Quick Look: Payday 2: Crimewave Edition

Payday is best when played with 4 friends on hardest difficulty.

I'm bankin' on this being a good Quick Look.

Man I thought this was Crimecraft edition

I can barely mask my excitement.

@darklink6849: Agreed. The multiplayer aspect is absolutely key. I have no desire to play regular FPS games anymore, but I played more than 20 hours of this on PC with friends and random people, and I still want to keep playing. It is so much fun with others.

I like Payday a lot but wow, that version is broke.

I hope they talk about the broken matchmaking.

Edit: They're playing the PS4 version which seems to matchmake fine, on Xbox one the matchmaking is completely busted

I dislike when games are all progress bars and countdown clocks.

The Ai doesn't look to hot though , maybe it just can't take the heat.

On the hardest difficulty when youre facing bulldozers and 5 sam fishers at the same time, youre grateful for the horrible ai.

Woof. This was pretty rough.

Wait for a sale, when you can get it at a steal.

I've never really played Payday 2 but almost anyone I know who does will always be in co-op.

Hold Button While Circle Connects With Itself: The Videogame

Middle class takes on vans.

Wish Jeff could have shown off more of the heists.

I've never played a better drill fixing simulator in my life. Seems like PC is still the way to go with this game as this version of the game looks pretty outdated still and it's usually going on sale for pretty cheap.

I wish the steam refund system was in place when I bought it.

This is pretty much the kind of game that needs to be shown off by people who know the game. They are right that there are problems with the game, but it is still pretty damn fun when you play it with some friends. Doing the harder maps stealthy is always fun, and you can do more "Heat" like stuff than just "go in and shoot like crazy". That said, I play on PC, don't think I'd ever play this on a console.

I’m going to preface this comment by saying there is a fair amount of jank in this game, however there is a reason that this game has been and still is supported and popular. The biggest part in that is that this game HAS been supported to shit by Overkill who add content at a blistering pace that is all unique and fresh. Some of the heists they added are: Shadow Raid (a raid on a mercenary compound all in stealth were you’re stealing war trophies and stolen artifacts), Hotline Miami (where you are going through an apartment block cooking drugs then trying to hunt down a drug kingpin in a Judge Dredd style high-rise death trap complete with a Hind-D chasing you), and finally they even added missions to the game where you need to drive an escape vehicle. With all those fresh and interesting maps it leaves me a little disappointed that Jeff decided to showcase one of the blandest bank heist maps from the base game (note Dan stating he had played it already when he played Payday way back) and wasting an opportunity to show off why this collection of all the DLC’s even exists apart from the extra weapons and weapon mod’s added (of which there are many).

For people who are going to give this game a try (despite how unappealing this video may have made the game look) know that this; despite what Dan was thinking about communication in this, is a game where teamwork and communication are key. The level of difficulty in which Jeff was playing despite being called “hard” is one of the easiest difficulties in the game where enemies might as well just be brain dead ducks at a shooting gallery (Pro job does not denote difficulty it means you have one chance at completion and cannot restart the contract however you get more money for completing the heist). At higher difficulties like overkill and deathwish teams who don’t coordinate are going to get absolutely wrecked. The AI moves in very calculated patterns and is much more menacing because more police units show up to stop the heisters that bring some diversity to how the action unfolds, such as shield units moving in a phalanx with taser cops behind them to cause a lot of chaos.

As I stated before it’s rather janky that at lower levels cops are complete idiots and the full suite of crazy cop units (including an A.P.C. now) don’t show up. If you have any interest in playing this find some friends you can communicate with and try and play at a somewhat higher difficulty and coordinate your butt off, maybe even try and do some stealth options on heists as they can be very fun and challenging (as well as paying more); many people think that the stealth mission are the best in the game. Hope this gave a better look at the game than this quick look did for people interested.

Keep on rambling ramblers.

I think this reflects my opinion of Payday 2 pretty well. It's a cool idea and it's pretty fun for a while but I really hope the next one gets one or two passes through some Starbreeze devs.

You play Payday with AI partners and you're gonna have a bad time.

I played a little of this on the PC. I didn't much care for it and it made me feel like a bad person.

I've always wanted Payday to be something it's not. What I want is that elusive Heat-style bank robbing simulator but most of what these games are and how they have evolved with numerous DLC releases is just non-stop heavy wave-based survival action. Actual smooth and stealthy robberies are a rarity, even with a solid team of communicating friends.

