Payday 2 Review
Developer Starbreeze / Overkill Software
Publisher 505 Games.
Platform PC, PS3 and Xbox360
Release Date Out Now.
Payday was a digital download that first appeared in late 2011 and straight away caught my attention. It was a little rough around the edges and reminded me a lot of Left 4 Dead with its 4 player Co-Op gameplay style. But it was the setting that was the most interesting part, bank heists. Anyone with a love of good heist movies will instantly connect with this game. The heist setup, the execution and the inevitable shoot out with the cops. Payday 2 builds on that base while adding a lot of new features they have stayed true to the original.
You access your heists through the menu system or as it is called in game Crime-Net. The way heists populate are random and you may not always get one you are interested in. Sometimes you have to carry out the lower end robberies to clear them out of the system to get a bigger bank job to populate for you.
Within the heists themselves there are changing variables that keep things interesting. The cameras are in different location, security is different even the vaults can be moved or you can be met with vaults continuing another vault that required doubles the time it takes to break in.
Pro jobs are effectively the same but you have only one try to complete it, if you die or screw up you don’t get a second shot at it but the pay out at the end is much bigger to factor the risk. This adds to the replay ability of the game while not being overly tasking of the dev cycle.
As the name suggests it is all about the Payday and completing heists successfully ensures you get paid. Whilst the majority of the take is secured in offshore bank accounts you do get a portion (roughly 5%) to upgrade and buy new weapons and attachments with.
After each successful heist you get an opportunity to randomly pick a card that will unlock extra parts, money, masks and other items that allow you to customise your crew. You also gain the traditional XP that can be used on your skill tree to build your criminal talent.
Some of the skills have no immediate use but rather it is building to something further down the line they only thing to be wary of is cost of adding attachments. Putting a silencer on your gun for example costs you money, if you take it off you don’t get any of that back but you are then charged again to re attach it. It is something to be conscious of.
Overall: While it might lack the polish of a triple A title it makes up for this in the fun department, especially if you have 3 other buddies that can join your crew as the AI can be a bit useless.
For the money to enjoyment ration this game comes fully recommended.
SCORE 4/5
