Payday 3 was developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Deep Silver on Sept. 21. It is a first-person shooter game and the sequel is Payday 2. Payday 2 has been out for over a decade and has received consistent updates and new content. The game is about four heisters who wear various artistic masks and rob banks. The game allows players to steal from many different places, ranging from small banks in Washington, D.C., to nuclear weapons in a warehouse and the White House. While the player is robbing these places, they are constantly being attacked by the police force.

Some special enemies add a unique threat for players to deal with. There are enemies known as Cloakers who act like ninjas. Cloakers will jump over cars to instantly down a player with a drop kick. Juggernauts called Dozers can take a lot of bullets and inflict a lot of damage. The game all comes together with an incredible soundtrack that gives the player an adrenaline rush while playing the game. This game has infinite replay value allowing players to play the game for potentially hundreds of hours.

When the developer, Starbreeze Studios,  decided that a 3rd game should be made they had an incredible platform to build upon. I am usually not excited about games before they come out, but I was very excited for the release of Payday 3.  Unfortunately, the game was a complete disaster. When I opened it I was greeted with an infinite loading screen. I went online to see if others were having the same issue and they were. Eventually, the game let me through the loading screen and into the main menu. I looked at the inventory and saw that the melee weapons slot was gone. Melee weapons were a huge part of Payday 2 and to see them gone was saddening. Not only that they removed perk decks. In Payday 2 perk decks were unique skills that allowed the player to specialize into a certain playstyle. For example, if a player wanted to run around at the speed of sound dodging and avoiding every bullet that is fired at you, then there is a perk deck for that. If you want to be an immovable tank that can eat thousands of rounds of ammunition, there is a perk deck for that. That whole concept has been completely removed. The only thing that this game adds are the overkill weapons. Overkill weapons are weapons that you can call in after getting a certain amount of kills. These weapons are quite powerful.  These weapons added almost no value to the game. The developer away two huge parts of Payday 2 without supplementing the cut content.

I look at the start button and realize that there is no offline mode. Payday 2 could easily be played by yourself offline. If the servers are down or you just want to play solo it takes less than 20 seconds to get into a heist. Payday 3 for reasons beyond me has opted to do away with this in exchange for always being online. Nothing about the game functioned properly. I waited hours to get into a game and it never happened. Although, the actual gameplay remained fun the charm and comedy of Payday 2 have been greatly diminished. In Payday 2 there was a man called Bain who acted like the mastermind behind the operation. He had hundreds of memorable lines and he always acted like a professional. He has been replaced by a woman called Shade and she is a massive downgrade. She has no memorable lines and her attempts at humor fall completely flat.

They also removed enemies changing as the difficulty increases. In Payday 2 different difficulties would make the enemies more powerful in exchange for higher rewards. To signify their increasing power they would obtain better uniforms and weaponry. The game keeps cutting content that was crucial parts of Payday 2 without adding more to justify it. This whole mess has killed the player base for this game and has left the community in shambles. Months after release none of these issues have been fixed. Payday 3 is one of the biggest disappointments in gaming and even after being out for months they still have not even come close to fixing it. The player count is slowly withering away and Payday 2 has been abandoned. It is a dark day for Payday fans. The true heist was the 40 dollars I spent on this game.