Payday is that bit in every heist movie since time began where the poo hits the fan. At some point, our gang of four criminals in clown masks were hunched over a table in a smoky room, working out their every move with mathematical precision. Now they’re trapped in a crumbling building with the loot, every policeman in the world is kicking in the front door, and their only hope is to survive long enough to make a miracle. And then do it again on a harder difficulty setting, because Normal mode is for wimps.

The most surprising thing about Payday is that, while it obviously owes Left 4 Dead the kind of debt that gets people’s legs broken by angry Russians with tyre irons, it only takes a couple of heists to start appreciating it as a very different experience. Unlike zombies, cops attack using helicopters, smoke grenades and automatic weapons, making the always-ranged battles fast and brutal. Each of the six heists also offers very different experiences, from Heat Street treating you to a familiar leg-it-through-town map, to Panic Room giving you a building to defend while you try to retrieve the stolen loot. Finally, where Left 4 Dead occasionally blesses you with a moment of relaxation, Payday’s 20 to 30-minute maps love to keep piling on the pressure.



Getting to the good stuff can be frustrating though. You can technically play Payday on your own, using AI partners to fill the slots, but only in the sense that you can technically drink your own urine. Finding a game can be harder than some of the levels: there’s no matchmaking, only a server list, and Payday is yet another of those games that uses RPG-style levelling to render a rookie player practically worthless. You get no weapon choices, no handy items to help the team, nothing. Try to join internet games, and get used to seeing the message: “You have been kicked from the server.”

The idea is that by levelling up, you’ll unlock the kit and competence to keep these levels feeling fresh. In theory, perhaps. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to run through them too many times, even on higher difficulty levels. There’s no scope for playing especially smart or coming up with your own criminal plans, with the action firmly about hitting up the preset objectives and gunning down cops until the smell of fresh bacon starts wafting out of your DVD drive.



The shooting itself does play out differently each time – especially on higher difficulty levels – though the more grounded subject matter doesn’t allow for anything like Left 4 Dead’s AI-directed shifts of fortune. There, you get the sick realisation that a Witch is hiding round the corner. Here, maybe you end up retrieving a bag from the roof instead of a balcony, or a bank key that worked last round no longer does, forcing you to take hostages and shoot more police for longer, but you rarely have time to notice such details, never mind care. You will notice other things, like the AI’s habit of glitching out, but even then you’ve usually got enough on your mind to let it pass.

Payday obviously suffers next to Left 4 Dead’s amazing polish, but that doesn’t stop it being a surprisingly compelling alternative – especially at this price. While flawed in many ways, it easily has enough spirit to be worth checking out next time you’re getting friends together for a LAN party. Stuck on your own though – or if you’re primarily going to be reliant on internet games with strangers – it’s a crime that’s unlikely to pay off.

 
So far in Payday, we've mostly seen the chuckle brothers stealing gold from bank vaults. The mission shown in the latest trailer replaces the gold with a valuable prisoner, the bank vaults with police security vans, and the old fashioned getaway car with a balloon and a seaplane. It goes to show that hardened criminals are a mad sort, and not especially punctual either. Payday: The Heist has been slightly delayed. Overkill say it's "a move to ensure players and fans of our promise and vision to produce high-caliber games that deliver the best quality game experience."

We'll get to tell civilians to GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR later this month when Payday goes on sale at £14.95 / $19.99, and can be pre-ordered now on Steam and Direct2Drive. Check out our Payday: The Heist preview for an insight into the mind of a clown gone bad.

Bank robbers are badass. John Dillinger, Jesse James, Hans Gruber. They may be breaking all kinds of laws, but dammit; they’re sticking it to The Man. They’re people we daydream about – something Overkill Studios picked up on when diving into their first release, Payday: The Heist.

“It’s one of those concepts that once you see it in action, you understand that it’s brilliant and wonder why no one has done it before,” says creative director Simon Viklund. “We went boldly into the preplanning phase with the firm conviction that Dane Cook was right when he said, ‘more than sex, every guy wants to be part of a heist.’”

The premise for this online co-op romp is simple: team up with three chums to infiltrate, rob and escape from a bank. It initially looks and plays like Left 4 Dead, albeit with capitalist zombies rather than actual undead. Boom boom.



But there are a number of neat things that set Payday apart. For starters, there’s an XP system, with players able to level up and unlock new weapons and perks. This ties in with Payday’s use of character classes and skill trees. Simon explains: “The assault, support and sharpshooter classes are the branches of the skills tree, and you switch between these branches at any point to change what your reward will be at the next level-up.”

In other words, you’re not restricted to the equipment of any one class. For instance, you can level up with the support class and unlock a machinegun, then switch to the assault class and earn a shotgun, before fooling around as the sharpshooter and gaining trip mines. You can then combine all of these weapons into one loadout, tailored to your heist. Simon goes on: “The speciality branches are a way to categorise the upgrades you can get, but once you actually have the upgrades you’re not limited by any predefined specialities.”

The developers are also keen to enforce that this is a co-operative game – “we put all of our love into that aspect of the product. A team of complete strangers should still be able to fully trust one another and work together like a tight crew.” There are certainly plenty of rewards for teamwork. The more robbers who make it to the getaway vehicle, the more XP you’ll get. Cornered by an FBI agent? Tag him, and he’ll be flagged up on ally screens, to help focus firepower. If you’re a high-level player who rolls with low-level newbies, you’ll be rewarded with bonus XP.



You need to stick together because the fuzz aren’t exactly going to let you just walk out with their money. As Simon says, “every category of enemies has a different set of weapons, different accuracy levels and different combat behaviour. SWATs, for example, are more aggressive and don’t pull off evasive moves as often – they have confidence in their tough armour and storm in – whereas FBI agents and standard cops are more careful.”

On top of these law enforcers, there’s a whole set of special enemies who’ll rock up at random points, much like L4D’s Boomers and Hunters. There’s the bomb suit wearing Bulldozer, who’s armed with a shotgun and reckless abandon. There’s also Shield, a SWAT officer who carries a riot shield to protect both himself and fellow officers. Then there’s Taser Man, who – you guessed it – comes equipped with both a sub-machinegun and a Taser, capable of incapacitating you with a single hit. It’s possible to bring him down with a lucky shot as your trigger finger involuntarily clenches. Finally, there’s the Cloaker, who lurks in the shadows before smashing your head in with an electric baton.



Should you or your trusty teammates become overwhelmed by the rozzers, there’s one ace you can play: hostages. Functional not only as makeshift armchairs, taking hostages is a vital strategy. Lose a sidekick and you can trade him for one of your prisoners. Of course, it’d be a good idea to keep your trading cards alive – accidentally introduce one to a bullet and the police will become more ferocious. So be sure to make good use of the F button. That’s the ‘GET THE FUCK ON THE FUCKING FLOOR’ command. Lovely.

However, it’s not all vaults and valuables. There are six different heist scenes in total (with more available as DLC), ranging from breaking into panic rooms, to prisoner extractions and armoured car hijacking. Each situation is influenced by famous Hollywood busts. “In Payday you get to play the bad guys in the beginning of The Dark Knight, Die Hard and Heat,’ Simon points out. “There’s also a lot of inspiration coming from Point Break, The Town and Dead Presidents.” I don’t know about you, but I think I just did a little squee.

Although, um, didn’t most of the bank robbers in those films get caught in the end? Bums.