So here we are, 10 years after the release of the second game in one of the industry's most famous heist franchises. PAYDAY 3 arrives with the aim of bringing to the latest consoles and PCs the same feeling we had back in the day, which is good old-fashioned fun. But even after 10 years, does the game remain "playable"?
Well, the game is playable, right, but whether or not it stays up to date is another story, but let's go from there. Pay Day 3 is a first-person shooter, preferably multiplayer, but which can also be played single-player. Like the previous games in the franchise, our main objective in the missions is to loot the maps.
In order to make the loot, you have to accomplish a few objectives. Taking the first map as an example, where you rob a small bank, you need to find a "weak point", place explosives in order to destroy this weak point, access the safe, get the money and take it to the escape transport and, of course, escape.
Simple, but not so simple
Although it may seem simple to follow these steps, PAYDAY 3 isn't that simple, because if you don't do everything stealthily (which makes everything very complicated), you'll face hordes and hordes of enemies while fulfilling these objectives. These enemies range from unprepared guards to SWAT soldiers, and even armored giants with miniguns.
The game isn't just about breaking into a bank, as I said; there are missions in which you have to break into strong cars, missions to rob jewelry stores, among others. To put it plainly, the game has a variety of gameplay that makes the experience very enjoyable. And for those who like a challenge, each of these stages has different levels of difficulty.
As I said, this is a first-person shooter, but that doesn't stop us from having access to some customization for the characters in PAYDAY. We can change various things, such as the characters themselves, their outfits, their masks and, of course, their weapons. Speaking of weapons, we have access to two, one main and one secondary, whose ammunition runs out very quickly.
However, you can recharge your ammunition by killing enemies, because when they die, they drop a certain amount of ammunition, but it's not good to count on them because it's a very small amount. But there are more effective ways to get ammunition. We can activate "skills", which allow us to throw items such as HP healing items, items to recover armor and items that give us a lot of ammunition.
An ordinarily fun FPS
But now that we're into gameplay, let's get to what you can do in the game. And well, it's basically what you can do in any shooting game. You can walk, run, duck, slide, shoot and throw items like grenades (as well as special items). However, in order to carry out the heists, you'll also need to pick up packages, such as bags full of money or rare metals, jewelry, etc.
You can only carry one large package at a time, so you need to be very careful when transporting the packages to the escape area. And if you're playing online, you'll need to work as a team to finish as quickly as possible. Now, if you're playing alone, there's no way you'll get any help because, although there are 3 other bots, they're pretty dumb, but at least they're there to kill the enemies.
Well, as it turned out, the AI of the allies is a weak point in the game, and the same can be said of the AI of the enemies. I experienced some performance problems too, the game crashed a few times and it was sometimes difficult to find other players in matchmaking. But the fun of the game, even when offline, makes up for it.
Was it worth spending that time?
But I think the fun in PAYDAY 3 might be the only positive point here, and of course, that's the main point, right? But I feel that there were things that could have been better, for example its visuals. The game came out 10 years after the previous game, and it doesn't seem to have kept up with all the years of evolution that games have undergone.
The graphics of the scenes are very simple and not very detailed, and the animations, both in the 3D modeling and in the interface itself, are sometimes too simple. The NPCs are very robotic, both visually and in their programming. The playable characters are even better (as they should be), but nothing very impressive either. The story videos are deplorable, as is the plot.
At the end of the day, what saves the game is its simple and fun gameplay, which manages to keep you hooked for hours and hours. However, in order to be able to play for that long, the game needs to work minimally well, something that hasn't been happening yet. And this has really affected the game, which hasn't reached the numbers of the previous game, for example.
But an update is scheduled to be released in the next few days, after being postponed. It can hardly get any worse than this. And if it gets better, you'll have access to a game that's extremely fun to play both with friends and on your own.
See also:
PUBG MOBILE at Brasil Game Show 2023
English 
Portuguese