Payday 2: Crimewave Edition is the remastering of the original Payday 2 that came out back in 2013, earning high acclaim and a cult following. This new, next gen version includes the base game, as well as a host of DLC. The game delivers a simple yet hard hitting concept, incorporating up to four player co-op within a tactical, action FPS experience. Gamers will be put through their paces as they go on a ravenous crime spree across Washington DC as several criminal professionals. The aim of the game is to conduct and successfully complete a number of high stake robberies, drug trades, heists and more for the US’s Criminal underworld.
There is no overall narrative as such, but rather a collection of various jobs and miniature plots for players to participate in. Participating in jobs for infamous criminal masters, like a corrupt politician known as the Elephant–or Vlad, a feared and unstable Russian gangster who will always eliminate the competition in any way possible. This allows for Payday 2 to give a tremendous quantity of missions to play with, and a large variation of objectives that keep the game from feeling repetitive. Stealing from small jewelry stores, to helping drug lords make successful trades, and even taking on DC’s biggest banks; There’s something for everyone. As for many of the larger missions, certain details or objectives will dramatically change, creating multiple ways a level can be played. This could be where the drop off point is, the escape location, or even where the loot is held and how to get to it.
This can lead to one of the game’s major problems, as there are a number of small objectives within some levels that are incredibly long winded. This can change to something more proactive, but often enough players will be forced to complete an objective that takes too long, and after a few minutes it just becomes a major frustration. The best example of this is the Big Bank job, which has you search for a pass code on a PC within an office filled with PCs. It’s basically a big guessing game and it takes its toll, considering as well that the police’s heavy units mercilessly build up after a couple of waves. It doesn’t help that some missions stretch out too long, (Again, Big Bank mission) and these overly long and tedious objectives don’t help when you have to start over again. It does matter if you play on the Overkill difficulty, believe me.
Payday 2: Crimewave Edition is a slight let down with its minor improvements in graphical representation. I do dislike how many remasters (Devil May Cry to note one) give a game a shallow face lift, adding a shiny texture here, and some nicer carpet designs there. I know this shouldn’t be a problem, but it would have been nice to see a little more effect from the studio who brought a massive reworking to Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
The gameplay is an intensely brutal experience that highly depends on team work, good communication, and patience under extreme pressure. It holds the values that a good co-op game should, like Left for Dead. Details of details are given, and crews can prepare for their jobs depending on the style they want to play. Players can either take on jobs with consideration, using stealth to avoid any heavy fire fights–Or act like extremely violent psychopaths and shoot up the place, using fear and intimidation to control the crowds. Pulling off a successful job will relish players in cash rewards and XP, which will increase on the level of difficulty played and loot stolen.
With higher stakes played, the bigger the rewards will be. Cash is used to obtain new and delightfully improved weapons and gadgets, while levelling up will help obtain attributes from the multiple skill trees, that’ll keep you playing for the higher rewards. Depending on your style of play, you can choose from a number of skill trees available. If you fancy improving your trusty drills (and you will since they suck so much to begin with), or want to use plastic explosives to open up safes quickly then the Engineer skill tree is worth investing in. There are others which unlock perks for gun buddies, medics or the brute of the group who can carry all that heavy loot.
Also with its brilliant sound track, the action is splendidly vibrant and energetic when things kick off.
I did find some issues with the major difficulty spikes and the unbalanced nature of the game. The progression of NPC waves goes out the window =on harder difficulties, as you’ll feel overwhelmed by a ridiculous number of NPCs, and enemies who are way too over powered. Riot police with tazers and Splinter Cell style commandos will take you down in a single hit, and only with the help of a team mate or killing them with your secondary weapon will you recover. The game feels frustratingly unfair at times, but this can be overcome by playing co-op. However in single player, this is more of an issue.
Sadly the single player experience is underwhelming compared to online co-op; Thanks to its poor partner AI, unbalanced gameplay, and mechanics that better fit multiplayer rather than offline. It’s only manageable if you’ve earned the better equipment and skills, as these will help you progress a little more smoothly playing alone, as your AI partners will not carry loot and won’t help out in stealth encounters. Yet, I still recommend that you play with other human players. I didn’t understand why there is no off line co-op, this would’ve helped so many of the issues mentioned, and been a great deal of fun to those who like to play games locally.
Even with its short comings and the annoyances of being slightly unbalanced, Payday 2 Crimewave Edition is a tremendous multi-player experience. It nails the efforts of team work and brutal FPS gameplay within a high stakes environment successfully. Aside from the issues of difficulty, I highly recommend the game–Especially The Crimewave Edition–for its strong co-op, brutal and immersive gameplay, and great amount of content.
A copy of Payday 2: Crimewave Edition was provided by 505 Games for the purpose of this review