Payday 3 Review

The catastrophe that was Payday 3‘s launch will hopefully not be its enduring legacy.

It can be quite easy to tear into a game because of an unruly launch period that may be rife with bugs and online issues. I couldn’t play Diablo 3 for hours when I bought it Day One. Years later, Blizzard transformed it. Baldur’s Gate 3 had a number of bugs but I could forgive those knowing in due time they would be ironed out and that they didn’t ultimately weaken my experience.

But when attempting to play Payday 3 on launch day for review, I simply couldn’t. While I can’t speak for those who had the game in its early release period or those who reviewed it on private servers, it still does not change fundamental problems with the overall Payday 3 experience.

I opened Payday 3 relatively excited because I had always wanted to experience the second game but never had a group to do it with. Then I had to sign up for an account on some Nebula service I’d never heard of. Maybe I could skip it but I figured I would be playing the game for awhile so why not? After playing the tutorial and scanning through menus, I went in to matchmake. For minutes the game’s theme played–a great tune, mind you–while trying to establish a connection.

Ten minutes of doing chores around the house and taking my dogs out with no lobby being established took me to the internet to see if the servers were bogged down by the influx of people. They sure were and would be for days. Friday and part of Saturday I tried, finally getting into a match on Sunday. And within minutes had my party either get disconnected or leave because the mission wasn’t going their way.

I felt miserable playing out the rest of the initial bank heist by myself. Killing a hundred or so guards was fine but it all felt incredibly mindless, empty even. The wait for the money truck to leave, mindless. The end result, disappointing.

What the hell happened here?

For the past couple weeks I’ve worked through Payday 3 almost as a chore which is not the preferred mindset but one I ultimately had to accept. This game is not the version of Payday 3 players are likely going to experience months from now, that’s the version I wish had given me the first impression. But it shines a light on how fundamentally out of touch Starbreeze may have been when crafting this newest entry in the series. A series where the second game released 10 years ago and currently has more active players than the newest entry. Shouldn’t that have served as a superb building block?

Days ago during the process of trying to wrap up my feelings about Payday 3 for review, I hopped back in after a period of not playing. Like many other times, it took several minutes to get past the start screen into the main menu. The text on my challenge descriptions were bugged. And hey, the audio–if there is any–for the “cutscenes” was still completely absent.

Starbreeze mentioned after the abysmal launch that a patch was coming to fix countless bugs and it may arrive in October. For weeks the playerbase of Payday 3 waited. For weeks Starbreeze said it couldn’t say anything just yet but that the patch would hopefully arrive by the end of the month.

With spooky season about to close, it seems that October patch is a pipe dream. Starbreeze finally spoke up, saying that the patch featured a fundamental problem that could wipe player progression. This was a patch that would fix bugs. Bugs like keeping players from using the cosmetic items they paid for in pricier editions of Payday 37. But this patch would also not fix some of the fundamental, questionable problems the game had. That would be later down the line.

I’ve spent a surprising amount of time watching the Payday 3 YouTube community break the game down and identify problems that would only come out weeks and months after a game’s launch. The silence from Starbreeze seems particularly baffling, especially if they knew the progression bug existed and said nothing. The community would have respected and understood the extra time needed.

But here we are with a semi-broken, unpolished version of Payday 3 that will eventually become good. Yes the game is being released at a $40 price tag, a good deal when it eventually becomes good. Yet this is a game that did not account for a massive influx of players that could play it through Game Pass. Yes a massive amount of players hopped in at launch but turned away when they couldn’t play and might not return when it eventually becomes good.

Despite Payday 3 eventually becoming good I can’t in good conscience recommend it right now.

When I played that first match, I lamented a lack of a dedicated party I could voice chat with. At this time, players have no way to load into a lobby where others are seeking a dedicated stealth or loud approach to a heist. Worse yet, there’s only text chat. No voice unless you are in a separate party chat. In 2023, why? Why is this an overlooked feature?

Maybe my hesitation to learn the ropes of a heist or two and screw it up for other players would subside if I was able to play those heists by myself with obedient AI. And sometimes you just want to go solo. But there is no offline mode, a painful reality during launch. Players who grouped up and went into an invite only match would still have to wait for matchmaking before being placed in a heist. Solo players also have to matchmake and connect to servers before being delivered into a heist with companion AI. So there isn’t really a “private match” option because all of Payday 3 has to be connected to the internet.

Again, this is another issue that Starbreeze recognizes and is “looking into” for a hypothetical future. But why not have an offline training mode for each heist, or an offline version that doesn’t allow players to level up as a potential way to curb cheating? These glaring oversights worsened due to the completely broken servers. And while an offline mode or experience may be less crucial as time goes on, it feels like a massive blow to the game’s morale.

