ridiculously easy, allowing you to silently headshot mobsters and cops at crime scenes without getting detected. Although this does not stop the game from giving you suspicion strikes in the latter case, if you can take out cops in quick succession, it is entirely possible to clear a crime scene from all officers and receive only a couple of strikes without raising the alarm.
• The Don: A rare (almost offscreen) example occurs in the game, with the kingpin of Rockay City dying in the prologue.
• The Dreaded: The special police units are definitely this. There is a reason you don't want to stick around for long at loud heists until you can afford stronger heisters and weapons.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The game is full of this catharsis factor, due to its Roguelike nature and the generally increasing difficulty as you progress through the campaign or take on higher-level Urban Legends mini-campaigns.
  • You can complete most missions that start quietly without firing a single bullet and alarming the cops. Nasara's compliment ("Excellent work. Smooth and controlled.") in such cases can make anyone rightfully proud of themselves.
  • Every once in a while, you might be so confident in yourself that you bring only 1-2 heisters to a job you want to pull off silently. This can absolutely go sideways if a rival gang decides to hit the same venue, forcing you to complete the job loud, potentially outnumbered and outgunned. Getting out of that heist alive with the required amount of loot is definitely a feat.
  • The later Urban Legends mini-campaigns are notorious for their Difficulty Spike compared to regular campaign jobs and Crime Time missions. Completing these campaigns with a perfect rating (required to unlock the heister players used throughout the campaign) is difficult even with three other players, and nothing short of Nintendo Hard when playing with bots. If you manage to earn that three-star rating, you can rightfully call yourself an expert of the game.
• Early Game Hell: Given the Roguelike nature of the campaign, this trope is played straight until you can level up and unlock some perks to help you get going a bit easier.
  • The Crime Time quickplay mode can also be this at the beginning, as only cheap but weak heisters are available initially. Better heisters can be recruited in Crime Time mode either by unlocking them with perfect runs in the Harder Than Hard Urban Legends mode, or by completing their side missions in the single-player campaign and upgrading them to their highest level.
• Elite Mook: Sheriff Norris' detectives are certainly this. When one is present in the district where the heist takes place, police arrives sooner and units attack with more intensity. At the same time, the detectives themselves also put up quite a fight, able to both tank and deal a large amount of damage before going down.
• Enemy Chatter: While this is not that noticable when fighting mobsters, police units play this trope straight, with their radio announcing assaults, retreats, the arrival of tactical and special units, and providing general information for their officers on the field.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Nasara always stresses not to waste any civilians, and also urges heisters to try subduing and ziptieing guards instead of killing them while in stealth. He also berates players if they kill an unsuspecting guard regardless.
• Fake Difficulty: Again, due to the Roguelike nature of the campaign, typical heists (like warehouse robberies) can either be laughably easy or frustratingly difficult based solely on RNG, such as the placement of security guards, cameras and the collectable loot, or whether the mission receives a random modifier (such as an unexpected rival gang hit which instantly turns the heist loud, or a police sting which replaces security guards with cops who cannot be tied up and are very likely to raise suspicion when killed).
• Fast-Roping: SWAT teams are sometimes flown in via helicopter, and exit like this. Nasara tells you about them in time, giving you a chance to shoot them while still on rope.
• Five-Man Band: Baker and his entourage fit this trope, with the following role distribution:
  • The Leader: Baker
  • The Lancer: Nasara (with traits of The Smart Guy as well)
  • The Smart Guy: Gloves
  • The Big Guy: Touchdown
  • The Chick: Casey
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Baker himself, who starts out as a small-time but Genre Savvy drug-dealer, shooting his way to the top of Rockay City's criminal underworld.

