Payday 3 Is A Rough Diamond
Intro
After over six years of anticipation. Payday 3's Early Access launch was at least for me an unforgettable Experience One Marathon stream lasting over 14 hours, 50 levels of infamy grinded out, and full completion of both the new story mode and every single launch host on Overkill difficulty.
First impressions
I had an absolute blast.
In my experience, the game runs incredibly well, looks drop-dead gorgeous in places, and the only bugs I have come across are the good kind where a cop rag dolls just the right way. However i'm not under the impression that this was the experience had by all, and that does need to be addressed in matchmaking.
Still doesn't seem to be entirely functional with people needing to join on me directly instead of just finding lobbies the PS5 version was straight up busted apparently, a non-functional beta bill was uploaded for Early Access by Sony with only the tutorial highest playable which sounds like a classic miscommunication, between parties and whilst that has been fully addressed now I can only imagine how frustrating that was for PlayStation players and it's cool though paid 83 is already a magnificent hosting experience that blows its predecessors out the water in terms of sheer quality and game feel and whilst it holds just a fraction of payday 2's current content scope 10 years on it has a lot of room to grow from even better foundations than ever before let's.
Jump into the positive and negative elements from my first 20 hours with the full release first. I want to start by running you through each of the eight heists in the game on launch, as I feel like I should explain the basic premise of each in the first impressions article. Course we start with the SCB bank heist this one was playable in the beta so you know the drill here not much has been changed although there have been a few tweaks with how the Vault works it's still a perfect introduction to the game's mechanics and stealth and Loud though acting, as a post tutorial and a perfect springboard into larger jobs this one is contracted by shade and has an easy initial section in the bank itself before ramping up massively on the wide open Escape next we move on to road rage contracted by none other than City of Gold xiau, this is The Game's only loud locked heist with the stealth portion effectively being a setup phase allowing to take hostages and prepare the route you'll be taking along this very green bridge-looking setting this is an evolution on the classic Armored Transport Heist robbing a gen set truck this time for base metals used in modern tech.
Road rage
In essence, it's a massive improvement on the escort mechanics from Payday 2, with the crew empathizing with an electric vehicle and hacking into it to move it as they see fit, but only when a gang member is in close proximity.
Rock the cradle
On from that one there's a complete change of pace here with rock the cradle a crypto Heist and a nightclub from none other than Vlad Kozak I think this will be many people's favorite Heist from its cyberpunk and John Wick s music and setting to its impressively sprawling layouts and very interesting objectives in both loud and stealth this one scales really heavily in Overkill with bouncers becoming more competent and making things much more difficult the, interior layout is impressive and goddamn the moment you change the music you will get a good laugh I also like that the objective of the host changes completely as soon as you break stealth with shade pivoting to instruct you just to steal as much of their cash and Coke from the vaults hidden within the VIP section of the club as possible the, loot shift is clever and much better suited for loud leaving me surprised this hasn't been done before under.
Golden sharp bank
Host is very traditional, especially if you choose to go loud, and does possibly show its age as the first heist ever built within Unreal Engine. However, these stealth objectives are some of the most intense and involved I've ever seen, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with a classic thermal drilling vault break in it.
If anything, this one just provides the perfect playground for Showcase PayDay 3's new combat mechanics. Even if the objectives aren't that deep, carrying a mouse bag is still a bit of a pain, but it's all worth it when the heist opens out onto the rooftop for an impressive cascading standoff during the final charge.
This one is an instant classic. Boxes is the penultimate heist in the storyline, introducing some brand new mechanics to the game in stealth and Loud. This one is segmented into a warehouse and shipping yard section, with both offering their own challenges depending on the approach. It really hits a crescendo out by the titular 99 boxes, where spawns start to get crazy and you find yourself constantly flanked and without The High Ground platforming.
It becomes the name of the game here, which can get a little clunky at times, leading to some accidents, but hey, the house loot is intentionally discreet, and it doesn't feel right to criticize the sperm bank after all these years. We have my favorite launch Heist to touch the sky this is a massive hit on the penthouse with absolutely glorious views and atmosphere as probably the most Close Quarters Heist at launch it's a blast for his loud shotgun Enthusiast with fairly creative spawn logic to make the most of the limited playing area I adore the objectives on this one as you've sent ping pong game back and forth without multiple fires in order to actually steal the hard drive with, so many layers of security almost becomes a parody of the genre stealth, is also a black on this one with the highest dense population but small size lead to even greater intensity than usual requiring solo players to mask up immediately and .
Gameplay
Quite immersive heist fantasy payday 3 has managed to capture cop AI, which is tremendously improved. I found spawn patterns to be competitive but fair, and their reaction to being shot at is super satisfying, with more consistent stunning mechanics making Gunplay even more fast-paced as you move from Target to Target to keep them all occupied and prevent them from firing back.
