Retirement? In this economy?
It’s hard to think of another game that really nailed its niche more than Payday 2. Launching way back in 2013, Payday 2 has had a frankly wild amount of paid (and free) DLC content served up over the ensuing years by developer Overkill Software. Sure, there’ve been misteps along the way with broken promises and the whole safe and drill lootbox system, but community sentiment has remained extremely positive for its lengthy lifepan.
As a consequence of that, few sequels have as big of shoes to fill as Payday 3. In the ten years since its launch Payday 2 has accrued more than 80 DLCs on Steam – ranging from heists and masks to weapon packs and of course different heisters themselves. Famous faces like Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Ethan and Hila Klein and even Tony Freakin’ Montana all feature as playable characters. Payday 3 presents a fresh slate though, shedding the 10 years of bloat and offering a suite of reworked systems, new heists and tougher enemies to stop you in your tracks.
Flyin’ fast as a shark
The backbone of the Payday experience is, of course, the heists. Payday 3 is launching with eight on offer; each feels distinctly different despite unavoidable similarities – there’s only so many ways to crack a safe, after all. Things start off small with a pretty stock standard job you’ll be familiar with already if you tried out the beta.
A regular old bank job, “No Rest for the Wicked” is as Payday as Payday gets. A stock standard bank, a straightforward security system and a bunch of security guards who’d really rather you didn’t break open the vault and loot all of its contents. Keeping with Payday traditions, things kick off quietly. You’re given a lot more freedom to get your heisting ball rolling this time around in the fleshed out casing stage of your heist.
No longer are you required to mask up to get things under way – now you can pick locks, hack phones, carry bags and even complete entire heists without putting your mask on once. Maps are now broken up into different area types too, with guards, cameras and even civilians treating you differently depending on which one of these you’re in. Set foot in a public area? Nobody could care less what you do. This is America after all – freedom reigns, even for the guys open carrying M4s and clown masks.
Set foot in a private area though and things start to get more interesting. While civilians couldn’t care less (freedom), guards and security cameras will alert to your presence, and you’ll find yourself cuffed if you’re too careless. Finally there’s the secure areas – nobody likes it when you’re in those, and things will go 0 to 100 real fast if you’re caught here. Of course stealth only ever lasts as long as you want it to in a Payday game, and should you choose you can mask up and get the party started right away.
Guys, the thermal drill…
The eight heists on offer are loosely strung together by a handful of short story videos that serve to reintroduce us to the gang and get to the bottom of who dragged them out of retirement. Payday 2 wrapped up with the gang amassing a vast quantity of wealth ready to kick back in a well-funded retirement. Payday 3 blows that all up. Literally. The story is… well it’s there. It’s serviceable schlock, but it’s not going to win any writing awards.
When things do inevitably go loud – as all good heists always should – then you’ll find yourself relying on the American version of man’s best friend. No I’m not talking about some cute doggo or pupper, instead you’ll be packing some lead slinging implement to reenact your favourite scene from Heat.
Skipping right past the cosmetic options (of which there are some microtransactions, naturally) customization falls largely in 2 places – Guns and Skills. While there are dramatically fewer weapons available than in Payday 2 (naturally) what is on offer covers the full gamut you’d expect. You’ve got pistols, shotguns, assault rifles and SMGs all just awaiting to be unlocked and customized to your hearts content. Gone is the old random mod unlock system – thankfully replaced later in Payday 2s life. Instead, you’ll be levelling up weapons to earn foregrips, larger magazines and scopes.
All of the tinkering with weapons and masks will feel largely familiar to series veterans, even if it’s now wrapped up in a slightly better package. The real dramatic overhaul comes to the way you choose to build your heister. Perk decks and Skill trees are no more, now blended into one system simply known as skills.
Dodgin’ a sparrow
The skills are what you’ll use to define your playstyle, and range from simple weapon handling buffs to ways to stack the three main buffs on offer to players: edge, grit and rush. Edge gives you a slight damage buff, while grit lowers the damage you take. The final perk, rush, lets you run slightly faster. Combining these three together, and using synergies to keep them up, is supposed to be an essential part of building a successful Skill set.
Notice though that I only said slight? That’s because these buffs offer a measly 10% increase – hardly even enough to save a bullet on regular Cops. In Payday 2, we were veritable gods thanks to our perks and skill trees, mowing down thousands of first responders and strike teams. Now though? Skills are just a set of “nice to haves” that offer some okay passives that leave you wondering where the fun has gone.
Look, I acknowledge Payday 3 has huge boots to fill. With the sheer amount of content Payday 2 had, Payday 3 really needed to either hit it out of the park with its system redesigns and launch heists OR have a good amount of content on offer. Right now, it has neither.
Instead what we’ve got is a skeleton. A backbone for the devs to build off of and continue the titanic success that was Payday 2. Two or three years from now, Payday 3 will be chock full of new guns, heists, heisters and masks but at present pickings are very thin. The perk system is underwhelming but the gun play is fun and the challenge – something long since lost in all but the hardest of Payday 2 content – is there.
It’s an easy recommend for series fans, just don’t expect it to be the lumbering behemoth that was Payday 2… yet.
Payday 3 is available now on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PS5; it’s also on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
Payday 3 was reviewed using a promotional code on Windows PC, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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Payday 321 September 2023PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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