Payday 3 is the highly anticipated follow-up to Starbreeze’s acclaimed heist simulation series. Much like every other game with such weight on its shoulders, it ended up being plagued by an underwhelming launch, with more server issues than you can shake your lockpick at. Marred by a constricting online-only mode that prevented players from enjoying the game solo with the help of bots, many buyers had to sit there, twiddling their thumbs as they waited for the issues to be solved. This is a shame because Payday 3 has a solid foundation for a game that will inevitably grow and become a beloved one, but it isn’t quite there yet.

Who Let the Crooks Out

Payday 3 brings everyone’s favorite crooks back from early retirement, forcing them to engage in another series of heists for some much-needed cash. Chains, Dallas, Hoxton, and Wolf return and are joined by two newcomers, Joy and Pearl. They will go through the eight heists of the campaign in order, requiring the completion of one to unlock the next in line. This is one of the first letdowns of Payday 3, the low number of heists, which is noticeable compared to the 12 heists at launch from Payday 2 (not to mention that at this point, said game already counts with 66 heists in total).

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That’s not to say that you won’t be having fun or getting busy with Payday 3, as each heist has enough detail and care to make you feel lost, sometimes overwhelmed by the labyrinthine rooms and floors, initially dazed by the speedy way that your more knowledgeable partners in crime run through the place, going straight for the objectives without giving you a chance to catch your breath, to realize what you’re doing. Even the apparently most straightforward heists hold some serious surprises, such as this nightclub that ends up being a front for underground gambling within an overall area that could harbor the population of a small country.

This is a game where you learn by trial and error, by embodying the sheer definition of a newbie as you follow others around and make a fool of yourself. Triggering alarm after alarm and messing up the plans is a constant for the first tries in each heist until you finally lay down a mental sketch of the place and start holding your weight.

Stealth isn’t as unforgiving as in previous games, but let’s be honest here: this is going to be the road less traveled and by quite a margin. Payday 3 isn’t the most subtle of heist games, although it can be said that competition is slim, too. The truth is that most players will go for the brash approach, doing the bare minimum until they feel they can engage in all-out warfare with security forces, ditching stealth and patience for the quickest and often easiest road to escaping with the loot. The heist locations turn into true battlefields, with bullets flying everywhere and players grinding their teeth as they score headshots and fill the truck with the valuables.

However, sometimes you are encouraged… scratch that, forced to discover the path through stealthy ways, as triggering the alarm automatically erases a valuable crypto wallet in the nightclub heist. When this happens, your plan B is to find as much loot as possible knowing that the big fish has already escaped.

Gunplay is fairly satisfying, with a good feeling to recoil and weight, and you’re going to need it when all hell breaks loose. The pristine locations devolve into chaos as bullets fly, the bullet-sponge and brainless security forces coming in endless waves, and the concept of a heist is forgotten until the part when you start carrying the bags to your escape van or helicopter.

Playing with AI-controlled characters is as useless as it sounds. These bots don’t do much more than move around and try to stick close to you, doing their part in the shooting but completely lacking any initiative or serving as little more than decoys for you to explore the surroundings.

Infamous Decisions

Leveling up and unlocking content in Payday 3 isn’t done via the most consensual system ever. You raise your Infamy level by completing challenges, which means you may successfully perform a heist and not earn a single experience point if you didn’t complete any of the available goals. This requires you to pay close attention to things such as defeating a given number of Cloakers, slide a certain distance, defeat a guard while he is detecting you, and the like. Having to repeat heists with these goals in mind, on top of the actual heist objectives, turns into a frustrating and unfair experience.

The skill system is straightforward, with several paths to research and upgrade. There are a few combinations to try that offer you varied builds, and it’s possible to have some fun mixing and matching things like medic and armor skills, so this is a fairly standard mechanic.

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Using weapons earns specific XP and gets each one to level up and unlock mods, something that we’ve seen in other games but that doesn’t seem to be a consensual choice. It should be noted that the weapon shop is something of a trap at first, as going into your secondary slot to buy a weapon lists the entire arsenal, not just the secondary guns. Unaware players will purchase a shotgun, thinking that it will be used as an alternate weapon, but it’s actually a primary one. A simple filter would have saved some first-timer frustration in this regard.

Payday 3 does look good, despite the occasional graphical glitches. The levels come with bells and whistles that give each place some personality, and the floor complexity adds to the sense of awe when discovering a new place. The hard-hitting rock soundtrack with some techno thrown in for good measure is a banger, perfectly fitting those nasty shootouts in ways that some movies would be jealous of.

Crime Caper in the Making

Payday 3 is history repeating, a game that is lacking at launch, setting up the foundations for something that may end up being extremely good in a couple of years. This is not how things should go, but it is how it turns out sometimes, and Starbreeze just needs to listen to the players and react accordingly. The game is fun, the locations aren’t the heist sandboxes that the perfect game would offer but still have some interesting ideas, and the gunplay is enjoyable if you can cope with the bullet-sponge enemies.

If you’re not a die-hard fan of the series, waiting for the server issues to be fully resolved is the best step to take right now. When that is in the past, you may dive into these initially confusing but eventually rewarding heists, knowing that the Infamy system is a stone in your shoes, but cooperating with other like-minded players is an offer you may not want to refuse…in due time.

Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

• The heist locations are interesting and diverse
• Stealth isn’t as unforgiving as before
• Banger soundtrack

Cons:

• A troublesome launch with server issues and online-only gameplay
• Infamy level up system is clumsy
• Underwhelming AI for bots and enemies

Payday 3 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.