If movies like “Heat” and “Sexy Beast” are any guide, retirement isn’t easy when you’re in the professional heist business. You’ll always get one last job to settle some unresolved matters, rekindling your inner greed and drive to plot an elaborate heist. With old gangs rounded up, Payday 3 now takes us to the bustling streets of New York City, years after the reign of terror in Washington, D.C., and in today’s environment of mass surveillance devices, we wear masks, Get ready for new challenges. , cryptocurrencies, the deep web, and more. After spending a few hours in internal playtesting, as well as the ongoing closed beta, I must say I’m impressed with how streamlined the sequel is.
The beta offers only one location, Standard Chartered Bank, which has an unusually large amount of cash in its vaults, awaiting shipment. It feels like a familiar throwback to Payday 2, the standard bank heist mission that sticks to a four-player co-op shooter mode that lets you carry personalized weapons and high-tech gadgets to ease your stress. cash. Your approach can vary greatly, it can be sneaking in and out without setting off any alarms, or you can take the loud route and shoot your guns, scaring civilians. My experience with Payday 3 was a combination of both, starting with carefully prying open the back door and ending with a full-scale assault, with my team surrounded by police from every angle.
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But what’s interesting is that there’s more freedom in the stealth part, whereas before, just being spotted in a restricted area would trigger an alarm. But here, you can trespass into a private staff area or behind a counter without wearing a mask, and guards will politely escort you to the nearest public area without disrupting your attempts at invisibility. You’ll only make one mistake, though. Not to mention, it more realistically describes how security personnel will react in a given situation. What baffles me, however, is how you can walk freely up to the windows in the bank lobby and press the button to close the shutters without arousing suspicion. While this would prevent passers-by from peeking inside the building and seeing my team take everyone hostage, its inclusion felt very off-putting – almost as if it was an oversight by developer Starbreeze Studios. Hopefully this will be resolved in a reasonable way closer to release. Regardless, this is a huge step up from Payday 2, where you basically just avoided detection and intimidated security.
You can do more with the mask off
Well you ask what am I doing there? Mainly scouting. Track important rooms and cameras, and sneak behind guards to pickpocket key cards that allow access to the main security control room. This allows me to easily hack into and disable the security system – all with the push of a single button “F”. Stealth is still extremely difficult, though, especially when you wear a heist mask to hide your identity, and witnesses will immediately report your presence once spotted. However, I do find wearing a mask a little stressful, since Payday 3 has some basic mechanics locked behind the mode, such as jumping on surfaces. Without a mask, you can’t climb a window or brandish a pistol. Having said that, unlike Payday 2, it’s still pretty crazy how far you can go in the game with the mask off, so the rest of the time I’ll be running around the block looking for any possible escape routes . attract attention.
Once you put the mask on, you can’t take it off again, instantly upping the heist ante as you’re finally allowed to engage in even more nefarious activities. Now your squad is armed with guns and can move around terrorizing civilians, tying them up, checking corners for cameras and shooting them down, and choking security guards so they don’t cause disturbance. I recommend getting a silencer for your pistol ASAP to avoid creating a riot, but the most important piece of kit to have in your arsenal is always being vigilant. Dropping a guard triggers a small alarm on their radio/intercom, raising suspicions from the security team if no one answers. Other times, unattended civilians may flee and sound the alarm, throwing a cloud over your perfect plans. Once the mask is on, things can easily go wrong, so it’s best to have a team you can always rely on.
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Once the mask is on, it can no longer be removed until the heist is over
Photo Credit: Starbreeze Studio
This kind of tense scene is everywhere in Payday 3, but it can be greatly alleviated by dividing the tasks evenly between you. There’s more flexibility in the way you carry out missions, such as sifting through files for clues on how to open a vault, intuitively following a red cable to turn off power to a gate, or grabbing executives high on the bank to scan their retinas. Technical lock system. Of course, none of this would have been possible without countless failed attempts, and my team and I raised the alarm almost immediately, leading to a police break-in. That’s the beauty of Payday 3 – there’s always something new to learn through repetition. Experiment, more rewarding for experienced players.
Now, you’re probably wondering how Payday 3’s early game fits in with new players. Well, it’s usually loud because you have no idea what’s going on or how things work. So, you end up attracting all kinds of unwanted attention, shooting every guard in sight, and grabbing civilians as body shields to help negotiate, and then getting bored pretty quickly, you let them go and shoot them from behind head. charged with guilt. I mean, if everyone died, there would be no witnesses, right?
