Payday 3

If you’re a returning player of the Payday franchise, you’ll like what Payday 3 offers with multiple heists and keeping its core gameplay design intact. Increased visual fidelity is a big bonus and adding cross-play to increase the player base allows for even quicker matchmaking when the servers are actually online.

Payday 3 may have shrugged off the silly ostentation of its predecessor, but right now, this sequel feels less of an advancement of the series and more of an accidental side-step, falling short in almost every aspect of what made Payday 2 shine.

Payday 3, from a performance perspective, is an unsightly abomination, which veers unpredictably and drastically between visually-impressive beauty, and screen-tearing, game-breaking insensibility. Its small map pool, inconsistent mission design, and...

Payday 3 is designed around those emergent moments that only come with friends, when you're trying desperately to stay in control.

Future updates will likely iron out Payday 3's matchmaking problems and immersion-breaking graphical mishaps, resulting in a smoother and more consistently entertaining experience. With future updates, Payday 3 may even be a game that surpasses its predecessor, but it has a seriously long way to go.

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.

Payday 3’s high-octane action and extravagant heists make it another iconic entry into the heist shooter franchise, but it is ultimately held back by a lackluster user interface, matchmaking issues, and online DRM. While these problems can be addressed in later patches — as Starbreeze proved with its post-launch support for Payday 2, the game ends up feeling a little half-baked in its current state.

Payday 3 is brilliant fun, but it wears thin very fast. Despite its phenomenal shootouts and the thrill of pulling off a heist unseen, other tweaks are a step back from Payday 2 and the eight levels on offer won’t keep casual players entertained for long.