Payday 2

Payday 2
Developer(s) Overkill Software
Publisher(s) 505 Games
Distributor(s) Valve Corporation
Director(s) David Goldfarb
Producer(s) Almir Listo
Designer(s) Ulf Andersson
Composer(s) Simon Viklund[1]
Gustaf Grefberg
Series Payday
Engine Diesel Engine 2.0[2]
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Linux
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Xbox One
PlayStation 4
Release date(s)
Genre(s) First-person shooter, stealth
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Payday 2 (stylized as PAYDAY 2) is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The game is a sequel to 2011's Payday: The Heist. It was released on 13 August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. An improved version of the game, subtitled Crimewave Edition, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2015 (on 12 June in the UK and Europe and on 16 June in North America).[3]

Two years after the events of the previous game, a new gang comes to the Washington, D.C. area to rob banks. The player takes control of one of the gang's sixteen members and heists alone, with up to two AI players, as four player cooperative play, or some combination of the previous. Heists include robbing banks, jewellery stores, and armored cars, producing and distributing narcotics, stealing prototypes, art and artifact theft, rigging elections and framing corrupt politicians, taking on rival gangs, breaking into mercenary bases, and FBI facilities, enforcing protection rackets, and smuggling of guns, stealing nuclear warheads raiding warehouses, prison breakouts, casino robberies and various others.[4] The game differs on the previous by allowing much more customization of the player and reworking its stealth mechanics.

An accompanying web series was produced to promote the game.[5] The game was profitable from pre-orders alone[6] and received positive reviews. Payday 2: Crimewave Edition which offers improved graphics, new content and all previous DLCs, was released on 12 June 2015 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[7]

Gameplay

The game consists of a variety of 'heists' that a player can opt to either carry out by themselves, with the AI, or as part of a multiplayer game. There are heists such as bank robberies, drug trafficking runs, rigging an election, or stealing smuggled nuclear warheads. Some of the heists put a large emphasis on stealth, often leading to bonus experience points and money on completion.

The level selection menu is styled as a fictional website, Crime.net, where missions pop up periodically as contracts in a map of Washington D.C.[8][9] The player can pick up an open contract, join a contract another player has started, or buy a contract with in-game money in an offshore bank account. There are seven difficulty levels, with increased money and experience payouts for higher difficulty levels. Independent of difficulty was the "pro job" condition - pro jobs give additional experience, but cannot be retried if the players fail, later removed in an update. Some contracts in Payday 2 take place over multiple days, with each day represented by a separate level with different objectives.[10] After a day is complete the game may add an escape level, where the players' original escape is thwarted and they must survive to reach their backup getaway.[9]

Many jobs in Payday 2 can be completed in stealth. If players avoid getting caught on camera, evade or silently kill security guards, and keep any civilian witnesses from calling the police, the alarm will not be raised and the players will receive an experience bonus. Otherwise, players will have to achieve their objectives, carry out any loot they find to a dropoff point, and then reach their escape point under the pressure of constant police assault waves. Most of the enemies are SWAT units sourced from DC Police, then FBI SWAT, GenSec private security contractors and finally the DHS as difficulty increases. Mixed in with these are special units; all versions of Payday 2 include the "Shield" and the "Taser" - both named for their signature equipment, the "Bulldozer" - a SWAT team member in a modified near-bulletproof bomb suit, and snipers. The Crimewave Edition and PC version include the "Cloaker" - an infiltration and hand-to-hand combat expert. Exclusive to the PC version are robust SWAT van turrets, capable of area denial, a medic capable of returning an enforcer to full health with no status effects, and Captain Winters, a well-protected veteran police officer who sustains assaults and buffs enemies until he can be driven off.

If a player takes too much damage they will be knocked down and incapacitated. If no one helps them back up, or if they are downed a number of times without healing, they will be taken into custody. On lower difficulty levels players in custody will eventually come out of custody, but otherwise their teammates must take a hostage to trade to get them back into the game. A job is failed if all players are downed or in custody.