Speaking of loud, bank heist missions require you to break into the vault from the floor above in an aggressive fashion, where you collect bags of thermite, pile them up, and set them on fire, gradually breaking through the solid walls. Of course, there’s the frantic ringing of bells and sirens all around, which only heightens the tension as more cops start storming the place. There is some method to this madness though, as adding too much thermite to increase the crack rate will cause the sprinkler to open, effectively reducing the flame and making you run to turn it off.
Improved combat, more unpredictability
Combat is a big draw in Payday 3, and you’ll encounter increasingly challenging enemies that can feel overwhelming even against human teammates. While it may seem too daunting and too difficult to some, the heat level correlates perfectly with the premise that you’re trying to steal a truckload of cash–you’re committing a pretty serious crime here.you should Penalized for making a careless move, such as not checking corners or standing in an open area and shooting bullets tropical thunder style. With bags of cash slung over my shoulders, fighting in the streets was my happiest thing, imitating the chaos of the streets. Iconic Los Angeles Shootout Scene Michael Mann’s Heat (1995).
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Fighting in the streets is where I’m happiest, mimicking the mayhem in Michael Mann’s Heat (1995)
Photo Credit: Starbreeze Studio
While you wait for the getaway vehicle and run back for more cash, you’re engaged in an all-out battle with hordes of different types of cops, including snipers who aim laser sights at you from a distance. I admit, they look much scarier than they really are – in the sense that snipers are very slow to react to action. So, as long as you keep swiping across the map, you’ll usually have no problem dealing with them. Don’t ignore them entirely, though, as a single shot from them will instantly drain your armor, leaving your body open to direct attack.
Whatever strategy you had planned at the start of the heist is completely thrown to the winds at this stage, leaving you to rely on whatever armor or medkit you bring. Only 10 to 15 minutes after the sirens sounded, the tone of the game completely changed to a modern war zone, with special enemies like grenadiers dropping high-damage poison bombs, which not only blurred our vision, but also prevented our vision. action. We went from sprint to step off the gas. The virtually indestructible bulldozers are also back, armed with powerful guns, and will occasionally lunge at you headfirst. It’s best to have all four teammates focus on the behemoth at the same time, as trying to defeat him alone will result in death or drain resources quickly.
The heavy swat team also includes a brutal riot shield user who will punch you and stun you if you get too close. I found it very beneficial to throw a grenade behind them to turn them around and expose their body to my attack. Another powerful unit also relies on stun guns, though neither of them seem to be affected by the difficulty modifier.All difficulty increases – at least in Payday 3 closed beta – Fully based on security measures such as impenetrable cameras and lead guards. This ensures that enemies you face in combat have the same health without turning them into regular bullet sponges.
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You can choose skills to create personalized builds, or collaborate with teammates for a higher chance of success
Photo Credit: Screenshot/Rahul Chettiyar
All of this is backed up by a robust skill tree that gives you room to experiment with various builds, by performing certain stealth or attack based actions you’ll gain movement speed, damage dealt, faster reloads speed and more. For example, investing skill points into tank stats nets defense-oriented perks like effective armor, while favoring hacking lets you control security cameras remotely. You can also double up your stealth ability for quicker knockdowns and lockpicks, or get a “sprint” buff for quick escapes from hides. In addition to working towards making setups that are tailored just for you, you can also synergize them with your teammates to see which ones provide a better success rate.
Just like Payday 2, the cash earned from heists can be used to buy new weapons and their respective attachments, such as scopes, muzzles, and grips to help reduce recoil. All changes to gun stats are displayed neatly via graphs, and they can all be personalized with cosmetic mods such as skins, stickers, and charms. This forms the core gameplay loop of Payday 3, though at the moment I don’t know how the larger story connects to this – after all, we reunite after many years to identify and crush an undisclosed “new threat” .
It’s so cool to see Robert De Niro’s mask in ‘Heat’ in ‘Payday 3’
Photo Credit: Screenshot/Rahul Chettiyar
Plus, you can customize your character’s look with new suits, gloves, and a range of creepy-looking masks, including the white pierced hockey mask Robert De Niro wore in Heat! Not to mention, all the armor and protective gear is worn underneath your suit, so you don’t have to worry about making a bad impression.
final thoughts
Playing through just one heist level, Payday 3 came across as a marked evolution in spirit from its predecessor, with a focus on mechanical depth through a myriad of new high-tech toys to play with. The emphasis on stealth allows room for creativity, giving you the incentive to scout locations more freely and work your way through a series of detailed objectives before donning your mask and going berserk. I also think it’s an excellent choice for this trilogy to be set in a contemporary timeline, as the game is designed to evolve over time and there’s a regular flow of post-launch content, so it should give A sense of eternity.
The closed beta for Payday 3 is live now on PC and Xbox and is expected to end on August 7th. The full game will be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X on September 21st.
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