G-L

• Game-Breaking Bug: Although the game launched as a generally polished title, sometimes it could occur that the physics of the escape van glitched out, flying away while hitting map geometry, rendering the heist impossible to complete.
• Getaway Driver: In most cases, our getaway driver is an unnamed mook, who frequently marvels about the amount of loot we pack in.
  • Subverted with one of the Urban Legends co-op mini-campaigns, which is about busting out Mozart, a supposedly skilled getaway driver specifically for a big heist. We never actually see Mozart driving anything, but it turns out that he is a quite competent (and sociopathic) criminal.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: As in most stealth games (and similar to the PAYDAY-series), guards have very poor peripheral senses, and can only really see what is directly in front of them. However, they will notice destroyed windows, cameras, and broken loot containers, and unless we kill or subdue them before they can finish reporting those in, they can call in the police, turning the heist loud.
• Gun Accessories: Played with. While the game features no weapon customization, higher-tier firearms may come equipped with several accessories, such as extended magazines, silencers and various optical sights.
• Hard Mode Mooks: The response time and the initial force the police shows up with depend on the difficulty level of the heist (and whether any detectives operate in the district where the heist is set). On higher difficulties, the cops arrive and start their assault earlier, their cooldown period between two assault waves is shorter, and they also begin deploying special units earlier into the gunfight.
• Hand Cannon: Baker starts the game with one, the 357 BOA (apparently a mixture of several Taurus Tracker variations). Although it has a relatively low rate of fire and kicks like a mule, it can essentially one-shot anyone save for Bulldozers, Tasers and detectives.
• Harder Than Hard: Given the Roguelike nature of the campaign, this can happen frequently during harder heists if the Random Number God is not gracious to players. Even missions that start out trivial can turn into a difficult bloodbath if we run into a gang ambush while in stealth, or just generally take low-level heisters with early-game equipment into more difficult heists.
  • The money convoy heists play this trope painfully straight, as even their medium-difficulty instances (indicated as "Moderate risk" jobs) can turn into this for three reasons. Firstly, because these heists are always loud; secondly, because players have two trucks to break into, with a higher level of minimum loot required to collect (resulting in a longer mission time); and finally, because the trucks are escorted by cops, whose quickly deployed reinforcements will throw everything they have at us at a faster rate. It is not uncommon to fail this mission to the Zerg Rush of the police force even when taking relatively strong heisters to the job.
  • Most of the late Urban Legends heists are also this, especially when played with bots. The Difficulty Spike compared to the campaign missions balanced for single-player are obvious.
• Hero Antagonist: Although Baker is neither a sociopathic jerkass nor an absolute monster, he is still a career criminal determined to shoot his way to the top of Rockay City's underground, killing hundreds of gangsters, police officers and security guards in the process, potentially bankrupting many small store owners, and scarring dozens of civilians who caught up in his hits.
• Hollywood Silencer: Played straight with the silenced weapons. Even when fired in proximity of unsuspecting mooks, no one will hear our shots, making early-game missions a breeze with them.
• Hostage Situation: Strangely averted, because unlike PAYDAY 2, CB:RC has no functional hostage system that would affect police response times and the intensity of police sieges. As such, players should only ziptie NPCs while in stealth to avoid them escaping and calling the authorities.
• Hollywood Tactics: Similar to the PAYDAY-series, it is kinda zig-zagged. On the one hand, the police tries flanking players besides attacking up front, tries using buildings and objects as cover, occasionally deploys snipers, and attacks in waves. However, their primary MO is still rushing players with everything they got, often storming them up front, relying on heavy firepower to finish the job.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Averted, with players and AI heisters able to carry only a primary weapon, a sidearm, and a special tool (which is hardlocked to characters without any way of changing it).
• In Medias Res: When starting the campaign the first time, the story starts off with Baker and his cohorts facing off with Sheriff Norris at the top of a bank in a climactic Final Battle, implying a heist gone wrong. Regardless of whether players can stand their ground and escape or get killed in the raid, the game then rewinds back to the beginning of the story.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: One of Baker's and Nasara's exchanges about Hielo quickly falls into this.

Nasara: His name is Hielo.

Baker: Yellow?

Nasara: No, Hielo.

Baker: Yeah, just what I said. Don't fuckin' correct me!

