PAYDAY 2 is awesome

[Azisien]

If you're the type of person that enjoys the following:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...gallery-heist/

a) co-op first person shooter
b) murdering cops
c) murdering innocent people (though, who is REALLY innocent?)
d) getting tons of video game cash and experience points for b and c in order to more efficiently continue b and c
e) knocking off Apple stores, banks, cooking meth, etc.

Then you'll probably love PAYDAY 2.

I really didn't care for Payday: The Heist. It was an okay game, but for me it got old fast. Probably because it was a lot more linear horde survival game.

They've really amped up the "multiple solutions" design elements to PAYDAY 2 heists. You can stealth, you can rush in and intimidate, you can do a bit of both. The police AI often feels realistic, because they rely much more on actual line of sight, making distractions and flanking a strategic possibility.

I've put close to 20 hours into the beta. It's got bugs, it's got problems, but another thing I like is that the developers are quite active on the forums, and they're listening to player input. As of right now, it's a very good game. If it lives up to its full potential, I'd call it the next Left 4 Dead (Left 4 Dead 2 being my favourite co-op FPS of all time).

The experience system is more robust, and they've made character customization more flexible for PAYDAY 2. You've got four skill trees to play around in: Mastermind (crowd control/leader), Enforcer (professional murderer), Technician (tactical control/expert driller), and Ghost (ninja stealth). You can go all-in on one class, or jack of all trades, or whatever the heck you want. I took the base skill in each class to unlock the doctor bag, ammo bag, trip mines, and ECM jammer. From there, I focused mainly on Mastermind and Ghost skill trees, turning myself into a crazy awesome ninja heister.

Of course, you don't just have to take my word for it, that Rock Paper Shotgun article up there has a nice long 20 minute heist video.

I believe it comes out on August 13th. It's only thirty bucks.

[Revising Ocelot]

So I hear prepurchases come with two beta invites, nudge nudge wink wink.

[Arcanum]

Prepurchase of the $50 Career Criminal Edition comes with beta access (+ bonus beta access). The regular game preorder is only $30. Also I already gave away my extra key.

Also, uugggghhh the game doesn't come out until the 27th I thought it was coming out on the 13th, I am sad now .


Anyway, the game is amazingly fun. They improved on pretty much everything from the first game. It's great. My only gripe with the game is the RNG loot drops for weapon mods (although they alleviated that with the last beta patch, giving everyone access to a pistol silencer right off the bat) and losing your weapon mod forever if you choose to unequip it.

Otherwise the game is fantastic, and I'm forcing myself to not play the beta (already have over 20 hours in it) so I don't burn out on the game before the full game is out.

[Azisien]

Things I don't like:

- Stuff is way too expensive. WAY too expensive. I can't count the number of times I had to choose between saving up for one gun with no mods, or buying a skill or two. Then I ran out of money entirely as skills got expensive. I had 13 skill points banked, couldn't buy any skills (except low tier ones I already didn't want), couldn't afford any guns. $300,000 for a firearm? $60,000 for a gun sight? Did the devs look up prices of guns in real life? Some of the high level skills are so expensive, I think I might be bored of the game by the time I get the benefit the skill gives.
**Most everyone gripes about this, the devs have said they are making things more affordable in a later beta patch/full launch.

- The card system. It should just be purely for extras. Mods need to be purchasable directly with money. It just doesn't make much sense otherwise. The free silencer is a nice appeasement, but not far enough. Card drops should stay as free cash bonuses, masks, mods, etc, but everything should be buyable with cash monies.

- Crime.net is a little weird, they need a create a custom game option too. Sometimes I want to do Bank Heist: Cash on Very Hard, exactly, and I have to repopulate Crime.net five times before it comes up. Time waster, but admittedly cute creative interface.

- Sometimes phone calls to police are instantaneous, that's no good.

- The companion AI is terrible. Right now this is only a good co-op shooter. To reach L4D levels they do need better companion AI. They're dumb, they have bad pathfinding, they can't carry anything, which is game-busting in a game largely about carrying things. Although the focus of this game is co-op, you'll attract a larger audience by having a solid singleplayer too, if only on those off times where you're up for a match and none of your friends are around.

- You should be able to do SOME actions in Casing Mode. Can't open a door? A window? Can't grab a keycard? Silly. I think to compromise this, if you get caught doing something in Casing Mode, you alert guards/etc instantly.

- Friendly fire. At least as an option.

- Police need to be able to hit civilians too, and maybe even be extra reluctant of shooting at you if you've surrounded yourself in civilians (or not, LOL social justice commentary). It's just plain silly that it's impossible for them to kill civilians, even if they're clearly riddling them with bullets, but if you so much as tap a civilian, they die and you get hit with money penalties.

- The meth cooking in 'Rats' is so buggy right now.

Things I like:

- Every single other thing.

[Ramary]

As someone who is more or less the host by way of having the best internet connection apparently, Crime.net is the bane of my existence, and they are not gonna change it because they have the idea in their head that they need to force people to play other heists by not just letting them pick the level/difficultly in the browser.

It is like they never played a mutiplayer shooter before, there always be maps people prefer to play, why make it a hindrance for them? Because you know best? Fuck off Overkill.


Also the ghost tree and stealth in general needs another look over.

Also the Payday system sucks.

[Arcanum]

The biggest problem with cooking meth in Rats is that what Bane says is client-side. So while he might go "uhhhh I think you need caustic soda. Maybe. I dunno, just wing it" to you, to another player he might go "next is hydrochloric acid, 100% certain, and don't you dare fucking touch caustic soda" to another player. So as long as you're double checking with each other then you should have no problems cooking meth.

[Azisien]

Stealth is by no means perfect yet but as someone who specialized in it, I think it's pretty good. With a lot of Ghost and a little bit of Mastermind, I am stealthing Four Stores and Bank most of the time. Occasionally Nightclub, but the guard paths are a bitch in that one and often a toss up.

Also, nah, Rats can bug out even if you double check. I had Bain saying one thing, and saying another to my buddy, we double checked, even waited for an extra while for him to switch up ingredients and repeat himself, and it stayed different between us forever. We put in one of the ingredients he asked for from the player he asked it from, and the lab blew up anyway. It's definitely a bug and needs fixing, but they're most likely well aware of it.

[Aldurin]

Interested, though I would like someone to pelt me in the face with their extra invite if they could, I've been a bit too spendy recently.

[Azisien]

Beta invites only come with the Career Criminal Edition, which is fifty bucks. With that you get one invite for yourself and one to give away. In my case, I bought the $30 version and a friend gifted me his beta invite. I liked the game enough to upgrade, but I did NOT get 2 giftable invites, just the 1 friend invite. So if you're looking to maximize invites, just get the Career Criminal right off.

Or, of course, wait for the full launch of the game, where way more heists will be available anyway.

[Arcanum]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PAYDAY 2 will be out on Steam on August 13th

I am happy now!