Developer: Overkill Software
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
System: PS3
Author: BPD 007
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

PayDay: The Heist is a $20 download cooperative first person shooter from Sony Online Entertainment. Developed by Overkill Software, who before this I never heard of.  They have promised to have more mission DLC available later on, but I guess that depends on how popular the game is and if users will be willing to pay.  Let’s get to the “heist”.

The menu system is pretty straight forward allowing you to play the heists in a single player format or online.  I could not find any online matches at the time of this review.  That is a shame because I am willing to bet this game is a lot of fun with online co-op.  Otherwise you are playing with 3 AI bots as your criminal sidekicks, I mean teammates.

There are 6 missions and setting difficulties allows you to progress.  Easy gives you missions 1-2, Normal gives you 1-4, and the hardest gives you missions 1-6 to play. But the idea is to play the heists repeatedly. I played the first mission 4 times.  The game has a total Left 4 Dead feel.  For example, marker indicators tell you what to do.  When you enter the bank, hit R2 to commence the heist. We were to steal cash money…of course.  The problem was I had no idea how to do it.  The markers and onscreen indicators help, such as “find the bank manager”, “shoot the security cameras to help not be recorded.”

[ click for screenshots ]

It would have really helped if I had been given an instruction/training mission to get the mechanics and controls down.

After finding the manager you retrieve the key card to the server room to obtain the drill hidden inside this room.  There key color offsets on screen to let you know where the objective items are located, even behind hidden walls, like infrared.  This greatly helps in the mission progression. Bring the drill downstairs to drill through a specific room to get access to the vault.  But, uh-oh, the cops have arrived.  This is where the heist becomes interesting.  You get points for taking people hostage and points subtracted for killing innocents.  You can even ransom them off.

The mechanics of shooting are a little clunky but they work.  The team AI was pretty good actually and helped me out. If you bleed out then can recover you and you can even shoot sideways as you bleed out – take that PIG! LOL Further review reveals a 3 tiered tree level of skills where you unlock a new weapon, item, or bonus. There are more than 140 unlockables.  Like I said the missions are meant to be replayed. When I played the first mission for the 3rd try the stupid manager was on the opposite side of the bank where he had been in my 1st and 2nd try.  This change is pretty good as it helps the missions not feel too stale.  First loading the game, the still graphics are really gorgeous.  The clown masks are really slick.  Too bad the actual gameplay graphics are not that great.  There is nothing special about them.  On the other hand the in game music is really good.

The music helps with the feeling of urgency throughout the mission.  This really helped the ambiance of the “hurry up, let’s do this” attitude.  I’m almost glad they didn’t skimp on the music versus the graphics. Had the game looked excellent but the music lacking, well pulling off a heist just would not have felt the same. One issue in the game I found confusing was the interactive objects.  In the second mission my team had to burn through a van with gasoline tanks. You would think selecting the highlighted item would activate it but in this part of the mission I had to physically go find the gas tank, bring it back to the van where the yellow highlight gas tank was and activate it. 

This was very confusing because I got no message telling me I had to go find a gas tank. The only message shown to me stated I had to use the gas tank to burn the van. I had to do this 4-5 times. The gas tanks weren’t too far from my location, but I wasted some time trying to figure out what the game wanted me to do.

Conclusion

Like games similar to L4D, PayDay is best with friends or online players to help you in the missions. You can coordinate better than the AI and it would be much more fun.  At $20 it seems a bit expensive, but it may be worth it if you have friends who have it as well. I am not sure at how much future DLC will cost.  If some of them are free then the $20 price tag may be worth it.  Afterall, it DID feel good being a clown robber.

7.5
“Good”