• Insecurity Camera: Played straight, even if somewhat downplayed. Cameras can typically alert authorities if heisters stay in their line of sight long enough, if they detect any broken loot containers, or if players break too many of the cameras on the map. However, sometimes no warning is raised in such cases, as security rooms either have no guards observing the camera feed, or the guard on duty is actually too lazy to actually watch the monitors. That said, the game gives quite some leeway for players to make stealth less of a chore: turning off the monitor in security rooms automatically disables all cameras, and even if players get detected by an active camera, the game gives you enough time to run up to the device and break it (interrupting the alarm, usually at the cost of a suspicion strike).
• Interface Screw: Played horribly straight with police flashbangs, impairing both our visibility and the character controls for some time.
• An Interior Designer Is You: During the campaign, players can buy an assortment of antique and luxury items for Baker's office (with the catch that players must decide which item type they want to collect during the current run). Although most of them are expensive, they can heavily boost Baker's boss level, so investing into them is highly recommended.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Both Baker and Sheriff Norris are guilty of this to some extent.
  • During repeated campaign runs, Baker may muse sometimes that the situation he's currently in feels vaguely familiar. Even better, after a failed campaign run, he may outright boasts the police that he'll take over the town next time.
  • Norris, on the other hand, teases the player just as much as the dying Baker when the latter gets killed during a botched heist (as seen in the opening quote of the page).
• Leave No Survivors: The main objective of turf wars, and also the typical result of heists where we must steal loot from gangsters. Killing civilian witnesses and subdued guards, however, is strongly discouraged, as Collateral Damage increases Sheriff Norris' investigation against Baker during the campaign, resulting in less in-game days available to take over the city.
• Limited Loadout: Every heister can carry one primary weapon, one sidearm, and a locked special tool (such as rocks to distract enemies or adrenaline syringes to temporarily boost their combat abilities).
• Made of Iron: Certainly applies to Jupiter, a female bodybuilder involved in the city's booming steroid business. She is tall, strong, has a ton of health, and is the only heister who can carry up to three loot bags at once instead of the standard two.
  • Also applies to Baker and Touchdown to some extent, if their relevant health boost perks are levelled up high enough.
  • On the police's side, the Bulldozer and the detectives fit this trope, able to tank a disgustingly large amount of bullets.

