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PAYDAY 2

PAYDAY 2 is a first person cooperative shooter that revolves around four players working together to execute their own heist. Band together and shoot up cops, break open vaults, and escape with delicious loot.

Publisher: 505 Games
Playerbase: High
Type: Co-op Shooter
Release Date: August 13, 2013
Pros: +Highly Customizable. +Multiple platforms. +A lot of different missions. +Interesting characters and plot. +Elaborate Heists. +Constantly updated with DLC.
Cons: -Other plays can easily ruin experience. -Often kicked due to being low level. -High learning curve.

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Overview

Payday 2 Overview

PAYDAY 2 (PD2) is a cooperative first person shooter that focuses on mission-based gameplay. The player is joined by three others to accomplish a list of objectives that change depending on how they approach the mission. Decide you don’t care about the body count? Run in there and shoot the cops up—but be prepared for many waves of more formidable opponents! Want to try being the a peace-loving hippie? Go in silently and stealthy, knocking out guards and disabling cameras. Regardless of how a player wants to act PAYDAY 2 is a game that adapts to the decisions made, allowing each mission to be completed in different ways.

Payday 2 Key Features:

  • A mask for every occasion - Players get to unlock a variety of masks, and customization options such as color, material, and graphics.
  • With guns blazing, or not - Different missions require different methods of approach. Adopt the shadows and go stealth, or create a lightshow and kill everyone.
  • Skill system - Tailor your character to how you want to play the game. Specialize in controlling civilians, drilling through safes, or a ninja.
  • Let’s rob this bank, or steal those paintings! - A huge variety of missions to choose from, with more complicated heists with huge payouts.

Payday 2 Screenshots

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Payday 2 Featured Video

PAYDAY 2 - Official Death Wish Trailer

Full Review

Payday 2 Review

By, Huy Luong and James Borbajo

There’s a variety of missions in PD2, and not all of them make you break into a vault or rob a bank. However the game does center around heists, so players can expect most of their missions to involve some sort of object they must steal or objective they’ll need to fulfill. Whether it be burning a pile of cash in front of a camera for some angry mobster or breaking out an old friend from his jail cell, PAYDAY 2 breathes life into its missions, making them more than a simple checklist of goals. The player can start a mission off by either joining one of the available ones on the home screen, or buying a contract that’ll start a specific mission for them. Generally, I find that buying contracts are usually a waste of money, as players can usually find a mission that suits their tastes if they wait a few minutes. Money is earned through completing heists and missions, and are split into two categories: off-shore and on hand. The majority of the money players obtain from missions are deposited into their offshore account, and a portion of their winnings are given to have on hand. Player’s can buy skills, weapons, and customize their masks. I personally have no problem with the way money is handled in this game, as the amount the player gets from completing missions is in no way small. Play a few games, and they’ll have more than enough to buy a shiny new weapon.

Put the Mask On!

A typical PAYDAY 2 mission starts off in the pre-planning stage, where players can view all sorts of nifty information, such as the type of enemies they’re expected to go against and the layout of the area. The squad can also purchase benefits at this stage, such as extra ammo, ziplines, or better pilots. I often make sure to customize my loadout according to what my team is lacking, making this stage of the mission essential for me.

Once the pre-planning is done with and players actually enter the map, the real fun begins. An average mission begins with the four man squad scouting out the area, searching for security guards, cameras, and other tools that may help or hinder the team’s mission. During this casing mode, players cannot perform any suspicious actions such as installing drills, jammers, or even lockpicking doors. Once a plan has or hasn’t been established on what the team wants to do, players can then equip their masks. This frees them from all prior restrictions, allowing them to go crazy and gun down everyone if they really feel the need to. Some teams spend longer in casing mode, trying to figure out the most optimal way to complete the mission, while other teams immediately equip their masks and go in, guns blazing.

What happens in each mission depends on the players and how they proceed. If they end up going in and shooting everyone, being loud as possible and not caring, waves and waves of enemies are expected to show up. If they try to be as stealthy as possible, precisely timing their elimination of guards and cameras so that the outside world doesn’t get alerted, those same waves of enemies aren’t going to show up. However, stealth players will have to hide the bodies before they’re discovered and generally try to preserve the idea that nothing suspicious is going on. Whether you decide to be loud or quiet, the game will adapt to the way the mission is being played.

Choose your Destiny

PAYDAY 2 offers great customization for players, and does this in three major fields that makes each person unique: perks, weapon modification, and mask customization. Weapon customization allows players to make their current weapons stronger, along with adding features such as scopes and dot sights. To customize weapons, players must acquire parts from the randomized rewards given at the end of each mission. Mask modification is purely aesthetic, but helps give a personal touch to a person’s character. PAYDAY 2 offers a wide variety of masks to choose, and they can be modified further with interesting color schemes and patterns. Running around with a blue and white Santa mask is entirely possible.

