Payday 3 Critic Reviews

If it doesn't reinvent the wheel, Payday 3 modernizes its four-player heist formula with accuracy and intelligence, and that's all we ask of it. The eight missions available to date are well done - and make excellent use of the few new mechanics. All in all, the life of a “controller in hand” thug is still just as demanding. Even if we can criticize a slight lack of content, especially for the arsenal, this third part already sticks to the skin with a system of skills, difficulty modes which always make you want to start again and achieve the ideal run. A superb foundation for the future.

As any larcenist knows, all the best robberies begin discreetly before snowballing into a wild frenzy soundtracked to upbeat electronic music. Payday 3 does this with brimming style, before running away with the money.

Payday 3 takes its beloved predecessor’s multiplayer heist formula and elevates it across the board, making for a thrilling experience, provided you’ve got a crew to play with.

Payday 3 is another fantastic entry in a series of well received games. It may fall short in its storytelling and player onboarding, but it excels in providing an interesting plot, satisfying gameplay, well-designed levels, smart enemy A.I., and refined gameplay systems. While it's easy to recommend this for players that have access to a team to play with, the same cannot be said about those that don't; an issue that can hopefully be addressed with the changes and updates outlined in Payday 3's roadmap. Payday 3 is smart, fun, and chaotic in every way and is sure to rope in even more members into the Payday Gang.

Payday 3's eight heists are as challenging as they are entertaining; the inevitable shootouts with the cops are frantic and fun, and the redefined objectives will make onboarding newer players easier than ever. At long last, Payday has become the Ocean's Eleven/Point Break hybrid its fans have always wanted it to be.

All in all I think the game is a fun experience and full of action. The amount of heists leaves some to be desired but hopefully more will be added as updates come along. The launch weekend was pretty rough with some bad server issues but are gone as of now. The competitive price as well as fantastic gameplay, customization and graphics make this a worthwhile title for those into shooter like games. The several approaches of each heist really make for a pleasant experience as well. It helps to keep from being linear and boring as many different outcomes can occur.

PAYDAY 3 isn’t the seismic improvement over PAYDAY 2 many might have been hoping for, but it is a refinement of the formula with a few fun new additions. Though the number of heists is currently at a modest number, they have a decent amount of replayability whether you use meticulous stealth or go in guns blazing. Despite a very troubled opening week, there are firm foundations for lots more heisting content to come here. Chains, Dallas, Wolf and Hoxton have come out of their latest heist with some scars to show for it, but with a few bags full of cash nonetheless.

It’s an easy recommend for series fans, just don’t expect it to be the lumbering behemoth that was Payday 2… yet.

In theory, Payday 3 offers an engaging gameplay loop, and trying to achieve a perfect Stealth heist is both challenging and fun to attempt. However, what Starbreeze’s new game does well is mired down in poor gunplay, lackluster optimization, excessive grind and always online requirements.

Payday 3 brings back and updates the formula that made Starbreeze's heist game famous, although not always making the right choices. The decision to sell it at a budget price and the inclusion in the Xbox Game Pass catalog from day one inevitably affected the amount of content available at launch, which was lower than expected, while the progression system must be fixed as soon as possible. However, there is no doubt that the experience works well, although it's still very much tied to the past, and will probably express its full potential in the coming months.

The joy of pulling off an elaborate heist is alive and well within Payday 3, if you’ve got the crew to back it up. Holding out against an unstoppable police force or sneaking around undetected to haul out as much cash as you and your friends can carry is a blast, but it’s an experience that is severely hampered when queuing up solo. The mission structure and heist objectives are enjoyable, but carry risks of becoming repetitive when things go loud, which they often will when playing with strangers.

The latest entry in the heist series has the potential to become a worthy successor to Payday 2 which managed to bring together a huge community of players. We just need to wait until the developers provide more content and add some pretty basic online functionalities that are missing (e.g. voice chat), because the game’s current state leaves a lot to be desired.

In summary, Payday 3 shows promise with its solid core mechanics, but suffers from server issues, matchmaking problems, and a lack of content at the time of the review. Character progression is slow and frustrating, and there’s a need for improvements and additional content to enhance the overall experience. Subscribers to the Xbox Gamepass may find it worth trying out, but the game falls short of its potential.

Payday 3 is a solid step forward for my favorite heist simulator franchise, even though that step is a lot smaller than I’d hoped due to a lack of content and the unsurprising but still majorly annoying bugs and performance issues. The awesome combat, greatly improved AI, and especially the stealth options are so massive they alone justify this as a full sequel, and the new and improved heists with clear phases to navigate them are absolutely fantastic. I just wish there was more loot in the proverbial vault at the outset, and that Starbreeze would have used its years of experience in order to ensure this was a more robust and far more stable launch. I’m confident Payday 3 could become the sequel we all deserve with a year or two of updates – for now, it’s a nice start.

Right now, Payday 3 is a foundation. The heisting itself is better than it’s ever been, with quality of life changes, more confident level designs, and improved stealth mechanics that make it stand above Payday 2. But in making the jump to it, you’re also giving up the years of updates and general stuff Payday 2 offered. If you’re a newcomer to the series, or a lapsed crook coming back to it, this is a great jumping on point. If you’re already invested in the series, you might find it difficult going back to basics.

The biggest strength of PayDay 3 is the equal treatment of stealth and open combat. Regardless of playstyle, this heist simulator provides a lot of fun, especially with friends - even if there's no shortage of rough edges that spoil the overall experience. The truth is, that - not counting previous installments - there's no other game like it on the market, and PayDay 3 is simply more thoughtful and better designed in terms of gameplay than predecessors.

Having great customization options, weapons, and an easy-to-do progression system, Payday 3 has the right ingredients to be a great shooter. On the other hand, with no offline mode and a lack of content, it might be hard to get more players to jump into the world for the long run.

Payday 3 follow the path created by its previous episodes, without taking any risk. The fun is there, just as the "déjà vu" feeling is.

Payday 3 gets most of the important stuff right: the heists offer a nice variety and encourage players to experiment with different systems and mechanics. Customization is deep and will keep players on the hook for dozens and dozens of hours. But it’s hard to overstate the blunder that is the online foundation that this game was built on. It makes Payday 3 needlessly frustrating and was the cause of one of the most severe online game outages I’ve seen in a long time. Payday 2 was a game that grew into a co-op masterpiece in the years following its release, so I’m confident that Payday 3 will only improve as time goes on.

Ultimately, PAYDAY 3 offers a fun combination of stealth and action/shooter gameplay in a way that no other game outside of the series does, and that certainly has merit in its own. But it still needs a lot more content if it's ever to replace its established predecessor at some point, and it needs significant redesign in the key area of progression to avoid alienating its audience.