Payday 3: Update 3 Is Daylight Robbery
Update 3 for payday 3 is finally out and when I say finally I mean about a month sooner than I was anticipating, as it appears as if that solid live service update Cadence has now been achieved, just a week and a half since I was digging into the Legacy Heist I now have a brand new Mainline narrative DLC Heist weapon pack and cosmetic set to sink my teeth into syntax eror is a fairly sizable expansion containing a fully-fledged heist that brings new mechanics and is already competing to be the best stealth and loud heist in the game simultaneously.
As well as three new weapons all of which feel viable and fun from my initial testing, outside of all the DLC stuff this update also brings with it a new powerful skill line to buff tools especially the previously underpowered ECM Jammer an expansion to the armor system with the addition of armor repair kits and a set of much needed newly purchasable Mass cosmetics, and remember you don't need to purchase a DLC to try out the new Heist, just join a friend's Lobby when they host it like in Payday 2 admittedly I still think the system needs work to be as accessible for the community as it once was with the addition of a proper crimet style Heist browser being a great first step that I'm still campaigning for and this one is great for special edition owners but godamn you'll be wincing at the Shelf price in any case sit back relax and enjoy my review of update 3 and the syntax era.
DLC let's start with the new Heist review shall we as we pick up on the Bad Apple campaign, likely center around closing in on John Concord, the last remaining anti- payday conspirator who we've just found C of our Boy Lo is actually the exco of murky water he now owns a defense contractor named treaty who are linked to the Drone Tech the gang intends to steal on the syntax era Heist from this I'm happy to announce that Lo is back in the gang properly I was wrong about his role and I'm now excited for the direction this story is about to take most of you though will be much more interested in the actual mechanics of this Heist, the setting is top tier Hunters Point a built-up commercial District surrounded by Greenery that houses the scry digital offices a data storage firm protected by wix's Cutting Edge AI security system under the acronym sins, known to its friends as Johnny.
As we stepped down from this New York setting and into the bowels of the data center, we exchanged that urban office environment for a colder, more high-tech setting with distinct lighting and a highly metallic sheen. One thing I found this Heist to do incredibly well was progress between its settings to vary up the gameplay and Visually Drive the direction of the heist in essence it's three Heist rolled into one an office takedown a data center breach and finally an urban park firefight, this is probably about as close to a multi-day heist as we're going to get for the moment as each environment feels truly unique giving this Heist a much more expansive feel to it running through the objectives if you choose to go loud immediately you'll need to breach your way into the basement storage area whilst fighting against the ai's constant disruption once inside you'll need to locate a red key card which is probably the only part of the objective Loop that's poorly signposted, to gain access to the sins control center needing to shut down the disruptive AI before you can access all the server rooms for decryption.
Johnny is fully voiced and managed to give off these 2001 Space Odyssey vibes that I really appreciate, meaning it feels like you're actually fighting against an intelligent AI instead of just hacking terminals. As you try to enable shutdown protocol it will struggle against you forcing the gang to disable its cooling systems to shut it down for good this is an excellent back and forth and the Close Quarters combat area is a ton of fun to play around in with cops swarming from all sides, it's around this stage in the heist that techies the new enemy unit will also start to spawn in creating even more chaos as soon as they do as the drones are more than just a little bit of a nuisance flying over cover requiring more accurate aiming to take down and generally acting as a threat that needs dealing with ecms or the Scrambler line can help with this allowing you to take them all offline for a period or convert them to your side but I'd still say that seeking out the techie will be your first priority, as soon as you see your screen start to glitch and flicker indicating they're nearby.
Unfortunately, escape from this heist is a microcosm. Of the whole Payday 3 experience, tons of potential were poorly executed. I love that you blast your way out to the surface, heading into this densely populated and picturesque-looking park, with the objective changing to clearing the park of cops conceptually.
The problem in my eyes is that this bar takes an age to fill and the cop spawns are miserably slow, meaning instead of a fast-paced final charge that gets the blood pumping, we're left with a lousy holdout that far exceeds its welcome as we stagger to victory.
The intensity just isn't there at all, in my opinion, but if it were added in the future, this has the potential to become my favorite exfiltration sequence in the entire franchise. Moving on to stealth. I think they've almost nailed the payday 3 formula with this one casing mode, which can still be used but isn't massively overpowered as you'll need to work out a way to reach the upper floors of the front officers, both to turn off the metal detector and locate the keypad code.
You can use Vents QR codes or just a bit of GU to get this done, enabling simple access to the lower floors. Once down there, you'll be greeted by sins and the stack servers. Instead of going directly for the AI, you'll need to work around it by finding different ways into the separate areas. This can be as simple as scanning a QR code, but it can also mean climbing up through the vents to drop down inside them, extending platforms with metal parts you found within the heist, and hacking them open individually.
