Payday: The Heist..Left for Dead with a twist

The next game I'm playing is Payday: The Heist. It's available for PS3 and PC through steam. This review is based upon the PC version. It's quite cheap, $20, and good times for the low amount. I've put about 30 hours into it since it came out two weeks or so ago, and have had a blast with it. Essentially, it is a 4 person coop FPS. You are a team of criminals, robbing certain locations. I'll go over the locations further on.

You play the game left for dead style. You're a 4 man team, consisting of either real players or AI, attempting to complete a set of objectives, mowing down police in the process. Really I'm quite surprised this hasn't gotten more ill advised attention from the media, which would have only boosted sales, but oh well. Anyways, each objective moves your team closer to the cash. After acquiring the money, you must safely reach the getaway area, be it garbage truck, helicopter, sewer, or scuba equipment. I know, they put some thought into escapes, eh?

Police come in waves, called assaults. The AI is pretty awful for the cops. They just run in to where ever you are, and get blasted. Then more come, and more. While I understand we are playing a game, not a simulator, there should be some hesitation from lower street police. Swat I understand, but the boys in blue should be a bit more hesitant.

Cops running at 4 criminals all by his lonesome? Check.

There are 3 classes to choose from as you play the game. Assault, the typical run and gun approach. Sharpshooter, snipers and such. And Support, medical bags, extra starting ammo, etc. While you can switch class at anytime, you only choose a load out at the beginning of the mission, so you won't get different gear if you switch. What you do get, is levels.

As you acquire cash and do certain deeds, you gain XP (money in this case). Each class has a tree, and as you level, you get new items or upgrades in the class you are currently in. Allowing you to switch classes mid game, gives you the choice of leveling any way you would like. There are caps within the tree, such as progressing to a certain point in it you need level 20, or 88, or 144. Once you are capped in that tree, you can begin on another while you wait for the cap to remove. Or you can level up evenly, giving you a jack of all trades. Each tree also has a perk that can be used. These perks are passive, being chosen at the load out screen. Each one supports your team, but not yourself, allowing some overlap without anybody being useless. Currently, the level cap is at 145. I'm at 60, mostly in support.

Levels vary in location quite a bit, including this panic room heist

There is unfortunately a real lack of weapons and upgrades for the guns. Each tree only has 2 unlocked weapons as you progress, and the upgrades you get are lackluster to say the least. The sniper rifle you get in the sharpshooting tree doesn't even get a true scope, only a x2 or x4 red dot sight. In reality, the starting rifle is quite good until you have unlocked some of the damage boosts on the others while you progress. I still put the rifle on in some missions. Good news is, the developers have been very active on the steam forums, and confirm there will be future updates with new weapons and unlocks. Along with fixing many of the bugs and missing features, such as advanced graphic options (on a side note, why are developers not adding this in PC games recently? First Rage, which looked awful on my high end system because of its auto tuning, and now this.)

The cons are few, and for the most part, will be patched out according to devs.
1. Team and Police AI are weak, second patch will fix some of this.
2. Lack of weapons and upgrades.
3. No push-to-talk (again, developers, include this in PC games, I don't want to listen to my cohorts munching Doritos, a crying baby, and their awful music the entire time)
4. No advanced graphic options
After reaching max level, no reason to continue except the fun of the game. (some may find this a problem, I do not. I don't need Prestige levels to make me feel happy.)
5. Difficulty on some heists is just insane with a sub par team, even on normal (many have been complaining of this, but I really enjoy the difficulty. I'm sick of games holding your hands while you play. I want to be beaten and tossed around. At least some devs still know what it is to make a difficult game. On a side note, if you want a difficult game, try Demon's Souls for the PS3, or Dark Souls for PS3 and Xbox. They are brutal.)
6. No real explanation in game how leveling works. I didn't get it until about level 20 or so. Somebody else actually explained it to me in game. Maybe should have some kind of a short tutorial heist or something, just to explain the basics.

As I said, many of these are being patched
As for the levels. They vary, but in reality, they feature many objectives that are essentially the same. Set the drill on the vault and wait for it to open, but it jams, so you have to sit with it. Open the safe room with saws, but they jam, so sit with them. Open the prison transport vehicles with saws, but wait..you get my drift.
Other than the lack of variation in some objectives, each heist is quite fun, though I do have favorites.
I'll be going over each of them in a future post.