At the end of each heist, the player is presented with a screen with three cards, one of which is to be chosen by the player (called a "Payday"). These bonus cards can be either weapon modifications, masks, colors or materials for masks, or experience or money boosters. Players can purchase and customize masks, although these are purely cosmetic and have no effect on the gameplay.

Throughout the game, players accumulate money and experience. The money is divided into two parts. 20% of the money is given to the player to spend on weapons, masks and skills, and 80% is placed into the player's "Offshore Account", which is intended as part of the story to be the player's retirement fund, however the player can use it to purchase heists from a broker or during special periods announced by Overkill to buy bonus cards without performing a heist or to become infamous.

As players earn experience points, their reputation level increases. When a player's level increases they earn skill points, allowing them to buy abilities and bonuses from skill trees representing five criminal archetypes and playstyles.[11][12] It is not possible to max out every single tree and players are often encouraged to mix and match skills from each tree to maximize usefulness. Players also receive "perk points," in proportion to their experience earned, that can be used to unlock additional bonuses from "perk decks." Players can switch between 5 profiles of skills, perk decks, weapons and equipment at no cost before starting a heist.

When a player reaches level 100, they can opt to raise their "Infamy" level, up to twenty five (as of 5 March 2015; there are only five levels of Infamy on PS3 and Xbox 360). Becoming Infamous grants a player access to special skill trees and items and gives them special poses in lobby screens. However, raising one's Infamy level causes them to lose all of their spending money and experience, and a sum of $200,000,000 is deducted from their offshore account.

Plot and characters

Payday 2, when first released, allowed players to control one of four pseudonymous robbers. Three of these returned from Payday: The Heist: former Chicagoan mobster Dallas (portrayed by Eric Etebari, voiced by Simon Kerr), bankrupt Swedish software developer gone mad Wolf (Ulf Andersson), and rogue Navy SEAL and mercenary Chains (Damion Poitier). The fourth member of the gang, the English robber Hoxton (Pete Gold), is in jail at the start of the game, so Dallas' troubled younger brother (Derek Ray) is recruited to take his place.

The gang's command and control, the secretive Bain (Digger Mesch on camera, Simon Viklund as his Voice), is now also portrayed as the owner and operator of Crime.net. Bain arranges for The Payday Gang to relocate to Washington D.C. and helps them set up heists and jobs in the area. Bain also works to connect the gang with other contractors: Vlad (Ilia Volok) - a Ukrainian gangster trying to reassert his power after getting out of prison, Hector Morales (Gary Daniels) - a Colombian drug trafficker trying to oust the rival Mendoza cartel, and "The Elephant," (Bokeem Woodbine) a corrupt Republican politician who hires the gang to aid his party and friendly lobbyists.

The "Big Bank" DLC introduced a new contractor named "The Dentist" (Giancarlo Esposito) - a middleman for a number of wealthy clients. "Big Bank" is the first of a series of jobs from the Dentist,[13] and in return for the gang's service he helps them break the original Hoxton out of jail. "Old Hoxton" returns to the gang, determined to find out who gave up evidence on him, with the "New Hoxton" renamed "Houston." After hacking the FBI database, they manage to find out where the rat lives. Breaking into the residence, they find out that the rat was Hector, and kill him. A promotional tie-in with the 2014 film John Wick added the film's title character (voiced by Dave Fouquette) as a playable heister as well, with the explanation that Wick and Chains used to work together in the military.

