An almost immortal classic

PAYDAY 2, developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games, was released on August 13, 2013, initially for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, before being ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Linux later. 

It features dated gameplay and surrenders the age of the project; however, for its time, it was revolutionary, being a respectable successor to the great PAYDAY: The Heist, the trilogy's precursor, released in 2011.

The game has very interesting game dynamics; it is a cooperative game with the possibility of being played in multiplayer or alone with bots; it is part of the FPS genre; it has several mechanics to add to the great heists performed; and until today, accumulates thousands of players daily. 



Masks and Big Heists 

PAYDAY 2 brought to market one of the most critically acclaimed games and players to date. Even though it is already 10 years old, it is still extremely fun to play, using several mechanics that were considered new at its launch but that today have been extensively applied in games of the same genre, such as stealth, and interactive scenarios to complement secondary objectives, and even the frenzy of killing several enemies at once. 

The game, at first, seems very simple: customize your character, weapons, and masks, and get to work, but soon we discover that it is not quite like that. We must carefully choose our skills in the talent tree, make smart choices during the raids to not fail the mission and have to restart, not underestimate the artificial intelligence of the enemies, especially in the raids with higher difficulties, and most importantly, in my opinion, work as a team. 

Despite being mechanically simple, PAYDAY 2 is quite difficult to master, taking a good few hundred hours to connect with everything the game offers. The heists, the main content of the game, are very fun and make the game very dynamic. For new players, it can be a little confusing, especially at the beginning, but if the game wins you right in the tutorial, you can be sure that it is extremely addictive, and what makes the game popular today is its multitude of content and delay for mastering, making it necessary to practice and study the heists.



Such complexity in practice 

When playing PAYDAY 2 nowadays, I felt its age; however, this is not a demerit of the game; on the contrary, I understand it as if it were a great positive point, mainly since it is still played a lot today. 

Even with gameplay tainted by time, the project still responds well and is very satisfying to play, especially with friends. 

So, speaking of the mechanics in general, the game becomes more difficult over time, not progressively, as a linear campaign game, but since the game needs to make crucial decisions for the development of the mission, as the heists become larger and more complex challenges, naturally the whole becomes more difficult. 

The mechanic that most caught my attention, playing after several years, was that of being allowed to release hostages to receive their partners in custody back, giving an air of tension to the missions and making you very careful not to be captured, since in some situations, hostages can be the currency of time that we have to be able to break into a safe or escape effectively. 

So, to go along with this varied content, it is necessary that the game also delivers enough character customization and personalization options to play the aggregate role of providing the player with methods of individualization within such a large project. 

Fortunately, the number of customizations available is quite large; there are several weapons, equipment, suits, clothing, costumes, skins for weapons, and, of course, plenty of DLC, all done to give the player as many options as possible to work with and find something that suits his personality or play style. 



A multitude of tasks 

PAYDAY 2 is undoubtedly an excellent game and worthy of all the success it has had and still has. It has a well-defined proposal and never skimps on details and features to make the player experience very complete. As is to be expected, the game community is extremely engaged, and the library of mods on the Steam platform is very extensive and full of great additions for hours of fun. 

In my experience, the highlight is the versatility of the game; dictating the pace of the mission by playing it stealthily or Rambo style is excellent, gives a sense of autonomy, and allows you to be in control of what happens. 

I highly recommend playing PAYDAY 2 with friends; although the experience with the bots provided by the game is also very good, in some situations the artificial intelligence is not very intelligent and makes some decisions that will hinder you or even change the course of the mission without wanting to. 

The story of the game is not even close to its strongest point; the main heists have background stories just to contextualize them, and the little information we have outside of this is about a group of robbers who are separated for some years and decide to reunite again to try their luck. 

The combat of the game is a fundamental part of this genre and works very well here. At times, the artificial intelligence of the enemies will not be good because, as was common in games of this era, this technology is not so advanced, and what surprises most negatively is the ability to detect these enemies. There are situations where you can run in front of them and they will not detect you in time for you to hide again. 

The controls are competent and customizable, being possible to use joysticks, a mouse, and a keyboard, i.e., they cater to all tastes and will not leave anything to be desired, but I emphasize that being a project of a decade, its gameplay corresponds to this. 

The game's audio is good for the time's standards; the songs are interesting, and the sound effects of shots and interactions with the environment are also well done. It fails only in the quality of the dubbing of the characters in general, which is not bad but also not even close to the best we have seen. 

Being a relatively old game, the prevailing language is North American English, with interface and subtitles in other languages as well, but the voices will only be in English, which, depending on the market, unfortunately, will be a barrier to overcome.



A solid foundation for its successor 

My experience with PAYDAY 2 was good. After many years away from the game, I managed to have more fun than at the time of its release, making it much more fun and addictive. As I said earlier, everything in the game is very dated; we have the experience of a decade-old project, but amazingly, it has aged very well. Some menus and mechanics are still a little confusing, but nothing that a few minutes of curiosity cannot cure. 

I recommend this game as a warm-up for PAYDAY 3, which will be released very soon, especially for those who have not had contact with this universe. It will be a very cool experience. Get some friends and get ready for, who knows, a successor even better than this classic. 



For this review, the game was played on a PC using the Steam platform.