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Payday 3 (PS5) Review

Payday 2 was one of those games I played a lot during my PS3 days. It was a simple game with a simple premise and an even simpler overarching plot. As you know, I was mostly a gameplay person when first entering the more advanced side of gaming, so something like it fit squarely in that slot. Sure, a story exists, but I can tune that out and go on a heist. Payday 3, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.

Payday 3
It’s all about the money.

Straight Outta Washington DC

Payday 3 sees the OG crew back together to continue their life of crime after a brief bout of retirement. Rekindling your old contacts and forming new ones during this time as you move operations.

While its precursor used Washington DC as its backdrop, we move onto a new city to call home — New York. With these new contacts, including two new playable characters — Joy and Pearl — we’re greeted to something of a nostalgia hit. Except we’re not, there’s no Safehouse to act as a tutorial, instead, we’re thrown into a warehouse to relearn everything.  

Front of Secure Capital Bank, the obligatory bank heist.

Optimization NOT At The Ready

I was going into it with tapered expectations as I’m not a huge multiplayer guy. One of the biggest drawbacks is the lack of an offline mode, something that 2 had. That’s right, this game’s an always online multiplayer-skewed experience. Now, I prefer single-player adventures that can be enhanced by multiplayer but are not required to play them. And sure, you don’t have to play in public lobbies, you can go with invite-only or private lobbies, but still, playing online has its drawbacks.

I played it around launch and while I faced no issues, it did have a lot of server downtime, perhaps they didn’t expect as many people to hop on, but with an online-only game, you should expect a lot of people are going to be on 24/7, especially since this is the latest entry in a rather beloved — albeit niche — series.

It does face the live-service issue of releasing a handful of heists with the promise of more to come.

Aiming down sights, readying for the cops to show up

Police Assault

There’s a reason I was always a go-in-guns-blazing kind of person when playing its precursor — I was horrible at stealth then, and I still am. I’m too cautious and almost always overestimate how good the AI actually is at detecting my movement or illicit activities, leading to getting caught quite a bit.

Overall, Payday 3 plays exactly like the others, scoping the area, stealthfully planning out your attack, and mask up when you’re ready. Unlike 2, though, stealth seems more viable as different areas of the map affect how people interact. 

Public areas are for the public, so as long as you aren’t doing anything illicit, then cops and security won’t bother you. Private areas will have security escort you out and warn you not to enter the area again. Meanwhile restricted areas may lead to a more aggressive altercation.

I almost always went in almost immediately and started blasting security guards, tying up hostages, and heading to the goal as fast as I can, letting the AIs do the shooting.

Payday 3 is a noticeable improvement in a fair few areas outside of stealth — the shooting feels less janky, and the additions of some modern movements like sprint sliding are a welcome feature. It’s also great to see the game move on from the internal game engine to be powered by Unreal Engine 4.

Holding hostages in Ashton Fine Jewelry.

Smells Like Bacon

One of my biggest gripes with Payday 3 is, overall, the game lacks enough innovation to strip the offline play. Perhaps it’ll be a future update, but we doubt that. It’s always seemed to want to be a multiplayer-focused game and with this wave of live-service dribble, this is Starbreeze’s chance. The game itself feels like it discourages you from using the one workaround to soloing a heist. 

When entering an invite-only lobby and letting it run its course, you” be able to play the game with AIs. The problem is, it feels rather unfair when you rely on the AIs as opposed to your Friends list or randoms looking to play that same heist. You are everything, you’re the one who stuffs the bag, you’re the one who sets the traps, you’re the one who sends hostages out to bide time before the police go in, guns out. I know this was the same thing in previous entries, but I wish Starbreeze allowed the player to mark and order an item to be picked up.

Considering all the improvements made, including making the gameplay loop more rewarding because of the skill tree and all that, it doesn’t seem like an overly complicated request. Besides, it can’t just be new heists to keep people engaged, sometimes you wanna hop into a heist and play it alone to see what it’s like.

Shooting at police, defending drill in Gold & Sharke

Final Charge

Payday 3 is an improvement to a triad and true formula Payday 2 instilled — a formula that keeps you coming back for more. It plays both sides — wanting people to keep stealthy while giving players the option to make it more difficult by going in guns blazing.

While I had fun rekindling my love for Wolf, Hoxton, and the gang, it’s just a modernized rehash of the same heist simulator we knew from a decade ago. As good it may be, it suffers from the live-service issue of a lack of content and an uncertain roadmap.

You can buy Payday 3 on PSN here.

Developer:
Starbreeze Studios
Publisher:
Deep Silver
Genre:
FPS, Live-Service
Release Date:
September 21, 2023
Final Rating:
6.9


Payday 3 To Explore Offline Mode Possibility

Starbreeze, the developer of the embattled first-person shooter Payday 3, says it’s are looking into making the game less dependent on their online services.

