Payday 3 preview: pulling off the perfect heist with friends is still pure chaos
Starbreeze has crafted a familiar but great-feeling iteration on its Payday formula, which sees the old gang reunite in this online co-op heist-em-up.
The objective is clear (as it always appears to be): get to the warehouse, steal the precious tech and try to make it out alive. As is almost always the case with most sessions of Payday, though, things very rarely go to the plan. The same is very much true of Payday 3, the latest in entry in Starbreeze Studios’ collection of gangster heist simulators, which I got to go hands-on with an hour-long preview during Gamescom 2023. And while there’s an air of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ to the upcoming sequel, it’s still a unique online shooter that sets itself apart from the Fortnite and Call of Duty clones of the world.
The mission I got to play in my demo was called 99 Boxes. You’d think this would have prepared me for the fact that a lot of searching would be involved, but both myself and the other three people I played with still largely approached the situation with a gung-ho attitude. This was made abundantly clear when, soon after being dropped off outside the warehouse located near the bank of a river, one of our own almost instantly pulled their masked down and brought out a gun.
It’s a little bit annoying, since Starbreeze Studios is said to have slightly tweaked the way players are able to approach stealth this time around. For obvious reasons I didn’t get to see this play out. That said, going all guns blazing right away is likely more representative of how most of these heists will go. Soon after invading the warehouse, the cops were called, and what followed was a mad dash between searching for potential crates (amongst piles of the things) in a bid to find the tech, and booking it back to the starting warehouse where we had to try to pack it all in a truck and then vacate.
Obviously Payday 3 is the type of experience better played with friends as opposed to strangers, seeing as communication is of the upmost importance. I think a large reason why the scenario kicked off so poorly is because that was severely lacking. Eventually, however, we grew to talk more as the heist rolled on, naturally taking on roles like the lookout, techy and bagman amongst the four of us. Fortunately the game wasn’t so punishing to reward our lack of awareness and experience with a complete mission failure.
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One last job
I remember briefly playing Payday 2 back on PS3, so expectedly I was impressed after seeing the sequel run on a modern PC rig. Gunplay feels snappy, the weapons themselves carry a good sense of weight and feedback, and there was very few framerate drops even in this closed preview session. Alongside communication, utilising the unique talents for all four gang members is still of the upmost import – not least because health and ammo is almost always in short supply.
Starbreeze Studios isn’t directly talking about the reasoning for original gang members – Chains, Dallas, Hoxton, and Wolf – coming out of retirement following Payday 2’s conclusion. Whatever the narrative motivation, the 99 Boxes heist offered up a different dynamic compared to the traditional bank stick up series fans will be familiar with; and the move from Washington, DC to New York City is sure to provide fresh ground for the crew to cause havoc in. The new setting is also a great excuse to make Payday 3 a full-fledged sequel as opposed to a glorified DLC.
The last game received post-launch support for over 10 years, and at present Starbreeze Studios has committed to at least 18 months of updates for Payday 3. The new game will most certainly match the lifecycle of its predecessor, given that heisting alongside friends and roleplaying bank robbers still proves just as fun. When you throw in the fact that it’s currently being built on Unreal Engine 4 but there are already plans to re-release the game on Unreal Engine 5 later down the line, there’s plenty of reason to keep up your crime spree far beyond Payday 3’s September launch.
In my demo, I barely scratched the surface with regards to each gang member’s specific abilities, the customisable loadouts available, or the way they have the potential to impact in each heist. All I know is that, in the moment when things go awry (or even when they don’t) Payday 3 feels familiar in a good way. The basic formula of how missions play out is largely the same, but it’s the chaos that occurs in between with friends, and how you react to it, that's primed to make for some memorable play sessions.
By the end of the 99 Boxes heist me and my crew managed to get away scot-free, but not before holding off what felt like the entire New York City police force once we’d set the precious tech away, reached the getaway vehicle and got out of there.
It was a messy mission, but one that was stuffed full of cinematic moments that were created organically in real time. I came away feeling like I could pull it off better the next time I tackled it with friends.
Payday 3 is set to release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC this September 21, 2023 and will also be available day one on Xbox Game Pass.
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