Developer Overkill Software has been uncommonly dedicated to communicating with fans of its recently released heist shooter Payday 2, absorbing feedback, and releasing sweeping overhauls of game systems. Payday 2 was solid but had a few problems when Craig reviewed it, but since release, Payday 2 has been updated 13 times, receiving a new heist, new masks, a rebuilt economy and unlocking system, new skill tree descriptions, and numerous balancing tweaks.

Overkill also frequently answers fans on Twitter with screenshots of new characters and plans for future updates. In a lot of ways, this continued support and free updating of a game is the kind of attention we’d see from the team behind an MMO. A Halloween update has already hit, and more free content is on the way. David Goldfarb, game director at Overkill, says that they plan to continue to support the game for the foreseeable future.

PCG: One of the things I've noticed about Payday 2 is the many frequent updates. How long do you plan to keep up this pace for updating the game?

David Goldfarb: We definitely haven’t slowed down much but we’re moving to a slightly different model now where we batch up a bunch of updates together and try to roll them out together as a package to simplify communication. As a result, our pace will slow down slightly as we add more and more content to each update, but we intend to support the product for a long, long time. It’s worth saying that we would love to patch the consoles as much as we have patched the PC on Steam but the process isn’t as easy and takes a lot more time for us as well as the platform owners. Hopefully though, that wait will end very soon and everyone will be up-to-date on all .



What kinds of things have you chosen to prioritize for updates?

It has varied—the skill system has gotten some tweaks, adding heists, difficulty tweaks, improving the economy and improving stealth, adding better informational displays for items and skills, and of course the bug fixing. In general, we’ve focused on looking at the things that seem like they aren’t quite working the way we anticipated; things that are obviously broken; things that we feel have emerged as issues (like crime.net hosting) which we need to create something new for.

How many people play Payday 2 on a daily basis?

Concurrent users vary. When we launched our peak was around 57,000 on Steam and now we are pretty steady at 9 to 11k or so. The install base has grown a lot from Payday: The Heist, for sure.

Why do you think the online community is as active as it is?

They’re passionate about the game. We’ve been pretty good about being open and available with the game as well and we’ve let people stream it, monetize, talk about it however they want, no real limitations or rules. In general, we always want people to be able to engage the game on their own terms and not ours. We think it’s better for them and ultimately better for us.

I see the team is particularly involved with fans on Twitter, including sending screenshots of upcoming masks and answering questions about future updates. Why is this kind of communication important to the team?

Yeah, we do that frequently. I think it’s great to be no-bullshit about what you’re doing and show you care, especially show what you’re working on. In many cases we’ve had some really incredible feedback from community people, stuff that went directly into the game. That definitely is something we love. We’ve made a point of involving some of the most dedicated people in our private betas as well and it definitely goes a long way toward making people feel like their input matters and can take real form, even if it’s just dialogue between us and them. As I mentioned above, it’s important to us to have that real connection with people, not some marketing drone blowing smoke up your ass in a room full of journalists. This is one way of doing it.



Could you give me an example of something the community suggested that made its way into the game?

I can't actually call people out, however there are a few different folks who have talked to me regarding skills at length and the product of those discussions will definitely be in the game. Also, "carry a secondary saw" came out of a conversation with community members as well. Recently, someone had a pretty clever solution for triggering abilities that we're very likely implementing in the future.

Many developers are wary about this kind of interaction in case they promise something that doesn't end up being released. Why have you decided that this kind of openness is worth that risk?

I think it’s a contract we have with fans that they (or most of them) implicitly understand, where we do the best we can with the admission that we don’t always know what’s going to happen, but we’ll do our best to make the right choices. And I guess we always look at it like, hey our fans are really smart, why not show them some of this stuff, maybe they’ll give us some insight we’re missing. Our experience is that the vast majority of people appreciates the forthrightness and like being part of that whole discussion. It’s not a stance that would go over quite as well at EA, but being an independent and having a history of talking honestly to fans definitely helps.

The structural changes to Payday 2 are what I’m most excited about. I mostly liked the first game’s adaptation of horde mode-style gameplay, but Payday’s novel theme was underused--too much of it amounted to dumping magazines of ammo into clown car after clown car of police. Payday’s missions were pleasant emulations of movie heists, but many of them either dragged on longer than they should’ve, threw too big a body count at you, or felt too exhausting to restart if you failed halfway through. Stealth was usually impractical, and once the police went into all-out assault mode any semblance of pacing went out the window.

I’m glad to learn as I sit down to play Payday 2, then, that some of the game’s 17 jobs are broken into smaller but connected parts. On these “multi-day” missions, there’s an incremental reward for each segment you complete, and a big payoff (money, EXP, and an item drop) if you finish the whole job. The mission I play begins as an art heist--a night raid on an empty single-floor gallery. To complete it successfully, we need to get in, grab at least four paintings, and throw them in our van in the parking lot.

