I was lucky enough to play alongside Johnny Hurricane and a couple of our community members, each ensuring we invested in separate trees. This is another thrilling aspect of PayDay 2. To seriously consider stealthing missions players will need a group of friends invested in multiple skill trees. The skills vary greatly, from offering C4 to blow apart vaults to buffs and additional ammo for your allies. These skill points can be distributed freely between 4 different skill trees.
Players earn skill points for each level they achieve. Skills and abilities also play a large role. The items are earned after completing a mission and selecting a random card, although slightly annoying at times this system creates a real urge to complete mission after mission hoping for that rare attachment or cool looking mask. The combinations alone create thousands of unique possibilities for your characters look. Custom masks are also available, allowing players to choose a base mask, material, pattern and color. Players can collect an impressive variety of guns, each of which can be customized with up to 5 attachments. The real gem here is the character progression and rewards. The game does currently suffer from a lack of maps as every bank is the game, every jewellery store is the same, although there are very small variations in regards to guards, cameras and objective locations. Whether you’re robbing a jewellery store, breaking into a bank vault or protecting a van of Cocaine from rival mobsters, every single mission is intense from start to finish. Other Heists proved to be just as exciting.
Riot Shielded officers were attacking the stairs, heavily armored units breaking through the windows and snipers taking potshots whenever we showed them too much and this was just the first day of the 3-day Heist. We had to ensure we used the correct ingredients at the correct time, all the while defending ourselves from the onslaught of the police forces. The lab is located on the top floor and ingredients are scattered throughout the area. I entered a lobby with 3 other players using VOIP to discuss the next assignment, a 3-day Heist that involved cooking meth in a farmhouse lab. The multiplayer aspect is one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had through the Steam client.
After just 2 missions it was clear the offline mode was there purely for practice or to appease those that dislike online content. Again, frustrating and an incredible waste of time.ĭisheartened I decided to try my hand at the online co-op, this is what PayDay 2 was designed for. This meant I had to take each bag to a van outside, individually, while dozens of police officers were trying to take me down. Green with greed I started to bag up the cash only to find I was restricted to carrying a single pile, while the other 4 piles sat on the table.
I managed to survive long enough to break in, greeted by piles of Benjamin’s as tall as Mount Olympus. During this time I was tasked with defending our location from a constant onslaught of police. This process involves using a Thermal Drill which takes around 350 seconds to penetrate the door. After scrambling to take out the guards I took to breaking the vault. Civilians were running around like headless chickens, guards were ripping through my almost non-existent armor and my AI chums were still making their way into the bank. Sadly I got a little too close to a guard and I was discovered, then all hell broke loose. I approached the bank in casing mode, a passive ability that allows you to case the area taking note of security cameras, guard position and objectives. So my first experience in single player was frustrating, almost to the point of just turning it off. They don’t grab the money spilling from the bank vault, they don’t tie civilians and you’re unable to give them any commands other than “come here”, which they choose to ignore most of the time. The AI is unable to do anything other than shoot. PayDay 2 features offline play with optional AI companions forming a 4-man team. Following the rather lackluster approach to learning I decided to try single player.
However, it doesn’t show you anything about the interaction with civilians, guards and the police and it gives you next to no tools for learning how to stealth an operation.
It shows the basics, gives you the opportunity to fire off some rounds, crack a safe, open a door, it covers its bases. I use the term tutorial very loosely as it doesn’t really cover any serious mechanics of the game. Having a serious lack of any real experience with the original game I done what any self respecting co-op player would do, I dived into the tutorial first.