PAYDAY 3
Step out of retirement back into the life of crime in the shoes of the Payday Gang, the envy of their peers and the nightmare of law-enforcement wherever they go. Several years after the crew’s reign of terror over Washington DC has ended, they assemble once again to deal with the threat that roused them out of early retirement.
The legendary Payday Crew, dreaded by the law and underworld alike, is back. Ripped from their peaceful retirement to rejoin the criminal world by a new threat, one born from the chaos the Crew left in their wake.
In order to identify and crush this new threat, the Crew is leaving their Washington DC roots behind them and moving to New York City. A new location will bring with it new challenges, but also new opportunities for a heister with a plan.
Give outlet to your greed and let loose in PAYDAY 3. In addition to gold, cash and jewelry and any other valuables they might come across, you’ll be able to build a sizable collection of weapons, cosmetics and accolades.
It won’t be as simple as showing up and gaining goodies. You’ll have to work hard and plan smart to get away with as much loot as possible. Gain experience, unlock new skills and gain proficiency in weapons to steadily grow your power to handle the tougher challenges.
A professional heister knows it takes planning, hard work and a good amount of luck in order to execute a successful heist. In PAYDAY 3 the choice is put in the hands of the players, deciding how to tackle the heist, whether you sneak or go in guns blazing, whether you let your hostages go or keep them around as pawns, whether you go at it alone or bring friends. The choices are endless and in your hands, they will vastly change how the game plays.
Not just anyone is worthy of standing at your side for something as important as a heist. Likewise, PAYDAY 3 is best enjoyed with close friends in mind, whether you bring them from your childhood or make them along the road.
The PAYDAY-series has always valued the bonds made through hardship and tries to reflect that in the actions and words of our heisters while in the game, and through our community while on the outside.
Steam User 276
After 1 year, I can finally write this review.
It started as a train wreck. The game was unplayable and legit not fun at all. The grind was tedious, and the reward was non existing.
But now the game feels really smooth. They ditched the crappy challenge mechanic, and there's rewards for going all loot possible. The new heists are really fun, as well as the weapons included. The new UI and server browsing look very promising.
In general, yes, this game is worth buying now. It wasn't at the start, but after 180 hours, I can finally say that they managed to fix this game and provide it a promising future.
Steam User 250
If they kept this game in the oven for another year, and added everything that they've added so far as base game content, I think Payday 3's launch wouldn't have been so rough. The newest update is looking extremely promising to bring the "Payday" feel back to the game.
Steam User 215
I can finally recommend this game. It still isn't up to the level of Payday 2 but the potential is here and it's turned out to be a fun game. I'm just gonna talk about the stuff I like that is an improvement since Payday 2.
Zip ties are no longer finite. You're carrying around a bottomless Costco bag of zip ties. This is something that annoyed me in Payday 2.
Small Safes now have a unique lockpicking mechanic that is fun. The drill is no longer used for everything, it also doesn't take forever. Now smaller safes can be picked in a very satisfying minigame where you turn the dial until it goes green three times. It's pretty nice.
Lockpicking is actually a minigame now too. Gone are the days of just staring at an object and holding the pick button. Now there's a minigame that is actually faster than picking in Payday 2. Even messing up only penalizes you by not opening the lock sooner. Really nice change imo
Hostages are much easier to deal with. Ordering them around, using them as a human shields, booping them to the ground for a tie down. It's much easier and fluid than it was in Payday 2. Being able to grab them and throw them to the ground in a specific location beats trying to herd them in Payday 2.
New enemy types and improved favorites. New guys are grenade cops, hostage rescue is now a unique enemy, there's cops that hide and control drones to mess with you. The tazer cops are cooler, you can shoot their battery pack to shock a bunch of cops around them. The Dozer seems to have had the largest improvement and dealing with them is difficult and satisfying. You can also shoot antenas off of FBI vans to end waves at times too.
Side objectives can be found in many of the heists. Like finding specific loot in the safety deposit boxes or going the extra mile to make and employee use a biometric scanner at the jewelry store to get those last four high value items.
Now you can just choose your heist. No more waiting for the one you want to pop up or spending in game currency to buy the contracts. Just pick what you want to play.
Gun attachments are no longer an RNG gambling hell. Now you level up weapons by using them. As you level up, more parts become available to buy and install. This is a godsend.
Killstreak rewards. So now instead of starting with a grenade launcher or minigun as a primary weapon, they're now killstreak rewards you can call in during a mission. I like this option more because it doesn't tie up your primary slot.
The ECM Jammers are now tools and seperate from health/ammo deployments. That means you can have those along with health, ammo, armor, and a sentry. There are also new tools added like motion detectors, EMPs, and a few others.
The armor system is pretty cool. Now you choose a base frame that has different pros/cons. Lighter frames have less movement penalties but only hold one armor plate. Bigger frames hold more plates and ammo but has movement penalties. There's a few different plates to choose from too. Each with their own benefits and draw backs. It's really interesting to customize the armor. It also affects how many downs you are allotted as well.
All in all, the game is pretty solid and they're about to release a rework of the skills. This game isn't better than Payday 2 or at its level yet. But the improvements I listed are enough QOL improvements for me to really enjoy what it is currently. If you can catch this game on sale, I wouldn't hesitate.
One last thing. Payday 3 still supports playing DLC you don't own as long as the host has purchased it. This is a really nice feature I wish more games had. Doesn't lock your buddies out of playing new heists and you're not forced to play them with randos.
There still is no offline mode, but they have added a solo mode that is currently in beta. The solo mode is to host your own games so you're not bogging down servers or something. Idk but it's there so I thought I'd mention it.
Steam User 87
It was pretty rough at first but it's come a long way since then and I genuinely have fun playing it now. It hasn't reached No Man's Sky's redemption but they're working hard on getting the game where it should have been
Steam User 113
In a vacuum, it's not a bad game. The problem is, Payday 2 is much more content-rich, and replayable.
What's good:
Animations, stealth mechanics (except for standing in circle hacking, but it's not exclusive to stealth), gunplay, movement, map design
What's bad:
Replayability, build variety, AI (both friendly and enemy). This one is more of a preference, but in my opinion, the Artstyle kinda sucks (graphics are ok, but it looks generic compared to PD2 and PDTH).
Also, Shade (the objective announcer NPC) is kind of cringe. I don't mind her usually, but in loud, she keeps screeming at the crew about "getting the fuck out of there, the cops are not retreating this time", when the main objective isn't done, and you literally can't escape.
I preferred the announcers in PD2, Bain was professional, same with Locke, but even the more expressive announcers were just done better, like Vlad or Jimmy.
Steam User 179
It’s alright, but locking most of the good guns behind DLC is a bad move. Paid for the game, now they’re trying to get more money for the rest? Not cool.
Steam User 54
Before the Armor 2.0 update payday3 was decent - it wasnt super bad, just kinda easy, repetitive and a bit boring after some time,
But now after the update and the recent balance changes, payday3 finally is enjoyable and actually fun to play.
Armor 2.0 is much better than the old armor, providing more variety to builds.
They brought back the old payday2 armor (which they also balanced very well)
They finally added an option to have different outfits for different builds.
Stealth is (and was) much better than in payday2.
Loud, after the recent update, is finally great and somewhat challenging - snipers now actually shoot, naders throw their grenades (and actually throw them much better and more often than before), cops finally deal damage etc
The OG heists are great, the newer ones aren't much worse
And the newest Powder Party heist gives payday2s Shadow raid heist vibes, which in my opinion is great.
One thing - please add something like payday2s infamy system, it would really help the game and its progression
and maybe rework the shop so the primary weapons and secondaries are in separate categories