PayDay: The Heist (PC, PSN)
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Originally Posted by IGN
Have you ever seen one of those movies with an elaborate scheme to rob a bank and walk away with a huge payday? Ever wonder if you have what it takes to pull of such a caper yourself? Well, PayDay: The Heist, a new game coming to the PlayStation Network and PC, will give you the chance to find out.
I recently had a chance to demo the early PSN version of this game as well as speak to some of the developers at Overkill. At its core, PayDay is a first-person shooter in which you and up to three friends work together to pull off a series of heists. The interesting part is that, unlike a lot of other shooters, the emphasis is more on strategy than on firepower.
So, basically, it's Left 4 Dead with hostages and banks instead of zombies and safe rooms.
There are a variety of ways one can go about pulling off a heist. During a demonstration of one of the levels, the person playing went the pacifist route, shooting as few people as possible and taking out security cameras in a stealthy manner. When I got my hands on the game however, I went for an all-out blood bath. Not surprisingly, both playthroughs ended up with drastically different results (word of the wise: shooting hostages ups the difficulty rather quickly).
The sheer variety of ways you can go about each mission should yield a decent level of replayability, especially with the downloadable content that's already in the works (additional heists, weapons, and equipment). While there are only six missions, replaying them to best your score should provide plenty of bang for the buck, depending on how much PayDay ends up costing. There are also weapons and equipment that can be earned and upgraded, as well as character abilities to unlock and upgrade as you see fit. In PayDay, you decide whether you want to progress as an assault player, a sharpshooter, or support, and the choices you make affect the weapons you get and thusly how you experience the game.
You can even tie up hostages and trade them for captured teammates, making them more than just background fodder. In addition to your weapon, you can also affect your surroundings by using the shout button to get police or civilians to drop their weapons and hit the floor. Use these dynamics wisely and you'll be walking away with a bag of loot in no time.
Movies buffs will be pleased to hear that PayDay drew a lot of inspiration from the silver screen. From Heat (the game's biggest influence) to The Dark Knight, The Town, and even The Matrix, small references and throwbacks are hidden throughout the game.
PayDay also provides several different scenarios in its six missions, so it's not just one bank heist after another. While I only had the chance to play through the bank mission, I'm told there you will also be put to the challenge of extracting a prisoner, making an escape through a crowded street, infiltrating a panic room full of drugs and money, sneaking into a corporate skyscraper, and hijacking an armored vehicle.
While PayDay does support single player campaigns (with AI filling in for the other three members of your team), this game is truly meant to be experienced as a multiplayer endeavor. From what I've seen, the most interesting part of the game is coordinating with your buddies about strategies and keeping each other's greed in check so you all make it out alive with the biggest payday (and the highest score) possible. Co-op is online only, and the single-player mode does support drop-ins, so if a buddy of yours becomes available to play they can jump right in mid-heist.
While it's still unknown when exactly this downloadable title will be releasing or how much it will put you back, what I've seen so far has me intrigued. More PayDay info is coming out of E3, so stay tuned to IGN for more info as it comes in.
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This is a fantastic concept.
