Welcome to our review of Payday 3, the third game in the bank heist game series and it is promising to be even better than before!
Payday 3 is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, Payday-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That’s what makes PAYDAY a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.
Step out of retirement back into the life of crime in the shoes of the Payday Gang, the envy of their peers and the nightmare of law-enforcement wherever they go. Several years after the crew’s reign of terror over Washington DC has ended, they assemble once again to deal with the threat that roused them out of early retirement.
The legendary Payday Crew, dreaded by the law and underworld alike, is back. Ripped from their peaceful retirement to rejoin the criminal world by a new threat, one born from the chaos the Crew left in their wake.
In order to identify and crush this new threat, the Crew is leaving their Washington DC roots behind them and moving to New York City. A new location will bring with it new challenges, but also new opportunities for a heister with a plan.
Give outlet to your greed and let loose in Payday 3. In addition to gold, cash and jewelry and any other valuables they might come across, you’ll be able to build a sizable collection of weapons, cosmetics and accolades.
It won’t be as simple as showing up and gaining goodies. You’ll have to work hard and plan smart to get away with as much loot as possible. Gain experience, unlock new skills and gain proficiency in weapons to steadily grow your power to handle the tougher challenges.
A professional heister knows it takes planning, hard work and a good amount of luck in order to execute a successful heist. In Payday 3 the choice is put in the hands of the players, deciding how to tackle the heist, whether you sneak or go in guns blazing, whether you let your hostages go or keep them around as pawns, whether you go at it alone or bring friends. The choices are endless and in your hands, they will vastly change how the game plays.
Not just anyone is worthy of standing at your side for something as important as a heist. Likewise, Payday 3 is best enjoyed with close friends in mind, whether you bring them from your childhood or make them along the road. The Payday-series has always valued the bonds made through hardship and tries to reflect that in the actions and words of our heisters while in the game, and through our community while on the outside.
Payday is one of those series where you have 2 choices, find a team (or get lucky when the game teams you up with random strangers) OR go at it alone! I played both and both types have been seriously hit and miss. In the first game ever, I played solo as that tends to be my preferred way of playing, and boy, I was not prepared for that! I got killed in my first mission.
Despite killing off hundreds of cops trying to take me down, be they heavily armed or snipers up on a roof, slowly but surely they chipped away at my health, rendering my healing useless. This was almost done to perfection that it felt like I was good at the game, but not good enough to really shine and be the bank robber I wanted to pretend to be.
Slowly but surely I became aware that despite my better-than-average skills at defense, I was no match really for the game, even at the normal modus. I just could not get enough cash to pass the level. Was I disappointed? Heck yeah, I have been playing tons of shooters and never once dreamt I would come short in a game on its first level in my first try. I do like to think I am better than this.
But my luck changed when I got teamed up with better players, no diss on the NPCs, but they were not reliable enough, half of the time, they just followed you around instead of also taking on missions. That was the advantage of suddenly having a team at my disposal. While I was holding down the stairs and taking out the incoming swat team, they were breaking into the vault and securing us with cash to finish the level.
When I went down, they revived me and I did the same for them like some sort of perverted love story about honor among thieves. It all just made sense and we were not even voice chatting. Imagine this game with a mic and a team you are accustomed to… This would be one of the best teams and it might even outrank the Tom Clancy’s and everything.
But aside from the good fun I had, there were also a few minor points that deserve due critique. Aiming at a sniper far away, sigh, what a pain in the ass. The aim is usually off and not very precise, I missed so many bullets, it was at times annoying.
Next up, entering the lobby was more than not lagging, not reactive, or playing the wrong movie/intro on the timeline. I had one instance where it refused to react to suddenly start playing the movie with no less than 4 audio streams (all the same) on top of each other, each with about a second of 2 delays. That was fun – fun – fun – fun (not)…
In conclusion, Payday 3 is a fun game to play in the fashion they intended it, with its lower price point, they sure as hell also opened up the game to many more players worldwide and I really recommend giving it a try, for now, I am scoring it at an 8, but I am sure once they iron out some of the issues I had, it might even go up to 9/10