A new crew member named Clover (Aoife Duffin) joins the crew as they are about to descend on the National Gallery with the object of stealing a fictional large gem known simply as "The Diamond". Hailing from Ireland, she is the first female heister to be available to play as in the Payday series. The character was announced by then lead designer David Goldfarb via his Twitter feed, then after no news on her status for months her trailer was shown live on the "Crimefest" stream on 18 October 2014 as part of celebrating the Payday series' third birthday where she sang happy birthday to "Crime.net". The trailer was released on YouTube a week later. She was teased in the 2014 annual Halloween event where her name was accidentally revealed, and she was teased next in the promotional art for the "Gage Historical Pack" downloadable content. She was again teased in the 2014 annual Christmas event song "The 12 Days of Xmas" before finally being confirmed for release on 16 December 2014 along with the "The Diamond" heist.[14]

On 22 January 2015, a fourth DLC character, a crooked Croatian Interpol agent named Dragan (Dragomir Mrsic), was released as part of the Dragan Character Pack. His addition ties into a new contractor called "The Butcher" (Mira Furlan), whose contracts are part of "The Bomb Heists" pack. With the arrival of the Hype Train and 1,200,000 Hype Fuel a new female character was added: Bonnie (Rhona Cameron). She is a former honeymoon murderer, armed robber and compulsive gambler who grew up in 1980's Scotland. She was mainly invited into the Payday Gang because of her knowledge on Hoxton's "rat".

Shortly before Bonnie's arrival another promotional character, Jacket from the Hotline Miami series, joined the crew. His reason for joining is unknown and his character is likely non-canon. His mask is his signature "Richard" chicken mask and he is entirely mute, using a tape recorder to communicate with the crew. The only way to play as him is through normal means on Xbox One Crimewave Edition, getting a rare special developer code or owning the Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number deluxe edition on Steam.

Long after Bonnie, came Sokol (Alexej Manvelov), a Russian hockey player and casino robbery specialist who agreed to join the Payday Gang because he was being closed in on by Russian authorities, providing the crew with his technical experience and athleticism. He was required for the robbery of the Golden Grin Casino, which was the final job that The Dentist set up for the crew. Sokol built the BFD ("Big Fucking Drill") in order to break through the thick vault of the casino, which in addition to mundane cash held something dear to The Dentist, unknown in nature but very likely to be the Ark of the Covenant.

Afterwards, a former Yakuza member named Jiro (Togo Igawa) joined the Payday Gang, having come to the United States looking for his son Kento.

A character called Bodhi was added to the game, being part of the "Point Break Heists" DLC. The character was from a promotion for the 2015 film Point Break, based on the main antagonist from the film, Bodhi. His background also made references to the film itself, having done a heist in Mumbai.

The character Jimmy was added to the game as part of the "Hardcore Henry" Packs. The addition was a promotion for the 2015 film Hardcore Henry, and is voiced by Sharlto Copley.[15]

On 28 August 2015, a new heister named Sydney was confirmed, though little information was revealed, except that she would be voiced by Georgia van Cuylenburg and originated from Australia. Sydney was released on 12 May 2016 in her own character pack, a former juvenile delinquent and anarchist and the youngest member of the crew at 25.

In 16 June 2016, a new heister was added to the game: Thomas "Rust" Bishop (Ron Perlman),[16] an outlaw biker from the Overkill MC, who wanted to earn more money than his gang was making. As a result, he betrayed them and joined the Payday gang, providing them with information on a stolen military prototype "BCI (brain-computer interface) headset" being transported by his former comrades which is the objective of "The Biker Heist" in-game. Rust is the oldest crew member yet, at 61 years old.

Downloadable content

Since release, over two dozen downloadable content (DLC) packages have been released for the game including new heists, weapons and game mechanics. The weapon pack DLCs are usually named for the gang's arms dealer, Gage,[17] who was introduced in the Payday webseries used to promote the game.[18] Other weapon packs were later introduced through a new character, the Butcher, though lately most weapon packs have been issued by Gage again.

