PayDay 3 ($39.99) is an exhilarating heist-themed first-person shooter that builds upon its predecessors in many ways. In it, you stealth or shoot your way through eight intense missions while snagging all the loot you can get your hands on. It lacks PayDay 2's many add-ons, but its systems lay an excellent foundation for future content. If you have friends to play with on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox, this $39.99 shooter is quite fun. However, matchmaking issues and a lack of an offline mode highlight the issues with always-online, games-as-a-service titles.
Stealthy Swiping
PayDay 3’s premise is simple: Four people team up to execute heists. You start with a small-scale bank, but work your way up to more complex gigs like escorting armored cars, breaking into jewelry shops, and sneaking into expensive penthouses. Each mission has its primary objectives, as well as optional ones you while playing. You must accomplish as much as possible to score the most lucrative haul before escaping.
(Credit: Starbreeze Studios)Every mission begins with your team dressed as civilians who blend into the crowd. In stealth mode, your actions are severely limited, which means no jumping, shooting, or fighting. Your job is to scope out targets, study patrols, ping cameras, and search for keys and entryways without alerting security. Each map is densely packed with tools or valuable information that you use to progress or create distractions. For example, you can sabotage a patrol’s security booth to lure him away from a point of interest. Likewise, you can hack a smartphone in the breakroom to access additional vaults. PayDay 3 lacks the creative freedom of Hitman games, but there's still a pleasant amount of mission flexibility.
Of course, you can also abandon stealth at any time, don the mask, and go loud. Or your buddy may accidentally lob a grenade into an office during a button check and blow your cover. When the jig is up, you whip out your preselected loadout and leap into action, guns blazing.
Heisting Loud and Proud
Gunfighting is the most direct means of scoring loot, but it invites retaliation from security and incoming police. Should you choose violence, you’ll be pleased to know that the gunplay feels great. Weapons are punchy and effective. Basic opponents reel and stagger when injured. Helmets flip into the air when you land a headshot.
Tougher enemies soak up more damage, but many have weak points that make them easier to manage. Taser-toting cops incapacitate you with their stun guns, but you have a small window to shoot back before you become paralyzed and need teammate assistance. You can also shoot the taser's battery pack to deal massive damage. Blasting enemies is thrilling, especially against the cartoonishly massive waves of cops the game throws at you. In a nice touch, PayDay 3 lets you trade hostages for more time before police storm the map. You can also trade hostages for more supplies if you’re already under attack.
Heists are varied and complex, regardless of your approach. Even something as simple as a basic bank heist feels nuanced. You never just hold a position and loot—you're constantly scouring for keycards, scanning QR codes, or snooping through computers for intel, while completing the main objectives.
Overall, PayDay’s core gameplay, as a pseudo-hybrid of Hitman’s stealth and scouting crossed with Left 4 Dead’s teamplay, makes for great multiplayer sessions. It’s especially fun when playing with friends and people you know.
Weak Solo Play and the Dreaded XP Grind
PayDay 3 isn't meant to be played solo, and it shows in many aspects. It lacks a true solo mode; you create a private lobby where you play with AI bots. These bots follow your lead and assist when you’re incapacitated, but they can also be a hindrance in many situations. For example, they don’t grab loot on their own unless you pick it up and lob it at them. They’ll tail you fairly efficiently afterward, but it's annoying to babysit the AI when you’re swiping loot (especially when the heat is breathing down your neck). Bots are a poor substitute for a good team, so you’re not going to have fun if you insist on playing solo.
(Credit: Starbreeze Studios)That said, there's no guarantee that you'll get a good team when playing online, either. Given the dual nature of these heists, you never know what approach your random teammates will take. PayDay 3 lacks in-game voice chat, which significantly complicates this matter.
The game has multiple difficulty modes, but there isn’t much reason to replay missions besides earning cash for cosmetics or grinding for Infamy XP that unlocks new weapons and equipment. However, you don't gain Infamy from completing heists; you gain it by completing arbitrary challenges. These conditions include killing a certain amount of enemies with specific weapons, speedrunning a particular heist, or completing a job a particular number of times. PayDay has hundreds of these tedious challenges that may force you to play in ways you may not want to. This tedium makes the sparse mission quantity all the more apparent, since you are expected to incessantly grind the eight missions to unlock everything.
Online Struggles and Issues
PayDay 3’s launch was seriously compromised by server downtime. Starbreeze has released a statement about the game’s server and connectivity issues, but to keep a long story short, the servers were not prepared for the influx of players, and matchmaking essentially collapsed. The server problems have been addressed and have greatly improved since the catastrophic launch, but it highlights the issue with always-online games of this nature: When the servers go down, the game is essentially non-functional.
(Credit: Starbreeze Studios)Matchmaking is troublesome regardless of the server improvements, due to the regressive matching. PayDay 2 had a system called Crime.net that displayed ongoing heists that you could join; let you create an online lobby; or play an offline heist. You could also filter lobbies for stealth or gunplay. PayDay 3 lacks this, instead automatically matching you with other players whenever you select a heist. The inability to filter heists or select which lobby you want to join is a notable downgrade from previous series entries.
Can Your PC Run PayDay 3?
In order to run PayDay 3, your PC must have at least an Intel Core i5-9400F CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, 16GB of RAM, 65GB of storage space, the Windows 10 (64-bit) operating system, and a broadband internet connection. For an optimal experience, Starbreeze recommends an Intel Core i7-9700K CPU and Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU (or better).
PayDay 3 ran extremely well on a desktop computer with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM. At 1440p resolution with an uncapped frame rate (medium settings), the game fluctuated between 70 and 90 frames per second, depending on the mission. The environments looked great, but the NPCs resembled last-gen character models. PayDay 3 is listed as Playable on Steam Deck, so you can take the heists on the go.
Why You Should Game on a PCA Heist Meant for Friends
PayDay 3 has all the makings of a great cooperative multiplayer shooter. The combination of teamwork, observation, and task-based objectives profoundly enriches the first-person shooting formula. The greatly improved stealth and overall heists options give PayDay 3 excellent replay value, too. However, its options are somewhat regressive compared with its predecessor. The always-online requirement and lack of solo, offline play mean the game is beholden to server connectivity, and XP grinding bogs it down with tedious and unsatisfying busywork. If you want to pick up a gun and grab some loot, give PayDay 3 a try—just do it with friends.