Payday 3 Review: Magical!

A few years before the frenzy brought by Casa de Papel and many after Ocean's Eleven, in 2011, Overkill Software with the support of Sony Online Entertainment started a franchise that was to accompany us for years. Payday: The Heist was then only available on Sony's PS3 and PC. After the success it achieved, Ulf Andersson made sure two years later to bring Payday 2 to all platforms, which in connection with the rich content which he offered managed to establish the series. The second chapter succeeded together with its DLCs, to accompany us for almost a decade. The design of the levels, the various heists and the gameplay, they created a title with huge replayability, with many of us spending early mornings planning how we should move in each scenario in order to get maximum loot. So our expectations for the third title in the series were high as you can imagine. And we were disappointed.

Our odyssey started with good morning. The title requires always online conditions, and to allow us to "enjoy" it we first had to create a Nebula account. Without exaggeration, this process ate half an hour of our precious life. When we managed to do it, faithfully following the steps suggested by Starbreeze, we could not login with the credentials we had already attached. We had to repeat the process from the beginning with different usernames and passwords so that we could finally connect. Of course somewhere there we already regretted taking on the review of this title. Of course, having played several hours of Payday 2, there was a hidden hope that the game's content and gameplay would be worth all this trouble.

 

 

Without any particular thoughts, we chose a character and entered the tutorial to learn the mechanics of the title. Move, jump, crouch, shoot and reload in a prefixed training environment and complete the tutorial... or so the development team leads us to believe. Without any information that our training includes other chapters, the game takes us to the main HUB, and it is left to us and to divine luck to select the tutorial option again to see that there is additional, and important content inside it. Let it go to the seven good of God and the Virgin I thought, let's finally see the game. Trying to matchmaking with cross-play option disabled… result? Me along with three other bots on my first heist in Payday 3... mission failed. The first encounter has to do with a bank robbery. I'll go right back and try again. This time I was luckier finding another human player. Without in-game voice communication being possible (you can always go into the process of creating a party) we managed the ultimate "bun". With our patience already being tested, we decide to activate cross-play in case we find our health. After a few tries, and with fellow robbers quitting mid-mission without any repercussions, we finally find a serious group with which we manage to complete the objectives and escape with our pockets full!

Back to the main menu and through the XP we have collected (from failed and successful missions), we have available skill points which are placed in perks that become available depending on the level we are at, unlocking new features and upgrades. No weapon, no clothes to be cooler we will buy with the money we got? No. And here comes the first major difference from the previous title. Get ready for crazy Diablo 4-style grinding. Well we thought, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the plethora of missions that follow are addictive. We monitor both video that are in between each mission, which are alternating static images of a noir aesthetic and try to introduce us to the rudimentary scenario of the game, and we prepare for the second mission called Road Rage. The goal here is to breach and dismantle an armored remittance vehicle, with the option of a stealth approach being rejected by the mission itself. 777 matchmaking, and the mission comes out with the first one. Nice level design, creative objectives, the loot in the helicopter and off we go! Let's mention here, that what you have to do several times is not clear, just as the objective markers are not clear either. Back to the game's main hub again, we check out the next two videos, and somewhere in there we get the bright idea to scroll right to see how many missions the game still has. In total we count eight heists, which we can do in any order we want. Somewhere in our hearts we hope that completing the 8th will unlock a new mission pack. Rebuttal was not long in coming, as was our disappointment.

 

In terms of content, the third continuation of the franchise would be described as poor. The title bases its replayability on the various difficulty levels that exist and on the various challenges that are available requiring us to complete each heist at specific difficulty levels and with different approaches. Note here that completing the most difficult and demanding challenges is the only way to unlock the latest and greatest upgrade tiers for your character. So if you don't have a dedicated group and enough time at your disposal, we consider it almost impossible to achieve something like this. Unless, of course, you are lucky enough to find yourself through matchmaking with an experienced group and carry you to the end. A matchmaking which, however, makes us suffer, giving us the impression that it is completely random, without even taking into account the potential of the players it brings together. It would also be ideal if there was a quick play option, so that we don't wish every time that there is an available gamer who wants to play the mission we have chosen at that very moment. The AI ​​bots are limited to shooting and reviving, while the opposing AI is not characterized as particularly intelligent, with this weakness often being hidden behind its firepower.

In the area of ​​gameplay as well as in the areas of sound, graphics and physics, things ran smoothly during our playthrough, without facing any problems. The physics and our interaction with the environment when the gun starts are straight out of an action movie. Walls and furniture are destroyed, flyers fly through the air from the crossfire, and there's generally a bit of mayhem once you don the mask and the carnage begins. The gunshooting is pretty good, especially when you manage to level up your guns and buy upgrades for them. , becomes enjoyable and addictive. The graphics are definitely not next-gen but they move at a decent level for the type of game.