PAYDAY: The Heist

8.5 Overall Score
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 10/10

Great shooting | Interesting stages | Fun co-op

Dated graphics

Game Info

GAME NAME: PAYDAY: The Heist

DEVELOPER(S): Overkill Software

PUBLISHER(S): SOE

PLATFORM(S): PS3, PC

GENRE(S): First-Person Shooter

RELEASE DATE(S): 10/18/11

Borrowing heavily from films and other games, PAYDAY: The Heist is an online co-op shooter where the player controls one of four criminals in various crime heists.  You play as Hoxton, Wolf, Chains, or Dallas, and wearing clown masks, break into a bank, rob an armored car, and do various other nefarious things while gunning down hundreds of police and law enforcers.

That was basically the most bland description I could write – and it is entirely true.  On paper, this is a boring Left 4 Dead clone that rips off Michael Mann’s amazing movie Heat, steals masks from Point Break, and has an homage to Die Hard in one of its stages.  But turn on the game, and it all comes together so well that you’ll forget about the ugly graphics and lack of a storyline.

The game plays out as an objective-based map.  For example, you’ll need to subdue a bank manager, get his keycard, rob the vault, and escape.  Of course, there are hitches in the plan – cameras tell LEOs where you are, you’ll need a drill (that jams all the damn time), hostages need to be dealt with, and you’ll need to pray that Sam Fischer doesn’t show up (he will).  Cops get thrown at you, and with a varied and interesting leveling system, you can dispatch them with all sorts of weapons.  Start out with the basic assault rifle, but keep working and you’ll get a machine gun, or massive 12-gauge shotgun.  There is definitely some fun to be had in the heists as well – and not all of them are robberies.  One has your crew kidnapping a former associate and escaping (including setting fire to his van, hilarious).  Another is the Die Hard stage, with your crew taking Hans Gruber’s place – infiltrating a skyscraper and stealing the diamonds while a party commences on the floor above.  The heists’ variety is pretty wide, so if you get tired of one there are others you can move to.

Online play is sharp and consistent, with crystal-clear voicechat.  Adding in other players can help with objectives, but the AI does a fine job soaking up damage, and is quite responsive to helping live players up when they’re injured or arrested.  The AI won’t help with any objectives, though, so you’ll have to man that drill all by yourself.  But when you need a bullet sponge with unlimited ammo, they do in a pinch.

Although the menus and character design are quite pretty, in-game characters and setpieces can look a little dated.  There aren’t a lot of hostage animations or kill animations, so you’ll really get used to the bad guys (good guys?) falling in a heap.  Bodies disappear eventually, but at least they don’t vanish right in front of your eyes.  However, the objective in game is almost always helpfully highlighted, allowing easy navigation to your next move.  This incredibly helpful feature is great during the game’s big shootouts, where graphics can get muddled and everything slows down.  But all the characters have a sameness about them – there are only a few character models.  Occasionally you’ll run in to an FBI agent wearing a cap instead of a ski mask, but that is usually the biggest difference in people.

The audio of PAYDAY really shines, though – this is an extremely good-sounding game.  The main four guys’ voices are easy to differentiate, they have a wide variety of lines, and even have some off-the-cuff humor.  Steal a sapphire, and one says “I’m going to put this in my grill…”  Run into a dozen bank guards and one will shout, “what, they got a bulk discount on these [guys]?”  When shouting to each other, the four will sometimes call teammates by nicknames, adding a tiny but very interesting touch to the backstory of these four.  The fifth man, your fixer Bain, has quite a personality as well, and you’ll come to enjoy his sick sense of humor.  Heavy guitars and bass-lines keep the blood pumping during heists as well, but they never get too loud or overpowering.  You can always hear your team – decidedly important in a team-based shooter.

One thing to note, though.  This is a very mature game, in content and sound.  As a career criminal, you are killing hundreds of cops, robbing banks, setting things on fire, making drug deals, and cursing.  Oh, the cursing – there’s a lot of it.  The cursing fits perfectly with the tone of the game, but if you’re sensitive to language or content, this may not be the game for you.  Might I suggest Journey?

When it comes down to it, PAYDAY is a hell of a game, though.  Solid shooting, great co-op, a rewarding leveling system, and interesting heists make this a good choice for any fan of shooters, or anyone who wishes they could be Tom Sizemore’s character in Heat.

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Author: James View all posts by
Dangerously fat. Twitter: @hypersaline