Heists are fun. They combine cutting cleverness with brute force in a way that makes it feel very good to be a bad guy. There's a reason heist films are their own genre; in fact, one of the most memorable in recent years is The Dark Knight's opening Joker's bank heist. Put on a suit, put on a mask, get into the building and get out with a huge haul. Overkill Software's Payday tried to recapture that magic to some success, and Starbreeze Studios' (which bought Overkill last year) Payday 2 builds on that with loads more customization, depth, and tons of x-factors that can throw wooden shoes into your plan's carefully assembled gears. At $29.99 (direct) for PC and $39.99 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, this heist game packs a ton of value and quality into a budget price.
Heist Game
On the surface, Payday 2, like the first Payday, looks like Left 4 Dead with cops instead of zombies. You play one of four characters (Hoxton, Chains, Dallas, or Wolf) as you carefully maneuver through dangerous areas and into secure locations only to get out and away before you're overrun by the cops. The four-players-versus-tons-of-enemies dynamic makes the game seem a lot like Valve's zombie shooter on paper, but just like heist movies have more complicated plots than zombie movies, Payday 2 injects a lot more depth into the game than Left 4 Dead.
Each of the eleven missions can consist of one or several days, with each day representing a map with its own objective. A simple bank heist might have you running into a bank, stealing the money, and leaving, but a drug-running mob hit could have you stealing cocaine one day, transporting it to your contact and avoiding cops the next day, and shooting the leaders of the gang you stole from the next. In each case, you need to front-load your strategy to minimize conflict when possible and protect yourself and your goods if the bullets do start flying. Which they probably will. Every time. It's basically a question of when, not if. You could potentially pull off a heist without firing a shot, but that requires four people being extremely clever and extremely lucky without a single hiccup in the plan.
Increasingly Complicated
Depending on the nature of the day, you might start in casing mode, with your signature masks off and your guns hidden. This is your one and only chance to make your mission clean, and you're probably going to screw it up horribly. Sneak around the bank, or mall, or club, pick out the weaknesses, get the gear you need, and get through without getting caught. You can't actually do anything illegal when casing, so when you're ready to make your move you need to put on your mask and take out your gun. Properly casing your target can put your in just the right place to make your mission clean and simple, with a minimum of shooting and no alarms raised. Even if the alarms are raised, using the relative safety of casing your target can put you in just the right position to take hostages, fortify your location, and buy yourself as much time as you can for the getaway vehicle to show up or the drill to get through the safe.
Ah, the drill and the getaway vehicles. One of the biggest parts of Payday 2 is the waiting game and defending your position, and you're going to find yourself hating the drill and the drivers/pilots your handler gets you. It can take several minutes to get through a safe or wait for a van or helicopter, and unless you are both very skilled and very lucky, you're probably going to be spending those minutes fending off police assaults. Waves of increasingly well-armed police will come rushing in through every door, window, and stairway, and it won't take long until heavily armored white-helmeted SWAT teams are bashing their way in while snipers are tracking you from across the street. They come in waves, with a handful of police always on your tail even when they're not actively assaulting you, keeping the pressure on. You need to survive, grab the goods as soon as you get through the locks, and get out as soon as you have an escape plan.
Fortunately, if you're canny you can take hostages and use them to give the police pause, or trade them if one of your guys gets captured. You can also plank up windows to keep out police, and even set different traps depending on your level and skills. A few zip-tied hostages, a cell phone jammer, trip mines, sentry guns, and a carefully dropped ammo bag can make the difference of whether you get gunned down in the first wave of make it out alive with all the loot.
Then there's the chance your getaway vehicle will crash or your plans will change and you'll find yourself improvising ten seconds into the game. Each mission is riddled with variables from different security camera placements and guard paths to how different people react while you case your target. These changes can seriously complicate your plans even if you've played that particular day from that particular mission a dozen times before. Eventually, you'll find your carefully laid plans blown up with you running through cordoned off streets with SWAT teams after you, a gut shot wound and a heavy duffel bag full of cash slowing you down, and two of your partners in the cops' hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment