PayDay: The Heist PC Review

[wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=””]After seeing many trailers for this indie game it caught my eye and I had to give it a go. The game was developed by “Overkill Software” the company behind the game “Storm”.
The company consists of a mixture of industry veterans to freshly graduated specialists and have their own approach to the workplace, “not an elite design company but a true inspired gameplay machine. It is OVERKILL at its finest.” is how they describe themselves.

PayDay: The Heist is a Co-op First Person Shooter which puts you in the place of a notorious band of thieves, there are 6 scenarios for the player to enjoy from robbing a bank to stopping prison escorts and escaping jobs gone bad.

The Game runs smoothly and has simple mechanics, similar to the way “Left 4 Dead” plays out, you select a character and follow through with the mission, doing several interactions on the way to completion. The game graphically looks fairly impressive for what it is, there are a few animations that can look odd at times but on a whole the game looks nice.

When it comes to explanations and help the player is pretty much out of luck, the game gives no clear explanation on what to do or how to do it, you are just dropped in the game with an objective location highlighted faintly.

Little things that you can do to help the missions easier for example taking out the cameras in the bank heist, are not made clear until you shoot one by mistake and realise that it makes a difference. The same can be said for the menu and levelling system, there are no explanations into how the system works. They are not hard to get a grasp on but for some casual gamers they may just see it and not bother with it.

 There is an upgrade system in the game which could have been explained in the game but it is not hard to understand once you start playing. When you play you have a choice of 3 roles

1. -Assault
2. -Sharpshooter
3. -Support

Each class has its own bonuses and unlocks so it is essential to play as all three at some point to unlock everything. There are over 140 upgrade levels so it is fairly time consuming but they all serve a helpful purpose in game.

When playing with friends the upgrade system can make all the difference depending on how you play. For the more serious players who actually start to think like criminals and want to have jobs with a good success rate and minimal casualties, the upgrade system gives many unlocks to aid in certain jobs. Players can decide to be medics, ammo dispensers and even hostage holders.

The way you decide to play really defines the outcome, this really is a Co-op game and shows it all the way through. I have found that playing with other people is highly enjoyable when you all have a specific job, screaming at each other over the headset about cops with riot shields or needing ammo or a medic, giving out orders and locations.

This game really does capture the idea of being a criminal very well and gives the player in my opinion a very satisfying feeling when escaping the mission alive and with good timings and strategies.

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[wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=””]There is also a Challenge screen which shows you in game challenges you are currently doing and ones that you have completed. These challenges are quite basic, kill a certain amount of cops with the chosen weapon etc. They all give you experience points as a reward on completion.

There is a single player option. This puts you through the same missions but with the choice of having team AI. Single player is playable to a certain extent but I wouldn’t recommend buying this game to play alone, the team AI are extremely frustrating at times.

The only reason I would suggest playing single player is for quick and easy levelling and learning the maps and locations of objectives. Playing with Team AI can be from my experience really irritating. I found that at times the AI would run off to wherever they please, which is not a fun thing to experience when a new wave of police forces is right at your front door. This is one of the few ways I ever get taken down into the “bleed out” timer.

When in the “bleed out” timer this is where the fun begins with the team AI, they all scurry to your location to try and get you back on your feet. This often ends up with them either being taken down into the “bleed out” timer with you or even worse getting arrested.

In this case I often leave the team AI behind and just have them as a temporary distraction while I get the job done, however this is when the most glorious enemies in the game decide to go straight for me, which enemies are these? yup that’s right the ones with tasers.