Developer: OVERKILL
Publisher: Starbreeze Publishing AB
Genre: Online Co-op, Action, FPS.
Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: August 13, 2013
A big Thank you! from the Vivify team to all of our Patreons who support us and voted on which game you would like to see reviewed!
Where to start with this...
I'd like to say the story but when you think ''PAYDAY'' You don't really think about epic story lines and massive buildups to the Last Boss.
Instead you think more about the story of why you're in this bank with 12 people crying on the floor as you fire your plethora of weapons over the top of their heads while your friends work on that timed lock behind you. It's to get your well deserved Payday, Why else would you be there? YOU'RE THE PAYDAY GANG!
(I have to note, they have added story missions to the game although they're more like a getting started tutorial from what I've seen.)
But in all seriousness, this game does have some elements of story based around the missions you acquire throughout your time playing if you're willing to listen to some of the extra dialogue from your contractors or from Baine while you're still scouting out the cameras and security.
Each one has you focus your eyes on a specific target, whether it be a small low key security convoy or a large scale national bank and it even throws in rescue missions and drug trafficking all while your contractor discusses the reason why you're there and Baine talks your ears off and forces you to wait while he gets the same recipe to your liquid gold backwards EVERY TIME! because he can't remember what he's just read out to you 5 times...
Most of them just have you lugging bags of loot from your target to a strategically parked van or grid located somewhere nearby though.
Anything for money, Am I right?
And to help you along with these risky excursions, as you progress through the game you'll unlock (or purchase rights to through DLC) heavier and heavier weaponry and attachments to hold back the ever overbearing army of Police who have been hunting you down relentlessly throughout your shenanigans.
Even when you're running down a massive crime syndicate the police will still always be right behind you wanting YOU and YOUR CREW behind bars because... well, you've killed all of the gang members and took all their loot anyways so who else is there to arrest?
It's not always like this though. if you're willing, patient and have a knack for flinging yourself past a guards line of sight without him even noticing you were there then you can hit up most missions in stealth so you don't have to deal with the never ending assault. (This is my preferred approach.)
And if you're extra fancy, you can even hide most of your victims without needing to use your limited supply of oh so precious body bags. You just need the Judge or the Locomotive, a nice big suppressor, some quiet time and a keen angle.
You don't have to though. Loud and Proud is a viable option too.
I forget the most important part about this game though. Your Mask!
You can't do a flashy show without your all important identity obscurer now, can you?
Masks are your form of identity! You pickup colours and designs to make it your own so when everyone looks at you they know that it's you. (The name above your head tells everyone who you are as well but that's besides the point...)
This item also starts off the heist so as soon as all hell kicks off, the mask goes on and you're squad then prompts the stealth excursion you all planned for without a plan or just straight up rains down the Poliocalypse on you.
There's a fine line between being a Master Thief and a Criminal but if you have the perfect mask then who cares, right?
Now, I jumped back into this after a couple of years of downtime to see that quite a bit has changed.
I was pretty into this game back in the day and there's been some recent changes since I last played so I'll give you a simple run down for those who are in a similar boat.
(If you're new to it then no worries, nothing will feel different.)
They've modified the Safe house so that you now have a larger Safe house which can be upgraded instead of the old hidden basement vault and equipment storage/training area. I haven't actually looked around it properly because personally, I prefer the old Safe house, so I just had a quick glance and that was about it.
You have 2 floors and a basement where the money is kept in a flashy new vault (Because I guess we didn't have the space for all of our accumulating offshore anymore.)
There's special missions which are based around defending said new Safe house and it's contents from waves of police now and they pop up randomly as you play as well as new heists to play in general. (You can always just dump this on your crew and go do other stuff though.)
A butt load of new characters including the most recent ones, Ethan and Hila from H3H3Productions
New difficulties, so if Death Wish wasn't enough for you then they now have Mayhem, Death Sentence and an added One Down mechanic just in case you're a masochist.
And they've also changed the main Crime.net front page a bit too so you can more easily identify each Heist and who's offering the job. Though for me, it all just seemed a muddle because I was used to the previous Crime.net layout.
I was quite excited when the Infamy 2.0 update was released and a few new characters and heists were added to the game but this time coming back to it was a bit jarring, There were quite a few differences which threw me off but I think that's mostly because I wasn't expecting that much change.
Oh yeah! They've also updated the opposition somewhat so that they have a full lineup of the ZEAL Police as well as a more up to date and fresh design.
Anyways, moving on since I did say a quick rundown...
I'm a big fan of Payday. I played PAYDAY: The Heist as well and enjoyed the heck out of it.
I still enjoy PAYDAY 2 as well, having old school heists and so many places to rob is really satisfying and even more so when you have a group of friends to come and join you.
But I just think there's too much in it now. getting all of the achievements now is nothing but a brain killing grind which, in my opinion, isn't worth ruining the fun of the game for.
if you pick it up again or buy it first time then I'd just say focus on the game play aspects and you'll have a blast, it's the best and personally, the only good part of the game.
I just wish they would have made a PAYDAY 3 with a lot of the newer heists and characters in it instead of cramming it all into their current game.
I don't think they needed to add anymore difficulties either. I like the One Down mechanic but I don't see much point in Mayhem and Death Sentence. the initial 5 were enough IMO.
Seeing a wall of achievements for stuff you can do is nice but at the same time when it just keeps going it gets tedious, especially with how many they've added due to the new difficulties and challenges they've thrown out there.
There's now 1087 achievements to be had!
I just think it's a bit too much now, y'know? especially for new players or people who have been out of the loop.
It's a good thing they want to keep making the game bigger but 1087 achievements? Really?
Overkill, Just make PAYDAY 3! you're wasting all of your new idea's on an old game instead of having a nice, new, shiny one to build them off of.
The game barely even resembles PAYDAY 2 when it first came out which in some ways is good but in other ways, I just don't like it.
I'm not going to complain about every little thing though because the game play at it's core is really fun and the more people you have to play with the more enjoyable it is, even with some exploits and janky mechanics. (which can be quite fun anyways.)
A game worth still playing or even picking it up if you haven't already and for £7.49 for the base game or £15.17 for the ultimate edition, it's worth giving it a go.
All in all, a really fun game but has enough achievements and content to cover several. (which could be quite good depending on how you look at it.)
(P.S. Yes, I got all of the screenshots from Normal mode because I didn't want to go through the hassle of doing OK or DW for 6 screenshots...)
See you later.
Rhiyous.
Comentarios