Payday 2: Hotline Miami is a collaborative project between Dennaton Games and Overkill which includes a heist influenced by Hotline Miami. The John Wick pack is a collaboration between Lionsgate and Overkill to bring the titular character from the John Wick movie to Payday 2.[19] In 2015, a second Lionsgate collaboration featuring Point Break has been announced containing two heists and a character inspired by the film.[20] The Goat Simulator Heist was added on 14 January 2016, in collaboration with Coffee Stain Studios.[21] The Hardcore Henry Packs were added to Payday 2 on 24 March 2016. The Packs were split up into two DLCs; the Jimmy Character Pack, and The Hardcore Henry Heists.[22]

Crimewave Edition

Announced for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the Crimewave Edition of Payday 2 includes many features and add-ons from the PC version of the game. It was released in June 2015.[3] It includes all of the aforementioned DLC and graphical enhancements such as an improved framerate and texture quality. The developers have stated that future updates will not arrive on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 citing hardware limitations as the reason.[23]

Soundtrack

Two soundtracks for the game exist. The main soundtrack comes with completed mix tracks as well as remix materials (such as clean instrument tracks). The soundtrack was also praised as one of the better parts of the game by critics. New soundtracks usually come out to coincide with a new DLC or heist. There are currently around 56 tracks in the game, five of which are remixes of songs from the first game, Payday: The Heist.

All tracks written by Simon Viklund, except where noted. 

A second soundtrack entitled A Merry Payday Christmas features music played during the "GO Bank" heist from a boombox in said bank. It consists of humorous Christmas music sung by Hoxton (Pete Gold) from Payday: The Heist while in prison.

All tracks written by Simon Viklund. 

Reception

Critical reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
PCPS3PS4Xbox 360Xbox One
CVG8/10[24]
Eurogamer8/10[10]
Game Informer8.25/10[8]8.25/10[8]7/10[8]8.25/10[8]4/5[8]
GamesRadar[25][25][26][25][26]
IGN8.0/10[27]8.0/10[27]8.0/10[27]
Joystiq[9][9][9]
PC Gamer (US)79/100[28]
Aggregate scores
GameRankings78.52%[29]71.54%[30]68.23%[31]75.00%[32]67.43%[33]
Metacritic79/100[34]74/100[35]71/100[36]75/100[37]65/100[38]

Payday 2 has received mixed to positive reviews from critics with general praise from the cooperative elements but heavy criticism for the friendly AI. Vince Ingenito of IGN praised its cooperative gameplay, stealth mechanics and sound design, but was not as impressed at graphical quality.[27] David Hinkle of Joystiq was impressed at the depth of customization, level progression and random elements.[9] Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer described it as "When all its clunky gear suddenly align, the result remains phenomenal: a combination of Left 4 Dead's randomly generated mayhem and the muscular precision of a hardcore shooter, topped off with the big screen frisson of being the smart-suited, fright-masked guy with the AK, ordering the hostages onto the floor or standing in the street, holding off the SWAT team in a flurry of cordite and thunder."[10] Craig Owens of PC Gamer concluded that this game is a "smart co-op shooting slightly undermined by poor stealth mechanics and dogged insistence on withholding the best toys".[28]

Microtransactions

On 15 October 2015 as part of Overkill's second annual Crimefest celebration, Overkill announced the addition of safes to the card drop system that contained weapon skins, some of which modified weapon statistics. The safes needed to be opened with drills which were only available for purchase with real world currency, leading a fan backlash to their inclusion.[39] On 20 October 2015 the aforementioned drills were added to card drop system, however this did not quell the backlash and Overkill was criticized for poor management of the controversy and silence to the press.[40][41]

On 11 November 2015 Overkill announced the contents of a previously sold DLC investment called the "Completely Overkill Pack" would be a single random skin unique to said pack with a special EXP or Money boost for the team, after promising originally that the contents of the pack will be completely cosmetic. They also announced that seven other DLC packs would be made available for free to owners of the pack, but again, fans backlashed against this seemingly unfair revelation, including the people who bought the Completely Overkill Pack, as the store page for the pack declared it would not contain one of the DLC packs it ultimately contained, and it left the people who bought both the Completely Overkill and Overkill packs feeling short-changed. In response, Steam community moderators for Payday started a protest against this treatment of fans and abuse by fans by refusing to moderate the community until granted an interview with Almir Listo, producer of the game.[42][43]

