PayDay 2
For: X360, PS3, PC
From: 505 Games
Two and a half stars (out of five)
The graphics are awful, the animation is dodgy at best, and the environment detail is also very sketchy.
But it's what's inside that counts though, right?
And PayDay 2 (sort of) has a heart of gold, if you look hard enough.
There's no story or character development going on here. What you see is what you get; a game where you perform heists of various scales with up to three of your friends joining in.
There's something strangely compelling about performing a perfect heist, although in this game that is like finding a needle in a haystack.
What tends to happen is it all turns to custard almost immediately and then it is a frantic battle against time and endless waves of law enforcement as you try to complete the objective.
Sounds like fun, right?
It is, when played with friends.
However, stuck with the AI the experience of the game completely changes - surrender immediately: it's horrendous.
All that teamwork and working together goes out the window and the game loses its charm and becomes what it appears to be: a low-budget, below average first-person shooter with no plot or character development.
For those that stick with it, there is a wealth of upgrade options (especially on the iconic masks), which deepens the experience.
The heists range in scale also, from shooting up malls all the way up to large-scale bank heists.
There's almost limitless freedom in choosing which jobs you want to do, which is a nice touch.
It is basically Left 4 Dead without the zombies and with banks instead.
Left 4 Dead is a critically acclaimed series so the premise is not entirely bad.
If you have three mates and you have all finished GTA V and you are itching for some more bank heist action, it is probably not too bad (and at a budget price, too!).
Single player, though?
You may as well give your money to charity; at least you would get some positive feeling out of that.
- Simon Bishop