Payday 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The game originally launched in the Summer of 2013 on Xbox 360 and PC, but this time the studio is back with the same game, updated and remastered for Xbox One. Payday 2 Crimewave Edition offers improved graphics, new content and all previous DLCs. While the game offers a great host of content, there is one major issue and that is, after a full month since launch, the game does not perform up to standards.
Payday 2 is game about guns, crime and of course, heists. The game originally launched in the 2013 period when everyone was anticipating the launch of Grand Theft Auto V for its Heists, and is actually one of the few games that really and truly delivers a great Heist experience. Players can opt to do these Heists by themselves, with AI players or online with their friends. Heists range from bank robberies, to drug trafficking runs and even rigging an election. These Heists range from the smallest of crimes to the largest money-making scams. There play-styles are also highly varied, with some putting a large emphasis on stealth, offering greater rewards for the player.
As we previously said, Payday 2 can be played by yourself, but I found it kind of boring and it’s not something I would highly recommend. There’s no traditional story mode, just simulation of the main game with AI characters. However, when myself and Cameron were playing together, we discovered this way is the way the game is meant to be played. Communication is key and therefore Party Chat while playing is essential. We would consistently plan our every move to ensure efficiency in the execution of our Heist.
Some Heists take place across multiple days, with the build-up, planning, communication and skill being sometimes more important than the final Heist. You can also plan how you’ll pull-off the finale, by casing the location of each job beforehand such as cutting through fences, unlocking and most important, getting in, stealing the loot and getting out as fast as possible. Killing the least amount of people, taking the least amount of time and ensuring the most effectiveness in your take.
Payday 2 also includes multiple character classes with expanded skill trees and these can be levelled up and customized as your earn money and experience from doing Heists in the game. As I previously mentioned, Heists offer you a variety of rewards and money and it can range to huge amounts of cash to only a small sum. Different heists offer contrasting difficulty levels which allows distinction in every job. The game gets mostly interesting once you’ve invested enough hours into the game in order to get better equipment.
Payday 2 Crimewave Edition’s enhancements include over 50 updates. These range from new heists and playing as new characters such as John Wick. It’s a full years worth of downloadable content from a wide-range of missions, covering everything from bank robberies, jewellery store break-ins, security truck ambushes, train interceptions and a variety of thefts. The new heists do add replay ability to the game but the same fundamentals are still found. The game can feel repetitive, it’s just shoot some enemies, grab the loot and get to the vehicle to escape. Sure, you can plan differently, be stealthy, or go all in and shoot everyone you see. These eventually get really tired out and overall, it just gets dull.
The game on Xbox One now runs at 1080p, but still has low quality textures and awkward animations. While you could argue that once bullets are flying and explosions are blasting everywhere you can’t admire the scenery, you can’t help but ask, how come they didn’t take full advantage of Xbox One and PlayStation 4? There not using the horsepower that’s given to them. There’s also no destructible scenery and it really reduces mission impact with you’re trying to purposely cause property damage and the fact that invisible walls are used to stop you, it just makes the game feel unprofessional and down-right awful. Another poor thing is the games AI, from its basic fighting abilities (which improved only very slightly) and even the cops just stand around in the middle of the map and sometimes, it all seems slightly out of place with no real purpose.
However, at the moment, getting to some of these amazing Heist moments can be bit of an issue. Early day matchmaking problems have caused Payday 2 to be a bit of a problem to get online. However, the connection issues are widespread. The game uses Crime.net to match you up with others online, a map which is continuously updated with new open heists, each one with a map, a mission-giver and a mission plus the difficulty level and players already in a lobby or actively playing. After joining, you should be able to just play and have fun and start planning your next moves. Our experience however has resulted in the game crashing, or receiving error messages. While you can invite your friends and play privately, it does mean you can’t hop on to a public game and talk to new players. CPU characters are not fun, they as the AI is not responsive and will not complete objectives. Without a working matchmaking system, Payday 2 is not an enjoyable experience.
When it works, Payday 2 is an excellent shooter. When you look past the matchmaking issues and shoddy team AI, you have what could be a great game. There’s just too many issues in Payday 2 to make it an addictive experience. I expect more from current-generation game and Payday 2 doesn’t serve the need of consumers at the moment. Featuring too many irritations, why spend the money of the asking price when you could save it for a much bigger and better game launching later this year.
^Alan @BeetleComet and ^Cam @CameronMines
Alan and Cam is a shared byline ICXM used for 2 articles co-authored in 2015 covering game reviews. See the individual contributor profiles for the writers behind these collaborations.