It’s not that there’s anything actually wrong with Payday 3. The levels are well-designed, encouraging the kind of outside-the-box thinking that rewards both the bold and the curious. The effervescent glee you feel each time you saunter past a security camera with a sports bag stuffed full of money on your back is unrivalled, and for those opting for a less stealthy approach, the gunplay – if requiring a little acclimation at first – is punchy and impactful.
Payday 3 reviewPublisher: Deep SilverDeveloper: Starbreeze StudiosPlatform: Played on PS5Availability: Out now on PC, Xbox X/S, and PS5.
The trouble with Payday 3, though, is that whilst in isolation, it’s a perfectly perfunctory shooter that’ll happily keep you sated for a few weekends, when compared to its own predecessor, the new game repeatedly comes up short. Yes, we have some new gadgets to try, and yes, there are new ways to manage the civvies caught up in your criminal shenanigans, but ultimately it’s a faded facsimile of what’s come before it – and that’s without taking into account a release so bungled, the game was essentially unplayable for the first five days of its launch week.
For those unfamiliar with the formula, Payday 3 sees you and a gaggle of pals pull off increasingly outrageous heists, using your brain, brawn – and often both – to get the better of the security systems that separate you from your prize. The missions we have – there are just eight right now, which feels like a meagre offering – take you right across New York City as OG Payday stalwarts Dallas, Chains, Hoxon, and Wolf return with some other familiar faces to pull off daring robberies, from the obligatory bank burglary to elaborate art heists.
Oh, and Ice-T. Yes, Ice-T’s briefly here, too. I don’t know why, either.
There’s a story. Kind of. It requires sitting through silent slideshows set entirely apart from the heists themselves, as though weaving a narrative into the playable parts would sully the action, but you’ll never really understand your character’s motivations any more than you’ll understand who the shadowy figures assigning your heists are, or why. No, not all shooters need stories – I fought Destiny’s alien races for years before I ever really understood what was going on with its convoluted storyline, and that didn’t dent my enjoyment one jot – but it’s a curious omission here, and surely one that would enhance the game, not hinder it? As it is, we have short “videos” sandwiched between the missions that consist of little more than storyboards and subtitles. No voice work. No animations. So nothing remotely worth watching, really.