In an age of multiplayer titles getting axed mere weeks after launch (Luna Abyss, Concord), a potential wave of studio closures in view, and other demoralizing news, it's oddly uplifting to see a game like Crime Boss: Rockay City enjoy continued support. Granted, said work would be better used elsewhere, but there's no denying Ingame Studios' wherewithal to push ahead; and unlike previous DLC – Dragon's Gold Cup and Cagnali's Order – Auction House is the team's first paid expansion for everyone. An important consideration, especially in the context of everything else that's been added for free. Though the $5.99 final bid doesn't seem so bad, looks can be deceiving.

Taking a price decrease from the previous two expansions ($7.99 retail) also means a simpler value offer. It wants to exchange pseudo-campaign missions and a throwaway mini-narrative for one big heist. The Juan León Auction House is holding a bidding war for three ornate eggs. As evidenced by advertisements around the building, their collective history adds as much value as the brilliant gemstones adorning their shells. You're here to steal them, along with any other valuables that can fit in your duffel bags.



Between this and more recent title updates, it signals a correct move away from the confused hodgepodge of campaign, roguelike, turf battles, and so on that were awkwardly smashed together in Cagnali's Order. Here's a job, get the goods (by any means), and get out.

It's also one of the best representations of Crime Boss' Miami-lite. It doesn't have the complexity of Cagnali Industries' headquarters, but it's not inundated with garish purple neon and other goofy sci-fi elements mixed in a vat; conversely, this isn't as simplistic as a two-story apartment by the beach or yet another outlet mall with some rental cops. The Juan León is its own unique spot: a sturdy, two-story block building with sun-damaged decorative masonry, clay roof tiles, open-air courtyard, and other vintage touches. Imagine a disguised drug outpost on The Intracoastal for one of Scarface's lieutenants and you get the idea; a quintessential example of old Florida money that could just as easily be a small museum or a front for laundering money.

Of course, a brand-new location also means Ingame can't rest on its laurels. After being apprised of the situation – metal detectors before the interior courtyard, drill hidden near some scaffolding, etc. – it follows the multi-tiered heist routine. Even the establishing shots exhibit a layout that seems more demanding than the typical bank. There are several infiltration points, but also plenty of guards, civilians, and security cameras to manage. Practically all surface area besides the front and inner courtyard are restricted to you, so it's important to learn the broad strokes of patrol patterns and whatnot.



Intriguing as this new place may seem, there's one key issue: Crime Boss itself. Granted, a two-year gap since its previous expansion has seen some results. Small polishes to locomotion, shooting, and more are obvious to those with prior experience (especially its rough iterations at launch), but it's not as though these systems have been thoroughly remodeled. Stealth doesn't seem to have old bugs where certain enemies could spot you through walls, but it nevertheless remains a simple equation of gaming suspicion meters, bonking people on the head for their immediate surrender, and subsequently herding them to a discreet area. Detection essentially relies on line of sight, so everything devolves to the lowest common denominator: staying low and spamming slide between cover until they reset. Rinse and repeat.

One quaint nuance is how to open the display cases without tripping any alarms. A convenient notice written on a whiteboard (not as a collectible) corresponds specific alarm boxes and circuit lines to each display room; moreover, each time you tinker with them, the security team receives a call from their alarm contractor. Although it's important to answer those calls, the third time you snip any wire will bring the police over – although they don't immediately suspect you. Again, not revelatory by any means, but it feels that way by virtue of being the only thing to not rely on yellow objective markers.

Whether intentionally planning to do so or after breaking stealth's three-strikes rule, taking a guns-blazing approach requires helping a coke-addicted hacker circumvent this security system. So, on top of managing waves of police while guarding him, your team will have to trip breakers, grab keycards, and whatever else to unlock those egg cages. Though recent tweaks make shooting less dreadful, padding out its runtime with this dopey jackass constantly complaining gets old fast. The developer's mindset of dumping enemies – some even materializing a few yards away – continues unabated; and given its rather lackluster AI, about the only thing Ingame could do for higher difficulty levels was more cops that throw more grenades. No sense of coordination, no dynamic flow that compliments level design, just continual waves of cannon fodder until you escape.



Perhaps the oddest thing about Auction House is releasing it so close to Crime Boss' latest title update – ostensibly considered Version 2.0 by the team. Though some upgrades and balances trickle over to this expansion, most emphasize the main game and previous expansions with a new story mode stripped of distracting rogue-lite elements, a new discount Horde Mode map, and a new heist for free. Even if said heist, Hell's Kitchen, doesn't reach this level, one can't help but ask: "why put down extra money?" At least only the host is required to own it in order for tagalongs to play.

Stumbling upon an open server by chance can still happen, yet that aforementioned question hangs over its head. For whatever shit that can be slung towards Cup or Order's many faults, they still had varied content. And since it's possible to complete one stealth and one action run in less than an hour here, a $2 reduction below its precursors doesn't cut it; moreover, even after considering its straitened budget and free goodies, this comes with an asterisk: weapon and character packs ($4-$5 retail). Whether or not they're "pay-to-win" by definition, immediate access to great variant guns and perks that would otherwise require extra time to unlock is anti-consumer. That alone fundamentally harms any accumulated goodwill from continual updates.



In the end, Auction House finds itself in the inverse situation of Crime Boss' previous expansions. After providing early buyers with free supplementary content to temporarily paper over foundational cracks, now recent updates that address some concerns seem more worthwhile than throwing extra money towards a single heist. It's as though Ingame Studios is correcting homework from three years ago while the latest group project is dropped out of the blue with little care. That may increase the main game's value, but certainly not its latest DLC.

Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, TechRaptor, and Cubed3! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.