Perks are PAYDAY 2’s version of a class system, where skills are spread across several classes: Mastermind, Enforcer, Technician, Ghost, Fugitive. The Mastermind skill tree involves the most teamplay, as it allows people to convert enemies, debuff opponents, and even revive squad members in an instant. The Enforcer tree involves the heavy handed approach of PAYDAY 2, granting players damage buffs, resistances, and even nifty unlockable saws and armor. The Technician tree is concerned with the heist side of the game, giving players trip mines, sentry guns, and drill bonuses. The Ghost is the stealth master, granting players an edge over the enemy before they even know it—usually involving jammers and speed. Fugitive is the survival class, giving players portable health kits and buffs. Players aren't restricted to one class, and can mix skills from all trees to fit his or her playstyle. Skills can be acquired by purchasing them with cash and skill points, both of which will be given if players simply play the game and complete missions. Mix and match skills from all trees, or stick to one. It’s up to the player on how they choose to operate. PAYDAY 2 also offers the ability to respec skill trees, refunding the players a portion of the money spent and all of the skill points invested in a particular class.

Jolly Cooperation!

PAYDAY 2 is a team based game, and nothing gets the player closer to that desired “MISSION COMPLETE” screen other than jolly cooperation. Like many other games, communication and cooperation is key to having a smooth and successful run, especially if players are attempting to go stealth. Helping one another out will make the game way easier. Whether that be through covering their backs when they’re picking a lock, maintaining control over a certain area, or even highlighting big threats for others to watch out for, do what you can and keep an eye out for trouble. It’s up to the players if they want to cover each other’s weaknesses or further highlight their strengths, but either option is better than not communicating at all.

The Good and the Bad

Payday 2 has been a hit ever since it’s release, and it’s pretty difficult to say anything negative about it. The game boasts an enormous amount of customization, and really gives players the feel that they’re in control of whatever happens through their gameplay. I enjoyed creating a unique mask that I’d show off whenever joining new lobbies, or customizing the ultimate stealth(ish) sniper rifle. Couple this with constant updates and reasonably priced DLC’s, and you have a constantly evolving game that seldom gets old. My only gripe with the game, is that low levels tend to have a hard time finding lobbies, unless its with other low levels. Higher level players prefer to have more experienced thieves in their band, rather than amateur ones. This is usually because they want to run the heist a certain way, and prior knowledge is valuable. However, I have been in some lobbies with a lot of higher level players that instead of kicking me, taught me tips and tricks and how to run through the mission.

Final Verdict : Great

Being a fan of the first game, I went into PAYDAY 2 with high hopes. I was not disappointed. PAYDAY 2 takes an already good game and ups the ante. There were parts of the game that are reminiscent of the original, such as everything going to hell when one teammate messes up a stealth mission. There are also parts that differentiated PAYDAY 2 from PAYDAY, such as the new arsenal of weapons and unique missions. A library of missions gives players tons to do, unlock, and customize. And better yet, this game is only $20. So much content and quality for such little money. PAYDAY 2 puts a lot of $59.99 titles to shame, and topped the Steam charts for Most Bought game for at least a week when it released. If you are unable to dish out $20, then just wait for our lord Gaben and a super sale. It’s definitely worth it. As always, it's more fun with friends, especially PAYDAY 2.

Screenshots

Payday 2 Screenshots

Videos

Payday 2 Videos

System Requirements

Payday 2 Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8190 2.66GHz or Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition
RAM: 3 GB RAM
Video Card: GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 6770
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB available space

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz or Athlon II X4 620
RAM: 3 GB RAM
Video Card: GeForce GTX 460 or Radeon HD 5850 1024MB
Hard Disk Space:  25 GB available space

Music

Payday 2 Music

Additional Info

Payday 2 Additional Information

Developer: Overkill Software

Game Engine: Diesel 2.0
Other Platforms: Linux, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Designer(s): Ulf Andersson
Composer(s): Simon Viklund, Gustaf Grefberg

Closed Beta: July 23, 2013

Release Date: August 13, 2013
Steam Release Date: August 13, 2013

Development History / Background:

PAYDAY 2 was developed by Swedish video game studio Overkill Software. It is the sequel to the 2011 game Payday: The Heist. PAYDAY 2 was profitable purely from pre-orders, covering every dollar invested into the game by publisher 505 Games. By September 2013 PAYDAY 2 sold 1.58 million copies, with 80% of sales being digital. An updated edition was created for release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, titled Crimewave Edition. Over a dozen DLC packages have been released, featuring new heists, mechanics, and weapons. A DLC titled Payday 2: Hotline Miami was a collaborative project between Dennaton Games and Overkill, and includes heists influenced by the top-down shooter.