DEMO Plays 18 - Payday 2

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• published: 25 Feb 2014
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Another demo of a game I already own and have played on PC and upload a video of mostly just to advertise it to anyone who might have overlooked it; Payday 2. Payday 2 is a game where you and hopefully 3 of your friends rob banks, jewelry stores and art galleries either through stealth and cunning or by massacring every cop in sight mercilessly. Both Payday games (the first one is fun as well, in some ways even better than Payday 2) are clearly designed by lovers of heist films like Heat, the gameplay relies heavily on players working together with each one in their own area of expertise instead of everyone just soloing a shooter game at the same time, the music is awesome, you can customize your mask and gear, jobs can be done through either stealth or sheer force or a combination of both, gadgets from skill trees allow for a variety of play styles and random elements of missions allow for some unpredictability even in well known jobs. I was a bit afraid this demo wouldn't look good due to me playing alone with a controller and starting from scratch, but I think it turned out alright despite some bad graphics and the Artificial Intelligence showing it's lack of Intelligence. The video still showcases the idea of scouting the area before beginning the heist, the ability of one player to put on a mask and stealthily completing beginning tasks with other players still being incognito and able to do their own thing, the potential to complete jobs without any alarms or shooting at all, the ability to choose whether you prolong the heist and go for more money or be a pussy and run away as soon as you have one little bag of cash, and of course the fun shooting action once the idiot player has foolishly fucked it all up for everyone and the cops start coming. Naturally no game is perfect and Payday 2 does have it's share of flaws. The AI is hilariously dumb (as evidenced in the demo) and it's common to see commandos climb over tall fences when two feet to their left there's a gate left wide open for example. The game isn't very fun to play alone as the partner AI is also dumb and only acts as a bodyguard for the player in shootouts. They can't be ordered to cover a certain location or carry loot bags or use any skills, so when you play alone you really feel you are alone and the game relies on people working together on jobs to make it fun. Windows can be barricaded with planks, which is a cool idea, but doors can't be even closed once opened. Bane claims it's pointless in this line of job, but I highly disagree. Why wouldn't I want to close a door in order to work on a safe in the backroom in private? Why wouldn't I want to block a doorway to at least momentarily prevent cops from flooding in through eight different directions? I'm a high-class bank robber, not a petty thief. My job requires me to take complete control over the location and situation, and all I can do is pick a lock and shout at people? Closing a door is just a simple tiny little thing that might not matter to most players, but I want to be able to do it. There are also not enough different simple robberies like this bank robbery, unless more levels have been released since I last played (ages ago). I just wish there were a few different looking, simple, old fashioned banks, that's all. The other missions are cool, but bank is a bank and I'm a bank robber at heart. Art heists and plane engines and crack labs just don't do it for me. The game doesn't really open up until you've leveled up enough to really specialize in something, and in a sense can give the feeling new players should grind for money as fast as possible at the start, which you easily keep on doing until you're level 60 and totally burned out without really having much fun. So you have to be careful. The game also requires players to really communicate and keep track of what others are doing and adjust to the situation. I've had some very comedic but still catastrophically bad games with random people, like one where for 10 minutes everyone followed one guy around who later revealed he was just waiting for someone else to start the heist, proceeded to kill a bunch of civilians, called us retards and then ragequit. Or the one time I was alone covering the vault door and died against two bulldozers and assortment of other cops and my three partners in crime just kept on sawing through safety deposit boxes, not turning away even when they got shot, and died. But, I still recommend the game as even with flaws and stupid players abound (I admit I'm often one) there's still lots and lots of fun to be had, and the first two people to send me an email to johnny@johnnydfox.com and asking for Payday 2 get a free copy of Payday 2 on Steam. Also the first person to ask for it specifically gets the first game, Payday: The Heist, free on Steam. Why? Why not. I have them in my inventory to gift, might as well gift them.