M-R

• The Mafia: One of the rival gangs is the local Italian mafia, who typically control the least amount of turfs, but have the best equipped soldiers right from the get go.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Played straight with the enemy gangs, security guards and law enforcement, all of which feature only male enemies. Averted with our own crew though, as we can hire many female heisters (and can even assign female-only teams to a heist if we have enough of them available), who can die permanently during a campaign run just like their male colleagues.
• Mighty Glacier: Several recruitable heisters have passive perk combinations which result in increased health at the cost of decreased movement speed, especially when carrying more than one loot bag.
• More Criminals Than Targets: Played with. Although the game throws an army of cops against players during loud heists (similar to the PAYDAY-series), each campaign features a hefty amount of mobsters as well, making it seem like as if the majority of Rockay City's population consists of gangsters and cops.
• More Dakka: Touchdown uses an M60 light machine gun during turf defense missions, with a healthy dose of Badass Boast, and with the expected results.
• Money for Nothing: Strongly averted, as money is needed literally for everything.
  • During the campaign, players can spend their hard-earned cash to buy new weapons, hire new heisters for money-making heists and story missions, or hire gangbangers for turf wars. In addition, planning a heist, attacking a turf, or defending a district of our own all cost money. Finally, the antique or luxury items players can buy to boost Baker's boss level also cost a hefty sum of cash.
  • In Crime Time mode, players can spend money to buy new heisters and weapons, pay the hospital bills of wounded heisters, and unlock the standalone instances of the big heists that can occur during the campaign.
• Multiple Endings: Depending on the players' performance, the campaign can end in three ways:
  • If Baker dies at any point, the campaign fails immediately.
  • If Sheriff Norris finishes his investigation on Baker, the campaign ends in a Non-Standard Game Over, with the police ambushing Baker, forcing him to escape.
  • If Baker takes over the city before Norris would find him, the campaign run is completed with the Golden Ending, with Baker becoming the new kingpin of Rockay City, and Norris leaving due to the Governor's orders.
• Ms. Fanservice: The game plays this trope straight with a digitally de-aged Kim Basinger, who is wearing almost exclusively tight-fitting dresses with ample Cleavage Window or a Navel-Deep Neckline.
  • When it comes to heisters, Runaway also qualifies for this trope with her outfit.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: Many of the cheaper early-game heisters come equipped with knuckle dusters, knives, crowbars and baseball bats as their primary weapons. While melee weapons could be effective against mobsters in low-risk early game heists, they quickly get outgunned once SWAT teams start appearing.
  • Averted with the melee enemies during turf wars, who not only run fast and have slightly more health than their gun-toting colleagues, but also dish out plenty of damage, should they get the chance of getting up close and personal. This makes them quite dangerous lightning bruisers.
• Nintendo Hard: The later Urban Legends mini-campaigns play this straight when played solo or with bots.
  • The late-game heists of the campaign can also qualify, if you do not have high-level heisters available for them (or at least levelled up your initial heisters and gave them higher-grade weapons).
• No Communities Were Harmed: Rockay City is basically Miami in everything but name.
• Noob Cave: Most low-risk early-game heists (especially the warehouse robberies and gang ambushes) qualify as such. While they do not net as much cash as higher-risk jobs or big heists, they offer plenty of chance to practice both stealth and loud approaches.
  • This is strangely averted with the one-time prologue missions of the game (such as the game's Action Prologue or the freeway ambush on Baker's drug transport), which are a lot more difficult than the early-game heists we can select from the city map. The Difficulty Spike is likely there in the prologue to teach players that it's perfectly okay to die during the campaign.
• Oh, Crap!: A guaranteed moment to occur whenever Sheriff Norris manages to zero in on Baker, leading to a Non-Standard Game Over of the campaign run.
  • This trope also applies to heists whenever a detective shows up, given that they can dish out a hefty amount of damage, have substantially more health than regular cops (and even SWAT team members, despite not wearing any armor), and their presence also increases the intensity of police assault waves. In short, they can throw a wrench to any carefully planned heist.
• One-Hit Kill: Although melee attacks are not much of a use once things go loud, knocking out enemies from behind while in stealth is always a guaranteed one-hit kill.
  • Baker's .357 BOA also qualifies to some extent, as it can one-shot most enemies, with the exception of Tasers, Bulldozers and Detectives.
• One-Steve Limit: Played straight, with most characters being on a last-name basis, or are using aliases.
