Welcome to our review of the action-packed game called Payday 2, out now on Nintendo Switch!
When this game got announced, I got very excited, being mostly a Nintendo gamer, I missed out on a variety of big hit games and Payday 2 is no exception. When it originally released, all consoles got their share of the game except the Wii U. At the time, that was my only current generation console so it goes without speaking that I was delighted to see the announcement this game was coming.
Starbreeze Studios was so kind as to provide us with a review code for coverage purposes and I gladly accepted the task of finally playing a game that I had heard great things about.
As I mostly play handheld and single player, this will also be the basis for my review. Let us start with the basic storyline for those unaware what Payday 2 is all about, all about getting paid by robbing banks and breaking the law.
Payday 2 is an action-packed, four-player co-op shooter that once again lets gamers don the masks of the original Payday crew – Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains – as they descend on Washington DC for an epic crime spree.
Payday 2 comes with full touch screen menu support, and a newly developed rumble feature that responds as you, for example, fire weapons or throw grenades. There’s also an added local multiplayer mode to the CRIME.NET – called CRIME.NET Local Play, that will make you able to set up a local game and invite friends that share the same local network. Finally, Payday 2 comes with an exclusive character called Joy who’s initially releasing only on Nintendo Switch™ – complete with her own mask and weapons.
It is your task to rob banks, take out anyone and anything that is in your way of a big payday! At first, you are tasked with retrieving a single item. For which you need to infiltrate a building, you take out the guy guarding the place. Pretend to be him so his friends don’t show up and eventually get out again without getting caught! This game is a rush on the adrenalin side.
As I never played the game on another console, I can not really compare it visually, but I can say this game looks very stunning in handheld mode. The graphics look very crisp and I loved every aspect of it. Did it sometimes look like it was flaking out? I heard other people say it did when there was too much going on on the screen, but frankly speaking, I never noticed this. When there were like say many enemies in sight, I was too occupied making sure I lived or did not get arrested. That is how immersed I became into this game.
Storywise, I was really into the game, having a dull real life myself as a sales advisor in a computer shop, becoming a heist master is something completely out of my comfort zone and I loved every minute of it. Despite being a very bad one, as quite a few innocent bystanders did end up losing their lives because of my inexperience.
It became clear very early in the game that a rush and attack option was just an option for a few select levels and that most of the time, you need to properly plan ahead and listen to what you are being told. An aspect that I learned pretty quickly, example given, is to reload after taking down someone. There is a surprising level of depth to this game and it tests not only skills, but also patience, luck and sheer perseverance.
There are some minor downsides to the game when playing in handheld, you need to really listen to what is being said or you are stuck with very small text, a remark I have made quite a few times in the past. I get that ports cannot be completely redone in order to incorporate text that can be read more easily, but yeah, when text is too small, it is too small. As a test, I did go into TV mode to compare and I had zero trouble there. Fair is fair and it needs to be said I only had this issue in handheld mode.
The game also has touchscreen support, which is easy for browsing the menus but I mostly did not use it during my gameplay. It can be a clear advantage for those who like these kinds of gaming.
In conclusion, I am really glad I got to try out Payday 2, an intense journey into a gaming world almost unseen on a Nintendo platform. Having been raised with the idiom that crime does not pay, it sure did for this game and the 80% rating I am bestowing it!
My rating stands at 80%.