On 30 May 2016 Overkill announced that they have acquired the rights to the PAYDAY franchise. They then announced that future safes would be completely free to open. Almir Listo then added a quote from Chains, a playable character in the game, saying, "As Chains eloquently put it, 'Fuck that broke dick piece of shit drill.'"[44]

Sales

Payday 2 is Overkill's first game to have a boxed retail release. The director of Payday 2, David Goldfarb, stated that "Payday 2 has become just too big to reserve release on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network alone." Reports of strong sales in the first week and shortages led 505 Games to work with retailers in distributing more copies of the game.[45] The game will still be distributed through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam services as planned.[46]

On 8 August 2013, just under a week before launch, Starbreeze Studios confirmed that the game was profitable from pre-orders, covering all of the money invested by the publisher 505 Games. All new profit will be divided between the studio and publisher.[6] Starbreeze Studios president Bo Andersson-Klint said:

"Today Starbreeze has once again demonstrated that our strategy of focusing on our own properties is correct. Not only have we managed to deliver a desirable product in Payday 2 but also executed a promotion that few companies of our size can. We now look forward to the royalty income that can secure the company's development of its own IP in the future. That Payday 2 generates revenue for the company six days before the release is of course very unusual for games of this size and strengthens the long-term nature of our strategy."[47]

The game has sold 1.58 million copies as of September 2013. 80% of those sales were digital.[48] As of 1 November 2014, Payday: The Heist and Payday 2 together have sold more than 9 million units.[49]

eSports

There was a Payday 2 tournament at DreamHack Summer 2016.[50]

References

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  2. "WALKING DEAD DEVELOPER ACQUIRING VALHALLA ENGINE".
  3. 1 2 "Payday 2 Brings More Cops-Versus-Robbers Shooting to Xbox One and PS4". gamespot.com. 2014-06-12. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  4. http://payday.wikia.com/wiki/Category:PAYDAY_2_heists.”
  5. Gauntlett, Adam (2013-06-06). "Payday 2 Live Action Web Series Cracks Its First Vault". The Escapist. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
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  16. Liam Martin (13 June 2016). "Ron Perlman will feel right at home in Payday 2's Biker Packs DLC". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
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  18. McDonald, Tim (2013-10-04). "Payday 2 web series Episode 6 is more entertaining rubbish". Inc Gamers. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
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  21. "PAYDAY 2: Day 3 of The Goat Simulator Heist and Update 94 is live!". OVERKILL Software.
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  27. 1 2 3 4 Ingenito, Vince (13 August 2013). "PayDay 2 Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
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  41. 10/26/15 1:00pm. "Payday 2's Microtransaction Nightmare Just Got Worse". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  42. Phillips, Tom (2015-11-13). "Payday 2's latest update has players in uproar all over again •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  43. "Moderators refusing to work. :: PAYDAY 2 General Discussions". Steamcommunity.com. 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  44. "Payday 3 Confirmed, Microtransactions Eliminated as Starbreeze Buys Franchise Rights". GameSpot. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  45. Sarah LeBoeuf (2013-08-19). "Payday 2 More Popular Than Retailers Planned, Causing Shortages | The Escapist". Escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  46. Goldfarb, Andrew (14 May 2013). "UK IGN interview". uk.ign.com. IGN. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  47. Conditt, Jessica (8 August 2013). "joystiq sourced blockquote". joystiq.com. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  48. Yin-Poole, Wesley (13 September 2013). "Payday 2 sells 1.58 million". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  49. "Starbreeze AB : Press release November 13th 2014 : Interim Report July 1st - September 30th 2014". Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo!. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 25 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  50. DreamHack AB. "ESPORT". Dreamhack.se. Retrieved 2016-09-20.

External links

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