I do like a lot of their styyyyyyle though. Even if it's a lot of style over function.

The last Payday 2 QL had awesome comments (especially from YouTube, but hey its YouTube). So far I am 5 minutes in the QL and I can't wait to see the response to this video

Payday makes a lot more sense when you think of it as L4D but a bank robbery

Payday 2 Crimewave Edition: "...Fuckin' what?"
- Jeff Gerstmann

Sam Fischer?

Am I wrong or is the ai on the pc a bit better? I remember it being a lot harder when I played it.

I've put 413 hours into this game on the pc. You can sink a lot of hours into it if you have a group of Friends who will play with you. The team mate AI is not good at all. They can be handy at times since they are bullet sponges but in general they aren't that great.

Like I said a couple years ago when they played the original release of Payday 2, they do this game no justice. This game might as well be online only because single player isnt the way to play. Its like playing single player in Left 4 Dead. I just wish they would stop selling this short.

It's a great game and tons of fun when you play with a group of people. Sure it has some jank, but it's a solid experience.

Looks bad.

John Wick is fucking excellent.

I think Jeff's criticisms are all pretty valid, but I still love Payday 2. It's like the crime-themed Killing Floor; the AI are intended more as fodder or creeps than complex player-like AI, with certain specialized enemies having abilities such as instant melee takedowns, tasers, etc. The player is intended to mow them down easily and only be overwhelmed by numbers or special enemies.

It's super-janky and a lot of elements are not clearly communicated, but that's a good part of what makes me love PC games. ...I just had a strange moment of clarity for why console gamers don't bother.

Friends + Getting Over The Initial Barrier + Extreme Difficulties = Really fun and addictive

AI + New To The Game + Lower Difficulties = PFFfffffftTTTTTTtttt (wet fart and/or deflating balloon)

The UI and lack of explanation of the games own systems makes it frustrating and confusing to new players. If you somehow get past that hurdle this game can be a really tense, rewarding good time.

That sound just before the crash was a Cloaker enemy (the special ops guys) rushing you, if they hit they insta-down you regardless of health. Your health bar won't drop when that happens but you're still forced to 30% health when revived. Also it doesn't count against the three downs you get before you get instantly taken into custody.

Pro job just means no retries, not more difficult.

Shooting is fine on the PC, maybe the stick aiming controls are the problem. I heard those are weird.

EDIT: Or maybe it's the early guns, I remember being pretty unhappy with the starting AMCAR's inaccuracy. It gets better as you unlock some good guns and configure them with parts. In addition to the roulette at the end of a mission there are the gage courier packages, grab enough of those and you unlock a predefined set of fairly useful attachments.

Also Jeff needs to shoot fewer bullets, going spray and pray is a good way to run out.

I just want to say that this game is absolutely great and you do not need team A.I. if you've got 2-3 people.

Michael Mann's Thief, 14 years before Michael Mann's Heat:

Music by Tangerine Dream. Track was licensed for GTA V.

I can't wait until I PAYDAY 2 CRIMEWAVE EDITION for dinner tomorrow.

@hassun: Really? My biggest complaint is that NOBODY wants to do loud plays of maps anymore because they all want the faster payout of stealth runs. And since a lot of the stealth heists are pretty route and easy enough to memorize, it can get old. This whole year, I've only played one loud run of Jewelery Store, for example, and I play Payday 2 near daily. Nobody wants to play Payday 2 maps to have fun, they all just want to grind out XP/cash the fastest.

I really like this game on PC, but I probably wouldn't play it if I didn't have 3 friends to play with. If you play with AI it can definitely get boring just like most other games. Its way more fun coordinating over Teamspeak to get through a heist without being caught. They really didn't show a whole lot this game has to offer sadly.

I really like this game, but the main issue I have with it is the grind. Upgrading seems way to slow, and everything is SUPER expensive.

@sor_eddie: That's because Jewellery store is used for boosting. It happens a lot less on other maps.

But you are right that most of the stealth is pretty mediocre and often frustrating trial and error because the AI can be very finicky.

Just don't write a cheque that you can't cash.

It primarily depends on the host, If you want to go loud host the game. Most players who join are cool with adhering to the host or will leave.