[ALL] PAYDAY 2

[Swarley]

Payday 2 Coming To Xbox 360, PS3, And PC This Summer

Payday: The Heist, the cooperative bank robbery first-person shooter, is getting a sequel, and it's coming to more than just PC and PlayStation 3 this time around.

Developer Overkill Software, joined Starbreeze last year, giving them more resources to spread its game around. Payday 2 is coming to Xbox 360, something the original game couldn't claim.

In Payday 2, players will have access to the CrimeNet, which means there will be more jobs will be available, and you will be able to level up your character with earned cash. For more on the game, check out our full preview by clicking here.

The game will be available this Summer, but Overkill isn't ready to set an exact date.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/12/payday-2-coming-to-xbox-360-ps3-and-pc-this-summer.aspx

[Swarley]

Payday 2
Setting Up A Bigger Heist

Last year’s student project turned digital release Payday: The Heist brought the Left 4 Dead co-op shooting formula to the world of cops and robbers. This follow-up addresses criticisms of the first game, expands the content to include shorter playtimes, and channels more of the heist vibe with more stealthy options.

Payday 2’s gameplay is still deeply rooted in cooperatively shooting through waves of dynamically spawned cops in partially random levels. The four player classes are more differentiated in the sequel, though, giving players an expanded arsenal of approaches. Masterminds can strap explosive vests to hostages before surrendering them to the police, breaking a standoff with cold-blooded mayhem. Ghosts silently cut through windows and disable alarm equipment without anyone the wiser. Technicians deploy sentry guns for additional firepower and drill safes silently and quickly. Enforcers raise all kinds of hell, using special melee weapons for one-hit kills and anchoring the team in any gunfight. An array of passive upgrades augment each class, and skills from multiple professions can be mixed and matched within an RPG-like skill tree system.

These powerful abilities must be earned. The vastly expanded metagame in Payday 2 fleshes out persistent skill unlocks and incorporates a Diablo-like item system. Completing a heist not only gets you cash, but also a “payday” – a randomly generated item that could be anything from a new mask to a custom machine gun grip with special properties. In-game money is good for unlocking Payday 2’s basic spread of weaponry, but fitting your weapon with the best custom black-market augmentations is a matter of taking on the toughest missions and getting a little luck here and there.

Roughly 20 times as many missions as the original’s handful range from one-day affairs with single segments to complex six-day heists that more closely resemble the first game’s lengthy levels. Players select their target from the bevy of missions constantly cycling through the city map frontend in real time. The difficulty of the missions the system presents to you is dependent on your experience level, though you are free to join a friend in a higher-level stage if you think you can hack it. This neat interface is certainly more engaging than a traditional server browser or matchmaking queue, though waiting for a specific mission you’re in the mood for could be frustrating.

The original game was markedly superior on PC, and Windows remains the lead platform for the sequel. However, Overkill assures us that the larger budget, bigger development team, and additional development time will allow for the kinds of console customizations the first game sorely lacked. Forgetting how dramatically Halo changed the console first-person shooter landscape is easy until you try playing something without the subtle auto-aim and other changes that make gamepad shooting more pleasant. Overkill is aware that it can’t skimp on those under-the-hood mechanics for the top-tier console experience it hopes to create.

The hands-off Payday 2 demo showcased a lot of positive changes that I appreciate as a fan of the subgenre and of the first game. Little things like being able to use a precious cable tie to temporarily secure a door pose interesting tactical options, and one creative mission I saw had players scrambling to unload bags of cocaine from a van after being pulled over by a heavily armed police force. The best-case scenario of Payday 2 being an improvement along the lines of Orcs Must Die 2 or Torchlight II is definitely within Overkill’s reach.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/payday_2/b/pc/archive/2013/03/12/payday-2-preview-setting-up-a-bigger-heist.aspx

[Swarley]

PayDay 2 Wants to Plan the Perfect Heist
How Diablo and The Dark Knight inspired Overkill's upcoming sequel.

There's a seminal moment in all great heist films where a character is faced with a life-altering decision -- brief period in time where our hero stands at a crossroads, still in possession of just enough free will to turn back and forget about any ill-advised plans he may have concocted. But taking the righteous path wouldn't make for a very interesting story, now would it? So we as the audience cringe with glee at that moment where the character puts on a mask, bursts through a bank door, and begins to take what he believes is rightfully his. It's this kind of cinematic tension, drama, and choice that developer Overkill is aiming for with Payday 2, the sequel to their 2011 cooperative shooter centered around all manner of heists.

Payday 2's general flow feels similar to Diablo II, which is fitting considering that the team at Overkill cites Blizzard's classic action-RPG as a major source of inspiration. The general structure is fairly familiar: round up a party of four, deck out your characters with a variety of attributes, and then embark on a quest rooted in thievery. Though it plays out through the lens of a first-person shooter, the core of Payday 2 resonates with the same energy as Blizzard's loot-fest. Successfully completing a job rewards you with money and items that can be used to upgrade your weapons, equipment, and skills. It presents that addictive cycle of outfitting your character so that you can complete a job and then further outfit your character to eventually complete even tougher jobs. It's a thin ledge to navigate, but those few games that are able to keep their balance end up becoming the stuff of legend.

Taking another cue from Diablo, Payday 2 allows you to play with a skill tree made up of four distinct paths that cater to whichever style of thief you prefer. For instance, you can assume the role of a Mastermind, an analogue to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. This archetype is adept at mind games and able to convince civilians and police officers to surrender using a forked tongue. Or maybe you'll steer your points towards the Technician, who seems ripped straight out of Ocean's 11 thanks to his ability to hack security systems and cause complete disarray from behind a laptop. Much of Payday 2's strategy depends on forming a balanced team that can use its unique abilities to overcome a given mission's obstacles in a number of ways. If you don't diversify your team, you just might find yourself sorely lacking options in certain predicaments.