A dwindling count of players may also become further split by the strangely implemented progression system. Rather than heist completion counting towards Infamy gain (the XP system used to level up), it’s challenge completion.

Payday 3 houses a Challenge tab that lists hundreds of things players can do to earn XP and C-Stacks, a semi-premium currency that unlocks cosmetics among other things. Many of these challenges are easy enough, such as crashing through doors, getting kills, completing heists, sliding around, etc. But it also means that simply completing a heist and getting all the money may ultimately reward no experience gain if no challenges were completed.

There are few instances in which I could think of this as a logical, sensible idea for base progression in a game. Call of Duty rewards experience for virtually everything a player does. But completing specific challenges is usually the driving force behind weapon camos and calling cards. Other games may reward in-depth challenge completion by unlocking advanced versions of skills or guns. In Payday 3, it’s how players level up to be granted the ability to buy new weapons or to unlock new skills. Imagine how disheartening it is to power through a heist and see that almost static reward screen.

What this does is create a leveling economy where players may not want to play a match in Payday 3 naturally. Instead, they may want to work on specific challenges rather than a set goal. Does anyone really want to complete a heist 150 times loud and 150 times stealthy? Eventually a player’s level may stagnate because progression is locked behind completing a challenge. What I’ve witnessed is that players are finding workarounds. I’ve watched people go into a bathroom and simply kill the unending supply of guards to complete weapon challenges. I’ve heard of but not attempted a glitch that rapidly levels up weapons. And because none of this has been patched, players are becoming imbalanced.

Much of these issues feel absolutely disastrous and in a way, they are. Payday 3 seems to divert the fun away from itself. You could rob vaults and hack cryptocurrency but actually gain nothing for that work. Because I haven’t played Payday 2, I can’t identify with the numerous comparisons other players have made for better or worse. I can only base it on my own experience.

Ultimately, there is a strong game with Payday 3 at its core. Stripped of connectivity issues, leveling woes, and the countless fundamental shortcomings, I can see myself having a great time. Right now I’m simply struggling to enjoy myself but somewhere, there’s a solid shooter.

Across the 8 heists and about 30 weapons, a lot of mechanically sound and engaging features can be discovered. While few shooters can approach Call of Duty or Destiny in terms of raw satisfaction, Payday 3 plays more than competently. Base guns are snappy enough but the punch really comes through with an upgraded arsenal. Movement is just floaty enough to allow players to feel like a ghost or angel of death when sneaking or tearing through a level.

A good balance of armor and health makes survivable a juggling act. Players can get armor packs to fix their unrenewable armor or health packs to squeeze out a bit more life. A list of perks can be chose to optimize a specific playstyle, usually meant to activate three core buffs. But players also need to earn levels to truly unlock the potential of the perk system, which is its own wall.

One of the best aspects of Payday 3 is that going loud or quiet are both viable, entertaining options. Regardless of what stage a player fails a stealthy approach, the game course-corrects so the alternative objectives need to be completed. I most often prefer going stealth and if a team is capable of such coordination, the process is extremely rewarding. Guard routines, security systems, and sneaking around as everyone on the team functions as a unit is empowering. And Starbreeze was smart enough that being spotted by a guard wasn’t an instant signal that stealth was over. Often a guard will lead a player out of a restricted area, possibly opening up a pathway for a cohort to sneak past.

I think each approach to a heist can be cleaned up a bit in terms of readability and possibly speed. Objectives requiring players to stand in place can be quite bland and strip the moment of action. Enemy types are easily identifiable but are hindered by the fact that they all look like fairly basic Police and SWAT members. The crazy Cloaker with its ability to hop around and sneak up on players is intimidating, as is the armor-covered Bulldozer. But I do wish they were all a bit flashier.

Ultimately, Payday 3‘s few victories feel hollow. The things Starbreeze got right can likely be countered with a crucial missing mechanic or feature from Payday 2. It often has me thinking of the Overwatch 2 scenario, where the new number didn’t feel completely justified. Most of the community would probably argue that this newest entry is a terrible step back from a game that had 10 years of refinement.

And maybe that’s the problem.

Payday 3 suffers from a lack severe lack of refinement. Payday 2 was cooking for years. It makes little sense that Payday 3 suffered such significant problems. There was a blueprint in place that wasn’t followed and for what specific gain? A year from now this review will likely be completely irrelevant as I must believe Starbreeze will fix the game, add content to its current sparse pool, and make the experience better. But for players who purchased the game in its current state… Well that’s simply not good enough. Right now there is no quality of life. Not even a patch to fix the numerous glaring problems. Will players stick around or come back? Or will Payday 3 disappear to time like my words? Only time will tell.