While the game does offer a single-player experience through specific means, the game requires the player to always be online, but so far, it has run into “unforeseen” technical issues.  During the game’s opening weekend, it had a peak of 1,347,510 players, but Steam reviews have not been favorable, with 66% of players giving it a negative score.

Starbreeze has attributed the situation to an unforeseen error due to the number of players, causing an issue for its third-party matchmaking partner. Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren referenced that it’s was looking into some sort of an offline mode over on Twitter, before the statement’s release.

He has acknowledged that they have lost trust within the community and emphasized that they have a lot of work to do.

Payday 3 launched on September 21, and the developer has pledged that DLC for the title will be released at a later date. A further round of changes designed to improve the title’s performance is scheduled for today. 

“Starbreeze is currently evaluating all options, both short- and long-term. In the short-term, this means Starbreeze’ focus is to ensure the player experience. In the long-term, this means evaluating a new partner for matchmaking services and making PAYDAY 3 less dependent on online services.”

What do you think? Have you played Payday 3? Are you enjoying it? Let us know below!

Payday 3 Lives As Dev Signs Agreement With Koch Media

Payday 3

Many games find themselves stuck in what people in the gaming scene call Development Hell. This term refers to games that are insistent on still existing even if nothing is really revealed or seems no closer to release than the last time it was uttered. This was the case with Payday 3.

Made by Starbreeze, a studio that’s got one foot in Death’s door, found it difficult to find a publisher for its third installment of the established IP. Now, it’s looking bright for the game’s future as Koch Media has stepped in to co-publish and fully finance the title.

Koch has pledged just shy of $60 million to aid in both the marketing and development side of things. On top of that, part of the deal is guaranteed support for at the very least 18 months.

This partnership is much needed for Payday 3. Initially revealed in 2017, its significance got lost in the fray of all the restructuring done from selling subsidiaries to postponingnot canceling – Overkill’s The Walking Dead, and even laying off staff.

This game could truly make or break Starbreeze’s future. At this stage, it’s sounding like we could finally get our hands on Payday 3 sometime in 2023.

What do you think? Are you happy to see this franchise get more attention? Tell us below!

Overkill’s The Walking Dead Possibly Canceled

Overkill's The Walking Dead

The road to Overkill’s attempt at making The Walking Dead-themed co-op FPS hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. Overkill’s The Walking Dead was supposed to come out this month. Well, it’s the tail-end of February now, what gives?

Doing a little digging reveals a Reddit user who put up a post on the r/OverkillsTWD subreddit. The post was simple: a picture that showed an automatic email sent from Sony. The email was detailing how they refunded the user’s PSN wallet because the publisher of Overkill’s The Walking Dead told them it was canceled.

Sadly, this might not come as a big surprise to observant people. The game was delayed until February 2019 last month. To be fair, it wasn’t telling at the time. It certainly didn’t help that the game also didn’t do too hot on the one platform it did release on; Steam. The reviews were lukewarm from a total of over 2,000 reviews.

As of right now, neither Overkill nor Starbreeze have responded to the post.

What do you think? Did this news make you disappointed? Are you surprised by this news? Tell us below!

OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead Postponed For Console Stability Review

Overkill's The Walking Dead

OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead has seen some hype with character announcements and trailers. It was originally going to release to consoles on November 8, 2018, but that didn’t work out. It was no big deal though, and they promised to have it out by February 2019. Now it appears to have been postponed once again until further notice. This announcement was made on their corporate website as a little note.

Starbreeze has decided to postpone the release date from its original February 2019 date, further information regarding the future release will be announced at a later date.

The entire reason behind the postpone message was due to them reviewing the stability of OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead on consoles.

The announcement may or may not come as a surprise as the company has not had the best of luck. Starbreeze has gone through reconstruction and was forced to sell their VR initiatives. The overall stability of the company has proven to be shaky. But, nevertheless, they have stayed true to wanting to make this game happen.

What do you think? Do you have any faith this game will be good? Are you fearing for the worst?

Brothers Creator’s Latest Effort “Hasn’t Been Done Before”

Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares received plenty of recognition and acclaim with last year's digital cooperative effort, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons .

The well-received game allowed developer Starbreeze to turn a profit and now, Fares says he's working on something new. In fact, despite all the innovation and originality we've seen in the industry over the years (especially in the downloadable/indie realm), the new project is just that: New.

Here's what Fares told Digital Spy in a recent interview:

"I'm moving on to the next thing. I have my next idea ready, it's super cool. It's very different. I can tell you this–if I tell you the idea now, you'd say, 'I haven't played something like this before'. I can't tell you more. But definitely something that hasn't been done before."

We always like to hear about future freshness in gaming, and Brothers was a definite winner. Of course, originality doesn't mean much if you can't execute; frankly, there have been plenty of new ideas out there that most people don't even know about. And they don't know about 'em because the games in which they existed sucked .

But Fares and Starbreeze know what they're doing, so we're hopeful.

Related Game(s): Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons