Payday: The Heist may have received middling reviews in 2011, yet few could deny it offered anything less than a thrilling cooperative experience. The bank robber fantasy invited PC and PlayStation 3 users to assemble crews of four and take on daring, high-stakes heists. Within a year, over 700,000 players had joined the shooter’s criminal underworld, an impressive feat for developer Overkill Software’s first game. The studio delivered repeat success two years later upon deploying Payday 2, which reviewed marginally better and sold so well that it turned a profit days before launch. Throughout the sequel’s lengthy life-cycle, Overkill established a steady live-service support cadence as well as quality expectations that fans held in high esteem. Such standards would not be met when the third installment landed a decade later.
Beset by dire financial woes, publisher Starbreeze Entertainment had much riding on Payday 3’s hopeful commercial success. Initial sales exceeded expectations but the highs quickly spiraled amid unforeseen server issues that rendered the game unplayable for many users at launch. Technical improvements, gameplay tweaks, and a few highly-requested additions rehabilitated the first-person shooter over time; however, Year One for Payday 3 proved disastrous all-in-all.
But not even a tumultuous first year could force Starbreeze to sideline its most important property. On the contrary, the company viewed the co-op game’s post-release content offerings as but one path on the quest targeting a No Man’s Sky-esque redemption arc. Early failings cast a long shadow, though, one the third Payday entry struggled to overcome even during its best days.
This is the tragedy of Payday 3.
Intro 0:00
The Heist 3:42
Crude Awakening 5:45
The Hard Way 11:28
Operation Medic Bag 15:28
