PAYDAY 2 Crimewave Edition Review

Despite plenty of additional content, the lame AI and multiplayer is completely broken online ... even with a patch.

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Worth paying for?

Whilst it was relatively unsupported on last-gen consoles, PayDay 2 on PC got loads of DLC and additional missions, which are now available on the current machines. Is it worth picking up again if you already paid once?

Storyline:

PayDay never really had much of a story, and what was there has been further convoluted and confused by the vastly increased number of scenarios available. If there ever was another candidate  to link missions one after each other (a la Titanfall) this was it, but instead the missions are presented randomly in a rather scatterbrained UI.

Whilst the interlinked missions (which can be affected by your actions in the previous day) are fun and well-thought through, the game suffers from a complete lack of coherency, which is all the more frustrating for missing the opportunities to tie it all together.

Gameplay:

The Crimewave Edition of Payday 2 presents you with the original 10 levels of criminal mayhem to play through with three other wannabe bank robbers, and then all of the DLC which has been released on the PC to date. There’s genuinely a lot of content in one place here. Each mission has a number of objectives, which range from cracking safes, to causing as much destruction as possible, but all rely on close-knit teamwork. Normally you get a period of time to scout the area before donning your mask and getting down to the dirty business. From then, it will only be a matter of a couple of minutes before some well-armed police are on your location; this will be followed up rapidly by the fuzz sending in elite troops, SWAT and heavily shielded riot police to try and stop you getting away.

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The core missions have decent variety, and do have good replayability value, as the game will change up where you have to escape to, and the game can also apply different risk factors to affect the difficulty of the mission, and the amount of and type of resistance you’ll face (along with the associated rewards). The crimewave edition also adds in a number of random events you may encounter, such as surviving a further wave after you have completed the level when your escape vehicle crashes.

Completing a mission will then give you cash, a random reward for player customisation, and an amount of XP. Levelling up will give you a skill point to be spent on perks, whilst your hard-stolen cash can be spent on new weapons, mods, body armour and the like. It’s a good system with plenty of depth.

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The problems with the levelling system and economy have been largely sorted since the original release, but when you can only play offline you soon come up against an artificial level cap. The offline AI is so hideous (they can barely shoot and can’t do basic actions like carry loot bags) that anything above the basic difficulty (and thus basic XP rewards and cash) is effectively impossible.

Good

  • Plenty of content
  • Dynamic Inter-linked missions

Bad

  • Appalling AI
  • Middling graphics
  • Broken multiplayer
5

Average

Story - 5
Graphics - 6
Sound - 6
Gameplay - 6
Multiplayer - 1
Value - 6
Editor - Reviewer GamerKnights

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