The best sequels learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, build upon their strengths, and find ways to introduce new and innovative features to ward off stagnation. Lucky for us, Payday 2's lead designer David Goldfarb agrees with all three of these principles, and vows to make a game that trumps the original in every way imaginable. Goldfarb emphasizes the titular moments of reward as a misstep in the original title. Sure, a successful mission would leave you with cash, but money lacks the weight of an actual, memorable prize. No one remembers where a dollar bill in their pocket came from. For Payday 2, he wants to give rewards emotional weight, narrative impact, and lingering resonance.

"Value is at the core of robbery,” he declares proudly. “I mean...why else would you steal something?" Successfully completing your goal will yield dynamically unique items; the tougher the mission, the bigger the reward. The team's goal is to have rare pieces of loot forever linked to the heist you earned them in. Every time you use that specific gun or don that particular mask, you'll think back to the intense shootout in which you claimed it.

In another nice touch, heists vary dramatically in length, and only in seeing them out to completion will you be able to earn the high-level paydays. This scalability present in the mission structure provides a refreshing variety that can adapt to fit in with any amount of time you might have to play. Heists range from quick, five minute grab-and-gos, to multifaceted missions comprised of many different jobs that eventually culminate into completing the perfect crime. What's even more exciting is the promise of each mission containing dozens of dynamic elements that ensure no two playthroughs are identical. Security placement is fluid, a getaway van might pick you up in a completely different spot, and a safe that once contained a precious tiara could suddenly be empty.

Overkill's heart is absolutely in the right place with Payday 2. While it's reassuring that Goldfarb is able to spit out cinematic inspirations like a film major, questions still linger regarding how everything will come together in the end. Grandiose ideas and good intentions don't mean much if the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't have what it takes to sink its claws into the player. For now, we'll have to wait and see if Payday 2's schematics are able to come together and deliver on its film-infused promises.

[Swarley]

[padman59]

I'll get this. The first one was pretty fun albeit really hard at times.

[Twigg4075]

I love Payday but like Pad said, it is overly difficult even on Easy.

Plus there were just an insane amount of levels. 180 I believe?

[Handleit_44]

• CRIMENET – The dynamic contract database lets gamers pick and choose from available jobs by connecting with local contacts such as Vlad the Ukrainian, shady politician “The Elephant” and Mexican drug trafficker Hector, all with their own agenda and best interests in mind. CRIMENET features dozens of varied, exciting jobs and as the player progresses, new contacts with new jobs become available.
  
  
• Choose Your Profession – As players progress they can invest in any of four special professions: the Mastermind, the Enforcer, the Ghost and the Technician. Each features a deep customization tree of associated skills and equipment to master and they can be mixed and matched to create the ultimate heister.
  
  
• PAYDAY Loot – Finishing a job isn’t just an accomplishment to be proud of. After a successful heist gamers will also earn rare and powerful new equipment such as masks, weapons mods, mask modifications and a variety of other accessories.
  
  
• Weapons and Modifications – A brand new arsenal for the serious heister covering everything from sniper and assault rifles to compact PDWs and SMGs. Once players have settled for a favorite, they can modify it with optics, suppressors, fore grips, reticles, barrels, frames and stocks – all of which will affect the performance of their weapon. There are also purely aesthetic enhancements – why not go for the drug lord look with polished walnut grips for your nine?
  
  
• Mission Assets – Every job has a set of purchasable assets that can alter and enhance the heist such as a faster escape car, blueprints or even inside help.
  
  
• Character Upgrades – The signature PAYDAY mask can now be customized into tens of thousands of different combinations, color and material variations and there is a bigger selection of gear to wear for the discerning high-fashion heister.
  
  
• Multistage Jobs – Many contracts feature several separate stages allowing for mission forks and different outcomes depending on what the players accomplish in each individual stage.
  
  
• Rob Banks With Friends – Players must choose their crew carefully because when the job goes down they will need the right mix of skills on their side.
  
  
• PAYDAY Gun Play and Mechanics on a New Level – Firing weapons and zip tying civilians never felt so good.
  
  
• Dynamic Scenarios – No heist ever plays out the same way twice. Every single scenario has random geometry or even rare events.
  
  
• Character Progression – Gamers begin as dime store thieves and as the game progresses they unlock new skills, weapons, accessories and masks, eventually becoming legendary robbers.
  
  
• Play It Your Way – Each job allows for multiple approaches such as slow and stealthy ambushes to running in guns blazing. Players hit the target any way they want and watch as the heist unfolds accordingly.
  
  
• AI Director – PAYDAY 2’s new AI director breaks new ground and requires even more from the dedicated co-operative player base. Enemies will devise strategies in response to player action like flash banging, breaching tactics, freeing hostages and even recovering loot bags.

[wingsfan77]

Definitely gonna pick this up right when it releases, had a blast playing the first.

[Buzzman]

I wish we had more nights on this. I only played with wingsfan once. That was about it.

[Twigg4075]

Who says we're done? I'm always up for some Payday.

[BigBucs]

I love Payday but like Pad said, it is overly difficult even on Easy.

Plus there were just an insane amount of levels. 180 I believe?

Thought you told me there were only 5 levels, more or less, but it wasnt many.

[Twigg4075]

Thought you told me there were only 5 levels, more or less, but it wasnt many.

That's how many maps. I meants levels as in leveling your character. There are something like 180 and it takes forever to unlock even the smallest abilities. It's such a chore.

[Handleit_44]

[Handleit_44]

[padman59]

This is going to be a $30 title BTW.