Payday 2 is now Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Grab six bags of cash, more if we're feeling confident. That payday better be worth it...
Things hardly ever go to plan in Payday 2, the co-op first person shooter that's (mostly) about robberies. In the ten hours that I've played it, and despite criminal planning, I've yet to pull a perfect heist or mission. I suspect that most players will have a similar experience; the game is definitely not easy.
Before we get into why that is, let's talk about how the game works. Players use a system called "Crimenet," where they can select a number of different missions—some normal, some more difficult versions of existing missions, and some missions that span multiple days. Once a mission is selected, players are taken to a lobby. From there, players can also select a loadout—there are a variety of different guns, attachments, and masks to equip, along with skills and abilities depending on what you choose to spec for.
You can mix and match what type specializations you have, provided you've gained enough skill points from completing missions, although you'll need to invest heavily in specific trees if you'd like to enjoy some of the high-powered abilities. Right now, at level 20, I've unlocked the ability to equip med packs, ammo packs, extra XP gain, amongst other things. Maybe it's a particularly difficult mission, where we're likely to run out of ammo quickly—better take ammo packs! It's your call, although you can't know what a mission will require of you until you've played it a few times and see what's what.
Usually, if you've got a good group going, the idea is to pull off a perfect heist...which means spending time before a game starts denoting who does what and when, along with discussing loadouts. This planning stage is when Payday 2 shines: while shoot-outs are a part of the heist fantasy, a good criminal doesn't have to resort to it, right?
Thing is, there are a ton of factors that can throw a mission out the window. Bystanders will become suspicious if you run around with a mask on and a gun pulled out, naturally. Shooting is noisy. Most enemies are different types of law enforcement, and all seem like just bodies to shoot down. where enemies react dynamically—having dumb AI seems like a particularly noticeable shortcoming.
Setting the game to a harder difficulty will give you bodies with more health to shoot down, sometimes in exasperating, ridiculous numbers (for small-time heists?), and often while you wait for a drill to get through a door. The drilling (or general waiting for something to happen) is not so bad initially (I didn't even notice it) but as you move through more difficult missions, the number of doors you have to drill through/wait for can also feel exasperating. Personally, the shooting felt like punishment that comes from messing up a heist. It helps that there are a ton of great ideas in the game. If you don't kill civilians, the police is more likely to negotiate with you—in practice, what this means is that if any player is downed and then "taken into custody," law enforcement gives you the chance to trade a hostage for that teammate. Beyond that collecting masks—which are collected via random drops, along with money and weapon attachments—feels more logical than collecting hats. Wearing a ridiculous hat or attire while shooting other people? Yes, it's worth playing now to see the neat ideas you can't find in other shooters; it's a great title to pick up to play around with your friends...but I can't help but look forward. Will it have wider variety of missions?
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