In Payday’s world, SWAT teams respond instantaneously to blown heist attempts. They pile into banks and museums with license to shoot on sight, and then they pile up in hallways as you and your team of super-thieves gun them down while shuttling riches into a getaway vehicle. You can play Payday 3 like that, but I prefer the harder stealth approach, and my team and I came so close to pulling it off before I blew it.
Payday 3 doesn’t stray far from the decade-old Payday 2. The co-op levels I previewed saw me and three heist-mates case a building, find a way in (front door, guns out is an option), and then complete a series of semirandomized tasks to locate and remove its valuables. In Secure Capital Bank, the loud way into the vault involves collecting bags of thermite from the roof and burning a hole through the second floor. The quiet method is much more complicated, and includes the classic heist movie move of sticking a bank executive’s face into a retinal scanner. That was the last thing I did before everything went sideways.
My team of thieves was made up of Payday novices, including me, and one Starbreeze developer who patiently tried to show us Payday 3’s deeper stealth system. Two stealth attempts ended because another player accidentally threw a grenade, one of the loudest things a person can accidentally do. One ended because a civilian spotted us climbing a fire escape and called the cops. Twice in a museum level I crossed a laser beam while trying to turn off the security system. And one time a guard caught me trying to pick a lock in the lobby of the bank and cuffed me.
YOU CAN’T BE HERE
Denne historien er fra October 2023-utgaven av PC Gamer US Edition.
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Denne historien er fra October 2023-utgaven av PC Gamer US Edition.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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YELLOW CARD
Flawed deckbuilder DUNGEONS AND DEGENERATE GAMBLERS rarely plays a winning hand
GODS AND MONSTERS
AGE OF MYTHOLOGY: RETOLD modernizes a classic RTS with care
SPACED OUT
After a strong first impression, WARHAMMER 40K: SPACE MARINE 2 runs out of steam
SLIDES RULE
Redeeming a hated puzzle mechanic with SLIDER
DINER HARD
Rewriting the rules of horror in ALAN WAKE
"Kay Vess, galactic tomb raider"
Feeling like Lara Croft in STAR WARS OUTLAWS
LETHAL COMPANY
A return to some explosive post-launch patches.
MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE
Enter the multiverse of modness.
TRACK GPT
Al's teaching sim racers to improve-what about other games?
FINDING IMMORTALITY
Twenty-five years on, PLANESCAPE: TORMENT is still one of the most talked-about RPGs of all time. This is the story of how it was created as a 'stay-busy' project by a small team at Black Isle Studios