We all know that Payday 3 has to be a big hit with Starbreeze. The highly anticipated sequel has a lot going on, and the pressure is mounting to make sure it doesn’t trip over the gate. While it’s currently less than a month away from launch, with the game set to debut on PC and consoles on September 21st (even as a Day 1 Game Pass title), I had a chance to dig into the follow-up to the heist. Work and see if it scores well or is botched work.
From the start, it’s clear that the developers have taken years of experience creating Payday 2 and put it to good use in this game. While there’s only a fraction of the characters available at launch compared to where Payday 2 currently stands, the original gang is back and better than ever, thanks to the deep and expansive skill system on offer here. Build crafting options are now less rigid, and built in such a way that you can choose perks that fit both your playstyle and the way your crew intends to pull off the heist. Want to be invisible and silent? Get hacking perks across your entire team. Prefer to build a racket and face hordes of cops? Prepare to fight feats. By switching and choosing between about 100 individual perks, you can create a build that fits the exact situation you’re in.
The most important is the typical depth of weapon and item slots. You can pick and choose the weapons you carry on your heist, then equip them according to the occasion, including grips, barrel attachments, sights, and more. It doesn’t reach the depth of Call of Duty’s current Gunsmith, but there are plenty of options to play with. This is also similar to character cosmetics, which let you change the look of your gang to make each of them feel personal to you.
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As for the heist itself, I had a chance to check out the 99 Boxes mission, which features rapper and avid Payday fan Ice-T as the new contract vendor. The idea here is to break into a warehouse and steal a bunch of material that must be kept below a certain temperature, otherwise it will degrade and lose value. This means you have to go into the warehouse as a unit, find the trucks to store and eventually escape with the substances, then head to the adjacent container yard to find the correct container for each substance. And all while staying undercover, or dealing with hordes of cops when you’ve undoubtedly screwed up something and caught the guard’s attention.
It’s all pretty typical Payday, and from what I’ve seen, the police don’t pose a huge threat to your operations, although that will no doubt vary depending on the difficulty of the mission. Of course, riot shield units are a problem, and the type of enemy that stuns you or stuns you means you need instructions from other players to avoid being knocked down. However, the complexity or strategic depth of the enemy AI doesn’t really surprise me, it’s more of just throwing tons of enemies at you, which means that as long as you have ammo (which can be replenished by walking over defeated enemies), you Probably won’t have too many problems on the job, even with the police threat level maxed out.
Enemies aside, the 99 Boxes heist is a blast, and a perfect example of how easy you can get in and play Payday 3 with complete strangers. The game feels intuitive, and the task at hand is clear and understandable. These quests aren’t Destiny 2 Raids, though I’m sure more complex quests will be available as you continue to follow the story.
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I won’t tell you that Payday 3 blew my mind, but it’s fun. You really couldn’t ask for more from a game that launched on Game Pass and is fully equal on PC and console (yes, no longer behind on console), the developer told me about the future in an interview to watch soon Promise to get me even more excited about the game. While there is no timeline, Payday 3 will eventually be updated to Unreal Engine 5, and then to complement that, there will also be a bunch of post-launch support, as was the case in Payday 2.
Essentially, Payday 3 is the perfect place to start, whether you’re a longtime Payday fan or looking to try it out for the first time this September, so there’s plenty to be excited about when watching this trilogy.