• One-Time Dungeon: When playing the campaign the first time, you must complete a prologue arc of cutscenes and story missions before the city takeover screen would unlock. Once you complete the arc, it won't appear in future campaign runs - instead, the game immediately loads into the city takeover screen, likely because repeating the prologue missions over and over again would quickly grew to be a chore.
• Only in It for the Money: Played with. While the majority of our hired guns have hefty recruitment costs and take part of the loot as their cut, some heisters may join Baker's gang free of charge if we manage to impress them enough or pull some favors for them.
• Pacifist Run: Given that we can threaten and ziptie civilians and security guards, it is entirely possible to complete certain heists without killing anyone, provided that the game does not throw in any nasty surprises during the mission (like rival gang ambushes which instantly turn the heist loud, or a crime scene modifier which replaces all security guards with beat cops who cannot be dominated and tied up).
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Played straight to such an extent that Baker outrights refuses to conceal his face before a bank robbery, claiming that "masks are for pussies". The fact that Sheriff Norris does not crack down on Baker immediately after his first police shootout (even though he and his cohorts are clearly recognizable in every heist they take part in) tells a lot about how much the game revels in this trope.
• Parking Garage: Sometimes certain heists (like gang ambushes or strip mall robberies) start at multi-storey parking garages, with the escape van also waiting for us there.
• Passed in Their Sleep: This can happen to Ranger, a Shell-Shocked Veteran heister, if he dies in one of his PTSD-induced nightmares.
• Permanently Missable Content: When playing the campaign the first time, players must complete a prologue arc of up to two story missions: a holdout scenario where Hielo's gangbangers attack Baker's drug shipment, and (if players fail that one) an ambush mission during which Baker gets his stolen drug back. If players manage to complete the first mission, the second will (obviously) not trigger, and as subsequent campaign runs skip the prologue missions altogether, this means that skilled players may never encounter the second prologue mission at all.
• Pistol Whip: You can whack enemies this way and can also break open loot boxes with it. While a pistol whip is basically a one-hit kill when performed from behind while in stealth, it does a negligible amount of damage during shootouts against enemies who are aware of you.
• Police Are Useless: Played with. While the rank and file are not more competent than the variety encountered in the PAYDAY-series, higher levels of police presence bring in specialized units and intensify police sieges eventually to such an extent that they can shred even the most well-equipped quartet of heisters.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Touchdown delivers these reliably before every turf war instance.
• Pretty Little Headshots: Let's just say that the game is definitely not as gory as some of the 1990s crime films it took inspiration from (or which Michael Madsen is known for).
• Punch-Clock Villain: Security guards play this trope to the letter, frequently mumbling to themselves about how much they hate their job, how meager their salary is, and why they would deserve a raise.
  • The police and Sheriff Norris also count - frankly, they are just doing their job when trying to take the heisters down, even if their methods are quite excessive.
• Punch-Packing Pistol: Played straight with Baker's .357 BOA revolver, which can basically one-shot about 90% of the enemies the campaign can throw against him. As a trade-off, however, it kicks like a mule, and has a relatively low ammo capacity (being a six-shooter, after all), forcing players to make every shot count.
• Ramming Always Works: Based on the crime scenes, Baker's gang frequents this method to stop armored trucks off-screen this way.
• Random Drops: Players can select one of three randomly generated perk cards when levelling up (or dying with Baker during the campaign), each providing a useful bonus for the remainder of the campaign (or for the next run). Rewards include more starting money, more cash gained from heists, reduced mission planning costs, improved damage resistance (and damage dealing) for Baker and his team members alike, slowing down Norris' investigation on Baker (giving players more time to complete the city's takeover), more powerful starting weapons, and so on.
• Resources Management Gameplay: CB:RC features a surprisingly deep system in the campaign mode, where you must decide whether to spend your money on new heisters for money-making missions, soldiers for turf wars, attacking or defending districts, buying weapons, or buying decorations to your office that can heavily increase your boss level.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Baker's .357 BOA fills this trope to the letter, easily outclassing any other sidearm in its damage-per-bullet statistics.
• Safecracking: A staple of bank robberies of course, with players being able to crack smaller safes by hand, while using drills for larger ones. When deployed, players can temporarily speed up the drill with the device's touchscreen (or jam it, if they boost its speed too much).

S-Z

• Sawed-Off Shotgun: The game features several of these, most of them being early-to-mid game weapons when it comes spread and damage output.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Runaway has the best stealth stats out of all heisters. She also comes with a default set of weapons (none of them silenced) and an outfit (a skimpy cocktail dress) that are quite impractical for stealth. As GmanLives adequately put it, these issues still don't stop players from hiring her whenever she becomes available during the campaign.

GmanLives: "At one point I hired a chick called Runaway, who excelled at two things: stealth and unresolved daddy issues. And once I had her in my team, sneaking through a heist without getting detected became a helluva lot easier."

• Scripted Event: Most of the heister story missions fall into this category, as they are linear scripted missions instead of random-generated heist instances governed by RNG.
• Secret Room: One of the heists is about stealing two invaluable Mongolian statues, stored in a secret vault of a large bank.
• Shock and Awe: The MO of the game's Taser unit, who can heavily disorient and incapacitate both players and their AI allies alike.
• Shoot Out the Lock: Surprisingly averted. Any locked door we encounter must be either lockpicked with a minigame or drilled.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Played with. While common and uncommon shotgun variants (which are mostly sawed-off firearms) have a limited effective range, long-barrel versions of rare and better item quality can dish out a respectable amount of damage even mid-range.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Again, played with. Common and uncommon shotgun variants in the early game are a worthwhile investment for you and your heisters, as they are an obvious step up in damage from the default pistols, machine pistols and melee weapons that cheap heisters come equipped with. However, once you have enough money to start equipping your heisters with submachineguns and assault rifles, they quickly get outperformed in the field.
• Skill Scores and Perks: You can level up Baker and his entourage via a perk card system, unlocking either high-quality items, better starting conditions, or passive bonuses for subsequent campaign runs.
• The Siege: During one of the random events, Baker and his cohorts must Hold the Line and protect their warehouse full of loot against waves of attacking mobsters.
• Signature Move: Given that Chuck Norris plays a no-nonsense lawman called Sheriff Norris, it's of course no surprise that he shows off his signature roundhouse kick in the game's reveal trailer.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Players can invoke this trope if they replace Runaway's default submachinegun with a large-caliber rifle or a long-barrel shotgun.
• Starter Equipment: Baker starts the game with a knuckle brass and a very effective Hand Cannon. Players can improve his starting gear with the appropriate perk cards.
• The Smurfette Principle: Casey is the only female member of Baker's close entourage, responsible for handling his image and connecting him with the right people of the city's underworld.
• Sniper Pistol: Baker's .357 BOA and most high-level revolvers qualify to be this, as they can reliably one-shot most enemies, as long as you can aim well and handle their recoil.
• Socialization Bonus: Although the game's mini-campaigns (called Urban Legends) can be played solo, with bots, and with other players as well, later mini-campaigns feature such a Difficulty Spike compared to most single-player campaign missions that gathering a full 4-player lobby is practically a must to complete them.
• Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: This can apply to most heists, especially if a random event (such as a gang ambush) occurs.
• Status Buff: Some heisters come equipped with adrenaline syringes as their special item. When using them, it grants extra speed and damage resistance for a short while.
• Stealth-Based Mission: While most heists can be completed either in stealth or going loud, a couple campaign-exclusive missions require players to complete objectives without being detected. For example, when setting up the heist for stealing two prized Mongolian statues, Silver must find and mark the shipping containers in which they are kept while dodging both security guards and office workers without being seen.
• Tempting Fate: When players start the campaign the first time, the story starts with a one-time set of missions and cutscenes during which Hielo hits Baker's drug transport, then boasts his accomplice that he will do anything he can to stop Baker taking over his market. Needless to say, Baker is not impressed by this, and quickly declares Hielo's turfs as priority targets. Gameplay-wise, the game also reinforces Hielo being Baker's Designated Villain by often making his turfs somewhat easier to conquer early-game than those of the other gangs, and indicating Hielo as a hostile gang leader on the map UI (which, however, is more of an Informed Attribute, as gangs with a neutral standing also tend to attack our turfs).
• There's No Kill like Overkill: A couple examples appear during heists on all sides:
  • When defending a turf, Touchdown always wields an M60 light machine gun. Being played by Michael Rooker, it's no surprise that he also shouts a metric ton of badass boasts while at it.
  • Sometimes, enemy gangsters may make use of high-calibre emplaced turrets during missions. Fortunately, we can do the same during most instances of warehouse defense missions.
  • The heavy riot troops of the police (being the local expies of the PAYDAY 2 Bulldozers in anything but name) are the walking law enforcement examples of this trope.
• Time for Plan B: Even if you plan to complete a mission in stealth, expect that certain random events (like rival mobsters ambushing the locale or gangbangers trying to off you) will turn the heist loud every once in a while.
• Train Job: One of the large heists that players can take on both in the single-player campaign and in the co-op compatible Crime Time quick play mode is about derailing and robbing an underground money train.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Due to the Roguelike nature of the campaign and the RNG used during heists, this applies to every mission, especially when it comes to stealth heists.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: This can happen during some of the campaign-exclusive heister story missions, such as Ranger's PTSD-induced nightmares set during the Vietnam War, or Cracker's espionage-flavored assignments (which, among others, involves stealing Russian military jets from snowy military airstrips).
• The Unfought: Although featured prominently both in the game's trailers and in the campaign as well, players cannot actually go toe-to-toe with Sheriff Norris during actual gameplay. He only appears in cutscenes, which - considering how much CB:RC relies on the internet meme status of Chuck Norris - is probably for the better for Baker.
  • The enemy gang leaders can also be this - depending on the RNG, they may escape Rockay City and leave their gang to fend for themselves, should we take over most of their turfs.
• The Usual Adversaries: Being inspired by the crime thrillers and heist action movies of The '90s, it should come as no surprise that the main adversaries of the campaign are:
  • A street gang enjoying rap music,
  • A Mexican cartel (led by Danny Trejo, no less),
  • A Far East biker gang,
  • And The Mafia.
  • Oh, and of course some familiar-looking detectives and a sheriff hell-bent on eradicating all crime in the city.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Occasionally, Nasara finds Baker with some "staffing" issues, such as whether to allow an extended leave for a heister with personal issues, or whether to fire or just reprimand an unreliable heister. While the decisions in these cases have no far-reaching gameplay consequences, positive reactions can slightly boost Baker's image of being a Benevolent Boss.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Although you can kill both subdued security guards and civilians alike during missions, it's not recommended to do so for several reasons. Besides earning less cash (explained away with increased fencing costs), such atrocities also fill Sheriff Norris' investigation meter faster, which, once reaching 100%, results in an escape mission similar to the one played when starting the campaign the first time.
• Villain Protagonist: Baker and all playable heisters are of course this. Even if players aim to play as "clean" as possible (sparing civilians and security guards in most heists), Baker and his cohorts are still responsible for massacring hundreds of gang members and law enforcement officers.
• Villains Want Mercy: This can occur if you weaken an enemy faction enough. When taking over several turfs in quick succession, they might offer you a hefty amount of cash for a temporary cease-fire.
• The Voice: In most missions and heists, Nasara fills this role, acting as the Mission Control for Baker. In some big heists, however, this role is filled by Gloves or Casey.
• We Have Reserves: This is the police's general strategy for handling Baker's gang. More than likely, they were trained using the same principles as their colleagues in the PAYDAY-series.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: During stealth, players can hear security guards mumbling to themselves, often lamenting about their salary or building up confidence to ask for a raise.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Ranger's Vietnam War memories often appear as playable missions. Completing them is required to level up the character, and unlock him in Crime Time mode.
• Zerg Rush: Once a heist turns loud, police presence has five levels, with the threat level increasing with each wave. Starting from level 2, their assault tactics rely on this approach.

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Boss! Are you able to respond?