Payday 2

Wait ... payday 2? what about the first one!?

Well put simply Payday, is quite long in the tooth now. So I skipped straight to number 2. to get to the juicy review...

CLICK HERE

there's a little pre-amble before I get to the review proper.

The Payday Premise

The whole idea behind Payday, is very simple, it follows in the same idea as Left4Dead, the players, of which there are a small number in any game. Limited to 4 persons per game, find themselves faced with a high volume of enemies that  must be violently dealt with in order to succeed.

These enemies are in theory limitless, so you can't simply kill everything, and then move on, instead, players have to find ways to maximise their in game characters effect and work with other players in order to be successful with a good outcome.

In payday, the roles of protagonist and antagonist are somewhat reversed, the players find themselves in the role of professional thief, and the hordes of enemies are the city police which attend their crime scene. the idea being that the players must complete a heist obtaining the best payout possible, while defending themselves and resisting arrest.

Pure Escapism

Let me stress that this game is all about a little fun role-play, we all as children would play cops n' robbers yelling bang at each other running about like lunatics, and this game allows adults to experience that once again, albeit in rendered 3d with surround effects. 

None the less this game is probably one abhorred by the groups that insist (to the contrary of studies) that video games promote violence and parody of in game events, but that's not what this review is about... I wanted to recognise this detail, but not argue it out here and now.

There's even a little in-game reference to this real-world complaint, just check out this screen capture!

Cops n' Robbers

The new Payday 2 expands on the first game, which I found to be great fun, now it adds extra layers of stealth, tactical planning and character skills which aid the team as a whole. there's a diverse selection of weapons to acquire and modify with 'bonus' items and a nice little touch whereby your 'robbery mask' can be modified to how you'd like it to look.

One of the core and most recognisable parts of Payday was the fact the characters all wore clown masks, and now, players get to repaint, and design their mask (or alternative masks they may find) to bring a rather nice level of personalisation to the game, making the player more involved.

Graphically, this game hits the marks, to paraphrase... it has good depth of focus effects and adequate texture / model handling to maintain an engrossment in the action without breaking the fourth wall. the player is 'watching' from a 1st person perspective and everything that happens visually really melds well.

I've seen a few blip's and glitches (such as warp-factor 9 police officers, and the occasional FBI agent that can phase through solid objects) but the game is still in beta at the time I write this, so there's plenty of room for loose ends to be tied up.

The sounds, well as is the way with any well budgeted game these days, there isn't anything I can fault, it goes bang pop and whiz as is appropriate all keeping the immersion intact.

Grab Some Friends! Get To Work.

This game is all about the co-op, the AI partners absolutely stink, but the whole idea is that you get together with your pals and have a blast, the harder difficulties require a well formed group that can all work in sync really pushing people to work together and not playing the lone-wolf style of play.

Sadly some of the 'drop in' players seem to treat this game like it is call of duty or some other equally forgiving game, but this game is not forgiving, and I like that.. not only is it possible to fail, it's highly probable. That is why I love Payday, you have to play hard, to achieve the rewards, nothing is given to the player... If you want to earn big cash, you're gonna have to work for it.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5

Audio 5/5

Gameplay 5/5

Features 4/5

Weighted Score: 90%

Fantastic Encore
of a game I already appreciated for it's approach to co-op gaming, this adds so much to make it even better!