Things start off smoothly. My team gets into a tight formation as we crouch-walk in through a locked outer door of the gallery. The organization Payday 2 prompts you to have is instantly refreshing. Within minutes, we’re already calling out camera locations, delegating who’s grabbing which paintings, and debating whether breaking into the security room to peek at the camera feeds is worth the risk. When the alarm eventually trips, we fend off small squads of SWAT and make a break for the van, escaping with the art and most of our health.



In the job’s second stage, we meet shady buyers outside an abandoned factory. In real-time, each of us tap G to throw a painting onto a table inside a ruined train car. Hovering above in a small helicopter, the sellers make it clear that they’re disappointed that we only stole the minimum amount. They throw us a bag of cash for every painting we swiped in the first part of the job, but the deal goes bad--we’re attacked by police after the sale and have to fight our way out. Interestingly, this ambush isn’t a predetermined event--had we brought more art to the table, there’s a higher possibility that we could’ve walked away from the second stage of the job without shooting anything.

Not all of Payday 2’s missions adopt this structure (at E3 I played a standalone bank heist), but I love the idea of the result of one job segment influencing how the following ones play out in a handful of subtle and explicit ways. Between the first and second segment, for example, we had to play an extra 10-minute survival sequence on a highway. This had a higher chance of triggering because we alerted so many police during the art heist sequence. And I didn’t even get to play the art heist’s third and final section, a 20-minute raid on a senator’s compound where the stolen paintings have been installed with hidden cameras.



Within the missions themselves, Overkill has introduced a set of randomized elements to improve replayability. Camera placement and quantity, the presence of metal detectors and low-level loot, your spawn and escape locations, enemy entry points, how armored the guards are, AI routes, and other elements will differ each time you attempt a job.

I was disappointed that Payday’s weapon feel hasn’t significantly improved. A combination of generous-feeling hit detection and exaggerated flinch animations on enemies provides unclear feedback. But I’m willing to tolerate enemies that feel like they walked out of Time Crisis or another light gun arcade game in exchange for the creative structural changes Overkill is making.

Payday 2 is out August 13.

Idea for preventing all future crimes: install trackers in those creepy plastic masks that are only ever used by budding criminals. They're a clear giveaway that a heist is about to go down. That's a lesson still to be learned by the guard in this teaser for Overkill's Payday 2. He's far too nonchalant for someone being approached by a guy equipping a sneering stars and stripes face mask and wearing surgical gloves.

Unless he's assuming it's a particularly theatrical GP.

The original Payday was an enjoyable, if shonky, co-op experience. For the sequel, Overkill seem keen to really nail the atmosphere of a tense crime caper. The new Crimenet acts as a dynamic mission database, with players progressing from convenience store burglaries through to full bank raids. It also offers four professions - Mastermind, Enforcer, Ghost and Technician - with new skill trees offering a variety of upgrade paths. Although how a Mastermind contestant is going to help you commit a robbery remains to be seen.

Payday 2 is due out this Summer. You can see more footage below, courtesy of CVG.

Last week I got a first look at Payday 2, the sequel to Overkill’s heist-themed co-op shooter. The presentation offered a hands-off run through of the game’s features and a two-man mission, played twice, in very different styles - both of which proved extremely exciting. It was clear even from this brief glimpse that the level of ambition for this game is a considerable factor of the original. It no longer feels like an indie conversion (albeit a commendable one) of Left 4 Dead. Indeed, it feels less like a straight-up shooter and more of a fulsome heist simulator.

We’ll open the vault doors to our preview of Payday 2 in a coming issue of the magazine, but hit the jump to see the shiniest trinkets we’ve plundered so far.



Character persistence is more important

Your robber now has to specialise, putting XP into four divergent skill trees. Masterminds are better at crowd control, and turn corrupt cops to your side; Enforcers are your token weapons experts, dealing and taking a good deal of punishment; Technicians have improved safe-cracking skills, explosives and deployable turrets; Ghosts can sap cameras and jam alarms. It’s not possible to be a jack of all trades - you really need to carve out a niche in the criminal underworld, forcing you to think about who on your Steam friends-list will balance out your crew.

Don’t worry, there won’t be any microtransactions

Overkill haven’t gone for the (presumably tempting) option of appending microtransactable goodies to your crook’s personalisation. In fact, they looked pretty offended when I even suggested it.



More mission variety

All that specialisation plays an important role in the expanded mission variety. Each mission now offers a broader range of approaches, and some favour a softly-softly strategy more befitting of light-fingered crooks than gun-toting psychos. The choice is presented via a dynamic map screen: contacts pop up with new missions, and it’ll be up to you which you take on. Some may be quick scores for a mere pocketful of dirty dosh, while others may require you to play through a chain of five or so phases - each lasting between five to ten minutes each. Your success in one affects your circumstances in the next, too.

