When Payday: The Heist came out in 2011 it surprised many with its implacable effort to deliver a cooperative experience at a friendly price point. The truth is that cooperative games have somehow been lost over time. It’s easy to find a game where you can shoot your friends or try to beat their high score, but how about working together for a common goal? Payday: The Heist was a partial solution to that problem. While it presented difficult scenarios for players to work together to triumph, it was rough around the edges.
Enter Payday 2. Its developer, Overkill Software, promised to attack the shortcomings of the original game to deliver a more refined, but similarly focused cooperative experience. Has it succeeded?
Upon starting Payday 2 you’ll be recommended to visit the Safe House which serves as a tutorial and training area. After completing initial instruction you’ll be in the basement which has a variety of interactive areas to practice technique. Interactions range from installing drills to break open safes, acquiring keycards to open security doors, and operating cameras to mark targets. There’s also a vault room where you can physically see the wealth you gather over time. Those who invest a lot of time into the game will be greeted by a room lined with cash.
Heading to Crime.net you’ll see Payday 2’s ambitious version of a lobby. Randomized jobs appear, either with a host or without one signaling you to start a game yourself. Although there are less than a dozen missions, their dynamic nature makes them feel much more substantial. Beyond personnel locations and security equipment being randomly generated for each mission, the levels can be played on Normal, Hard, Very Hard, or Overkill. On each of these difficulties the map changes drastically to include more security and other new obstacles. More importantly, you’ll be given more reward for your risk, assuming you make it out alive, of course. This implementation is one of the game’s finest, and if you enjoy robbing banks enough it will be one of the reasons you can keep playing the same missions without being burned out.
Once in a mission you’ll start in Casing Mode allowing you to walk around the mission area without being too suspicious. You’ll want to immediately scout the location, find cameras, security, your objective, and more before putting a plan into action. Once you slip your mask on the fun begins. You’ll be shouting at hostages to get them on the ground, and taking out on-site security as quickly as possible. If you’re stealthy enough, you can avoid much of the headache of dealing with the SWAT team equipped with tactical armor, riot shields, and more. It’s worth mentioning that there are several enemy types, some of which are very difficult to take down. Stealth is always the best option.
The shooting mechanics lend themselves well to the Payday 2 experience. Firing at invasions of enemies is on-point. Aiming down sight is fully functional. Interaction with objects can be a bit stiff, but everything else feels much more flush than you’d expect from a $30 game.
Once you begin playing the more difficult missions the true spirit of the game will present itself. Communication is a must, so do yourself a favor and get a microphone or gaming headset. That is, if you want to be successful. Delivery of goods to your escape isn’t an easy task when there are dozens of armed police officers firing at you, so you’ll regularly find yourself in a situation where tossing the bags from player to player is the most effective. Once you’ve satisfied the mission’s requirements, you’ll have to make a decision to get more goods for a better payout or leave without the risk. Many times you’ll have that one person on your team who always wants more. Thus is the life of a career criminal.
If there’s one area where Payday 2‘s gameplay falters its with its A.I. If you choose to play offline your teammates will be practically useless. As such, you’ll want to stick to playing online with real people, preferably friends. That’s where the game excels, anyway. Unfortunately, poor enemy A.I. is unavoidable whether you play with a group or not. Although police will invade from helicopter, windows, and secondary routes, they sometimes behave in erratic ways and can be downright stupid breaking the tension of the situation in the process.
As you level up you’ll unlock skill points that you can place in one of four trees. Between the mastermind, enforcer, technician, and ghost you’ll have some serious decisions to make. While the mastermind is a great team leader adept at intimidating enemies and handcuffing antsy civilians, the technician is able to lay down trip mines and set up turrets. A perfect team will consist of one of each, and while there are some balancing issues, they all serve their role well. You’ll also earn money from missions that can be spent on a variety of inventory items. For one, you can purchase a new primary or secondary firearm and tweak it out with a sight, foregrip, or one of several other accessories of your choice. You’ll also be able to purchase the masks you unlock through a lottery system after each mission. These masks can be customized in a variety of ways to make your character look unique to you.
Payday 2 presents itself relatively well with functional but not optimal menus, and graphics that are dated but do the job. The game is far from hideous, but you won’t be quick to take a screenshot of the game to show your friends. Audio is also good but not great. The voice acting stays true to the spirit of a game with criminals and bank heists. Music erupts when tense situations occur making the atmosphere even more chaotic.
As you play more your character will become more potent and you can realistically think about tackling the game’s greater challenges. These are where your team coordination and aiming precision will be infinitely useful. But once you can finish these levels with a reasonable success rate, you’ll quickly fill your vault full of cash and have an arsenal that makes you feel like Terminator. You really don’t want to attempt these missions if you aren’t confident you’ll succeed, though. The pay for failed missions is almost nothing, which can prove a headache if you have a bad stint of being grouped with unhelpful teammates. Once again, play with friends.
It’s risky to release a game that’s completely dedicated to the cooperative experience in today’s climate where most gamers either want a meaningful story experience or online competition. However, Overkill Software’s desire to bring players together has proved successful. The tones of Payday 2 might appear serious with frightening imagery and violence, but hidden beneath its mask is a fantastic cooperative game. For those who enjoy communicating with teammates this is a game that will push you to take risks like the developer who made it. It’s still a bit rough like its predecessor, but many players will be able to overlook that with its $30 price tag.
Jonathan Leack is the Gaming Editor for CraveOnline. You can follow him on Twitter @jleack.
We received two review copies of Payday 2 from Bender Helper Impact for PC. We were held to the embargo date of Tuesday, August 13th, 2013.
