Payday 2 also allows you to customize the skill set that your heister has. As you level up, you will earn skill points that you can put into one of four trees. The four trees that you can work through are Mastermind, Enforcer, Technician and Ghost. Each class has its own unique advantage and you can choose to either specialize in one or mix and match as you see fit. The Mastermind class carries the medic bag and can eventually learn the ability to persuade civilians to revive them and cops to fight for them. The Enforcer class is the heavy hitter and carries the ammo bag. He can learn skills that allow him to take more damage as well as use a portable saw that can be used to enter doors or cut people down. The Technician is essentially the same as he was in the first game but with a few twists. He now carries the trip mines and a great deal of his skills upgrade his turret and give him greater skill with drills. The Ghost class is for players who want to take advantage of the brand new stealth mechanics in the game. All of his skills revolve around getting in and out as quietly as possible. Players who put a great deal of points into this skill set can complete some of the heists without ever having to get into a firefight.
Epic Cooperative Experience
Payday is played at its finest when you play it online with up to three other people. Having three competent people allows you to be a little more coordinated than in single player and tackle higher jobs for better loot. Playing the game solo or with A.I. forces you to be the only one able to set up drills and carry bags to the escape car which can get pretty tiring seeing as the A.I. isn’t the greatest. Playing Payday with others gives you the chance to play with people that have varying skill sets, making heists much easier on the higher difficulties. Nothing feels more epic than playing the four stores level and robbing all four blind before the cops even know what is going on.
NOT
Single Player A.I. Is Dumb As Bricks
While playing with all your friends is loads of fun and extremely epic, playing with the A.I. is the exact opposite. I can understand that Payday was made to be played with three other human beings, but friendly A.I. shouldn’t be this bad. Teammates will stare at walls rather than help you fend off an assault wave and follow you around like homeless puppies rather than stay and guard important loot. I even had one instance where I was downed and both of my partners decided it was a great idea to climb over a fence that was already open, then run around and do it again until I bled out. It even spreads into civilian A.I. I had a group of civilians running around in circles like chickens without heads in the middle of multiple firefights only to end up shot by me and landing me a nice cash penalty. Other times they would exit the building only to reenter a few moments later and make a beeline for my sights. Needless to say frustration ensued while trying to play the game offline.
Verdict
PayDay 2 is a significantly better game than Overkill’s 2011 downloadable title. Everything you loved from before is back with tweaks and improvements. PayDay has become a more personal game with loadouts, clothing and missions all benefiting from variety and changes through player input. Simply put, PayDay is one of the finest FPS experiences out there today, and at a reduced cost than other AAA shooters on store shelves today. In fact, if it wasn’t for the horrendous single player AI, PayDay 2 would have impressed in every way. But this is a co-op game first and foremost. In that regard, Overkill Software has crafted one of the most addictive cooperative games since Left4Dead.
[Editor’s Note: PayDay 2 was reviewed on the PC. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]