Developer: Overkill Software
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Genre: First-person Shooter
ESRB Rating: M
Release Date: October 18 (PS3), October 20 (PC)
Platforms: PS3, PC

In today’s video gaming world, FPS titles are the “in” thing. You have your Gears of War, your Team Fortress, your Halo, etc etc. It’s become a lot trickier to create a title with a unique premise, while still making it as enjoyable as the rest of the games available in the market.

Overkill Software at least has the unique premise down for Payday: The Heist. You play as one of four different hardened criminals, and perform heists that ultimately result in your team making bank. However, where it manages to get the setting right, it falters in the mechanical aspects.

What’s The Plan, Boss?

Payday’s missions follow an objective-based format, where you need to accomplish the task given to your crew at that point in time. This can range from escorting a captive to a specific area, or setting up mechanical devices to open a door you need to traverse through. Each of these objectives is required in order to progress further towards your ultimate goal, a huge payout.

For the most part, the objectives aren’t too difficult to figure out. Key items or people are highlighted so that you can find them easier, and while the game itself isn’t likely to win any Best Graphics awards, you can at least find your way around whatever street or building you’re in without too much trouble, other than constant gunfire from a near infinite supply of police and S.W.A.T units. And as long as you don’t mind the occasional f-bomb, then the audio will at least allow you to enjoy things without having to play it on mute.

The game can be played by yourself with AI teammates, or online with people that actually have some form of cognitive understanding. Unless you’re really afraid of people on the big bad interwebs, playing online is really your main option for full enjoyment of the game, as the AI partners aren’t exactly the brightest bunch. When they’re not busy staring blankly at a wall with their guns drawn, they’ll be following you around like lost puppies looking for scrap, rarely firing a shot at the opposition. This makes team oriented challenges a lot more difficult to accomplish, and you really just end up doing everything by yourself.

Stop Shouting At Me!!

There are quite a few quirks with the games programming, not just with the team AI, but with AI in general. Police units will use various tactics to take you down, whether it’s smoke bombs to block your view, or sending snipers to pick you off. Most of these hazards can be taken care of with some cooperation from your teammates, however, other things, such as officers being able to shoot through walls and seeing near perfectly through their own smoke screens, are a bit more annoying to overcome. I suppose the one thing that balances these quirks out is that most of the enemies you see die very easily, which unfortunately results in frequent Call of Duty style “spray and pray” shooting tactics.

Escort targets don’t fare much better. In some missions, you will be stuck escorting a VIP to a specific point. This is done by shouting repeatedly at the person to get him to stumble across the map, usually right into the middle of a gunfight. At that point, he’ll refuse to move at all until you clear out the opposing forces. Often times he’ll even stop when there isn’t a single cop in sight, forcing you to run around and hunt down whatever is causing him to crawl into a fetal position.

Good luck also trying to get innocents to stay out of your way when bullets start flying. While you can shout at them to get on the ground and out of the way, you’ll likely end up accidentally shooting one because they were dumb enough to run across an open battlefield right between your team and the cops. This leads to penalties on your overall score, as well as your ability to trade hostages should one of your teammates gets arrested.

I Don't Need Your Authority

Payday takes a bit of inspiration from Killing Floor by offering players different skill trees to level up in. You increase your Reputation by obtaining cash, which is done by completing heist objectives and fulfilling various challenges. Doing so unlocks weapons and perks in the Assault, Sharpshooter, and Support trees.

The problem here is that while Killing Floor allows you to select which tree to progress through and how to level each of them, Payday lacks such information. You’ll likely end up guessing which challenges you’ll need to fulfill in order to get the particular items you want. In a sense, you’re essentially all three roles at the same time, with your only differentiating factor being what your loadout is. And while it is possible to grind most challenges in offline mode, having a competent group of humans with you is pretty much a must for the more challenging stuff.

Breakdown

Payday: The Heist isn’t exactly a terrible product by any means. It’s playable, if you’re willing to ignore the quirks of the AI and the awkward leveling system, and have a reliable group of people to play with. It’s also affordable, being available for a simple $20, with promises of DLC in the near future.

The problem is that, while the premise sticks out among the deluge of FPS titles, the execution is a bit off. It can be good to kill a few evenings with, but, for the most part, it’s not likely something you’ll be spending a whole lot of time on. Unless you just really hate authority that much.

tl;dr - Too long; Didn't read

An interesting romp for would be criminals, but the experience doesn’t stack up to other titles out on the market. If you’re a big FPS fan, then the price tag should be appealing.

Aesthetics: 3.5

GamePlay: 3.5

Story: 3.0

Quality: 3.5

Overall Score: 3.5