Planning is way more important

This is more a fullsome heist game than its pureblood shooter predecessor. Now - as in the films which inspire the game - planning plays a much larger role. That’s in no small part because you’ll want to construct the perfect crew for a given mission. There are also ‘assets’ which you can purchase to help your preparation: maps which show the camera positions in a jewelry store, for example, or the codes to activate its metal security shutters - which will keep prying eyes and sniper scopes off the scenes occurring within. It’s worthwhile casing the joint before going in, too - different dynamic elements may be in play.



Stealth is now a much more realistic alternative to mass murder

Missions have been designed to account for the different skill biases: put your points into the ghost skill tree and you can shimmy open a window round the back of a jewelry store, knock out the camera feeds with a handy jammer gadget, crack a safe quietly, and then slip right out again before anyone is the wiser. Of course, such a restrained approach may leave some money on the table...

Bags are a physical component of any escape plan

Money is heavy. Gold bullion is even heavier. Sling a bag full of it over your back and you won’t be getting anywhere in a hurry. It’s wise to plan not only for your escape, but for your bags’ escape, too: you might think about setting up a relay, tossing a bag out of a window to a waiting accomplice. Nor do you want bags getting in the crossfire - a sack full of coke will leak its dollar value out of every bullet hole and the cops will try and confiscate your score if you leave it lying about.

It’s all looking to be a thoughtful expansion of the Payday formula, and one which encapsulates the whole crime caper fantasy in a far fuller way. We’ll have to see how the idea of creating a criminal career within Payday 2 unfolds over time, but the potential is prize enough to set any thief’s fingers itching.

If you have a good few hours of your life to spare, if you enjoy ludicrously convoluted treasure hunts, and you're ridiculously good at co-op heist game Payday, you might want to embark on the masochistic quest to discover its hidden vault. (Alternatively, just watch the following video). A dedicated team of players has followed the clues, ticked off an obscure set of criteria in the opening map First World Bank, avoided deadly gas and survived wave after wave of enemies, and finally uncovered the vault and its contents. Was it worth it? You tell us after the break.

For their Herculean efforts - not least of which is a freaking two hour wait while the drill busts a hole in a particularly stubborn door - the team received a message of congratulations from developers Overkill and, oh yes, a "metric fuck-ton" of gold. Thankfully they filmed their endeavour, with instructions on the right way to go about it, if you're tempted to try this out for yourself.

Shortly after Payday devs, Overkill, announced that they were working on something with Valve, rumours began to pop up suggesting that that something could be a prequel to Left 4 Dead. That might sound like a promising idea, but it isn't happening. Valve developer Chet Faliszek put a swift "woah, nelly!" on those rumours in a chat with PCGamesN.

"I want to make sure that people don't think the prequel is coming," said Faliszeck. "If that happens, then it will make this other thing we're doing feel uncool, when the thing we're doing is really cool."

Chet described Valve and Overkill's new thing as "kind of akin to how in TF2 you might see some other games' weapons get translated and put into that game."

"We're doing something similar to that, but it's a little bit more involved," he explained.

A character crossover perhaps? Criminal clown masks for Left 4 Dead survivors? Tanks in cop hats? Valve are being discreet. "We're trying to be a little coy and a little fun because we want the communities to discover it," said Chet, "but those guys are still making Payday: The Heist, we're still making Left 4 Dead."

We'd previously heard that Payday: The Heist developers Overkill are working on a game with Valve, but details were scant - all we knew is that it was Left 4 Dead related. Our megapals over at CVG cite a source as saying that it's going to be a Left 4 Dead prequel which details the genesis of the zombie uprising.

"As perceptive gamers will have noticed, several hints have recently been dropped into Payday: The Heist, which has led to various rumors," the original statement from Overkill read. "We are excited to be able to confirm that an in-depth collaboration between Overkill and Valve is currently in production. We are working on a very cool blend of Payday and Left 4 Dead."

It's a really nice idea for a collaboration. In Left 4 Dead you're the good guys. In Payday, you're the bad guys. Combining of the two, you could be a bunch of morally grey guys. Also, it's a prequel, and everyone loves prequels, right? If not, don't worry: Overkill are also working on a sequel to Payday: The Heist.

Obviously inspired by the events of their recently released Syndicate, Swedish developers Starbreeze are out to get Overkill Software, the creators of co-op multiplayer bank robbery game Payday: the Heist. Starbreeze want to buy the similarly Swedish studio and fold them into the company under their banner.

Were Starbreeze to adopt the corporate tactics of Syndicate's Miles Kilo, they'd drop into Overkill's offices via future helicopter thing, murder everyone in the IT department, and pull something out of their CEO's brain. But somewhat fortunately, they're not doing that - they're going through the proper business channels and waiting on the go-ahead from their shareholders.

Shortly following this news, the smaller studio confirmed they were working on a sequel to Payday: The Heist, as well as continuing to support their previous game. Eurogamer report that Starbreeze head Mikael Nermark will be letting Overkill continue work on the title, making the next Payday a proper Starbreeze game. Should the deal go through, Starbreeze would go some way to replacing the 25 staff they laid off recently.

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.