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    Payday: The Heist

    Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Oct 18, 2011

    The first game from Overkill Software (headed by the founders of former studio GRIN), Payday is a fast-paced crime-themed first-person shooter that lets teams of players conduct robberies and other criminal activities while fending off waves of cops.

    toolzz360's Payday: The Heist (PlayStation Network (PS3)) review

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    Get Paid!

    Payday the Heist developed by Overkill Software and released in 2011 is a coop based first person shooter falling in the same same sub genre as Left For Dead. Payday essentially takes the gameplay elements from Left Four Dead and instead of a zombie setting, the game has a crime mob atmosphere.

    The gameplay in Payday isn't as fluid as Left For Dead. Payday isn't a melee based game and most of the time will be spent shooting waves of cops and swat teams with very limited weapons. The core shooting in the game feels pretty stiff and it isn't as smooth as many of the other multiplayer shooters out there. There are three weapon slots in the game and load outs are set up before the start of a heist. The main weapon can be a shotgun or a carbine assault rifle, the secondary gun can be a shotgun or a sub machine gun, and the pistol weapon can be well a pistol or a revolver. In total there are only about 6 unique weapons, but both sub machine guns in the game seem very similar, and the shotguns as well. Since all of the weapons are unlocked through a progression tree, most of the time will be spent using the default pistol and carbine. Each weapon has challenges associated with it similar to what other games like Call Of Duty have been doing. There are also challenges for game modes and overall kills. There are 145 unlocks in the tree, and levels are gained by killing dudes, completing objectives, and completing challenges. The unlockables include weapons, health/armor boosters, and support equipment unlocks and upgrades. The support items in the game include ammo bags, medical kits, cable ties (for hostages), and trip mines. All of the items have multiple unlocks that increase the amount of ammo or increase healing capacity. The load outs can be customized with one support item each. The last component of customization are essentially perks. One perk can also be equipped to each load out, and perks include higher xp boosts, and team boosters. There is a lot to unlock and customize, but too much of the equipment and items seem not so different from each other or kind of useless in the game.

    There are six heists in Payday, and each one of them will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete. Although six missions doesn't seem like a lot I found myself playing through each a couple times until they got repetitive. Don't get me wrong more missions would have been great but the amount that is there is serviceable. Missions will take you through a bank robbery, an escape through the streets, an escape on a stormy bridge, a sabotage in a slaughter house, a raid on a drug house, and a diamond heist. Each of the heists have unique objectives, but overall they all involve the same mechanics of getting to point A and then waiting, and then going to point B and escaping. The lack of different objectives and core gameplay can really make the game feel stale after a few hours of playing. What keeps the game fresh is the 4 player online coop with public games or with a group of friends. Playing together with friends can be fun, but the public games work surprisingly well too. However, when playing a public match there is always a risk of getting with a group of noobs who wont complete objectives or who keep running straight into the enemy assaults and dying. A player can be downed in the game and they can be revived by a teammate. The more times you are downed the less time it will take for you to bleed out. There are also only a few different kinds of enemies or police officers in the game to kill. There are street cops, swat members, taser units, riot shield units, and a bulldozer unit basically inside an armored dome. There are also unique enemies for different heists. For example, in the Panic Room (drug raid) all of the enemies in the building are Mexican Drug Dealers.

    The graphics in Payday are all around average. For a download game it does look pretty good, but with an original price tag of $20 I would have expected the visuals to be sharper and crisper. The environments look alright, and the player models are pretty average. Yea, I mean it is just average. One cool effect is when being tazed by an enemy the screen will start shaking and will turn blue and white to simulation the shock. The audio in the game is also pretty average. The music is pretty good and fits the games theme well. The music is basically the same you would hear in a movie like Heat or any action heist movie, kinda electronic pulsating deep beats. The sound effects however are below average. The guns sound like they have no power to them, and the sound is very generic.

    If you are into this kind of game, or are looking for a game that you and your friends can play, Payday the Heist is a decent option. The price has since dropped to 15$ i think from its original $20, and I actually got the game on sale through playstation + for $8. For $8 it is certainly worth it, as I got about 15 hours of play out of the game. $15 is also ok if you like it, but I wouldn't pay $20 for it. If you can get the game through a psn or steam sale, then I would recommend you to buy it if you like the concept. Overall Payday the Heist is an average first person shooter that does little to keep the gameplay refreshing over a longer period of play.

    3 stars (6.0)

    Gameplay: 7

    Replayability/Value: 6

    Graphics: 6

    Audio: 6

    Presentation/Deisgn/Story: 7

    Other reviews for Payday: The Heist (PlayStation Network (PS3))

      Cash Money! 0

      It’s easy to look at Payday: The Heist and pick-up all of its obvious stylistic comparisons to the 1995 classic film Heat. Lines of dialogue, to the fast rhythmic drums that overlay each heist are so similar to the film that Michael Mann could sue if he really wanted to. But I would argue that if you’re looking for some sort of inspiration for your heist game, then choosing one of the greatest heist films of all time is definitely a great place to start. And count me in. It would certainly help ...

      3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

      We do this job together or not at all 0

      Payday: The Heist is a very interesting game.  It is practically a modded Left 4 Dead, sub in cops for zombies and add a few boatloads of cash plus some fine clown masks and you now have Payday: The Heist.  Just as Left 4 Dead, Payday is created for a multiplayer  experience, under NO circumstance should you buy this game thinking you will be playing alone.  Single player, this game is 2 stars, with even one friend raises that rating substantially.  I should also note there is no split screen co...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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