Payday 2

Payday 2
File:Payday2cover.jpg
Developer(s)	Overkill Software
Publisher(s)	505 Games
Director(s)	David Goldfarb
Producer(s)	Almir Listo
Designer(s)	Ulf Andersson
Composer(s)	Simon Viklund Gustaf Grefberg
Engine	Diesel 2.0
Platforms	Microsoft Windows Linux Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Xbox One PlayStation 4
Release date(s)	13 August 2013 Windows PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 PlayStation 4, Xbox One EU 12 June 2015 NA 16 June 2015 Linux
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Payday 2 (stylized as PAYDAY 2) is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The game is a sequel to 2011's Payday: The Heist. It was released on 13 August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. An improved version of the game, subtitled Crimewave Edition, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2015 (on 12 June in the UK and Europe and on 16 June in North America).

Two years after the events of the previous game, a new gang comes to the Washington, D.C. area to rob banks. The player takes control of one of the gang's fifteen members and heists alone, with up to two AI players, as four player cooperative play, or some combination of the previous. Heists include robbing banks, jewellery stores, and armored cars, producing and distributing narcotics, stealing prototypes, art and artifact theft, rigging elections and framing corrupt politicians, taking on rival gangs, breaking into mercenary bases, prisons, and FBI facilities, enforcing protection rackets, and smuggling of guns and nuclear warheads. The game differs on the previous by allowing much more customization of the player and reworking its stealth mechanics.

An accompanying web series was produced to promote the game. The game was profitable from pre-orders alone and received positive reviews. Payday 2: Crimewave Edition which offers improved graphics, new content and all previous DLCs, was released on June 12, 2015 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Gameplay

See Also: Payday: The Heist § Gameplay

The game consists of a variety of 'heists' that a player can opt to either carry out by themselves, with the AI, or as part of a multiplayer game. There are heists such as bank robbery, a drug trafficking run, rigging an election, or stealing a smuggled nuclear warhead. Some of the heists put a large emphasis on stealth, often leading to bonus experience points and money on completion.

The level selection menu is styled as a fictional website, Crime.net, where missions pop up periodically as contracts in a map of Washington D.C. The player can pick up an open contract, join a contract another player has started, or buy a contract with in-game money in an offshore bank account. There are five difficulty levels, with increased money and experience payouts for higher difficulty levels. Independent of difficulty is the "pro job" condition - pro jobs give additional experience, but cannot be retried if the players fail. Some contracts in Payday 2 take place over multiple days, with each day represented by a separate level with different objectives. After a day is complete the game may add an escape level, where the players' original escape is thwarted and they must survive to reach their backup getaway.

Many jobs in Payday 2 can be completed in stealth. If players avoid getting caught on camera, evade or silently kill security guards, and keep any civilian witnesses from calling the police, the alarm will not be raised and the players will receive an experience bonus. Otherwise, players will have to achieve their objectives, carry out any loot they find to a dropoff point, and then reach their escape point under the pressure of constant police assault waves. Most of the enemies are DC Police and FBI SWAT teams, with GenSec private security contractors at the highest difficulty level. Mixed in with these crews are five special police units: the "Shield" and the "Taser" - both named for their signature equipment, the "Cloaker" - an infiltration and hand-to-hand combat expert, and the "Bulldozer" - a SWAT team member in a modified near-bulletproof bomb suit and the "Sniper" -a deadly marksman. After the 'Hype Train' event/update, a new special unit was added: the 'SWAT Van Turret', an automated turret, and as the name implies, is attached on a stationary SWAT van. Following the 'FBI Files' update, yet another special unit was introduced: Captain Winters, an army veteran and leader who bolsters the strength of all other police forces in the area upon arrival.

If a player takes too much damage they will be knocked down and incapacitated. If no one helps them back up, or if they are downed a number of times without healing, they will be taken into custody. On lower difficulty levels players in custody will eventually respawn, but otherwise their teammates must take a hostage to trade to get them back into the game. A job is failed if all players are downed or in custody.

At the end of each heist, the player is presented with a screen with three cards, one of which is to be chosen by the player (called a "Payday"). These bonus cards can be either weapon modifications, masks, colors or materials for masks, or experience or money boosters. Players can purchase and customize masks, although these are purely cosmetic and have no effect on the gameplay.

Throughout the game, players accumulate money and experience. The money is divided into two parts. 20% of the money is given to the player to spend on weapons, masks and skills, and 80% is placed into the player's "Offshore Account", which is intended as part of the story to be the player's retirement fund, however the player can use it to purchase heists from a broker or during special periods announced by Overkill to buy bonus cards without performing a heist or to become infamous.

As players earn experience points, their reputation level increases. When a player's level increases they earn skill points, allowing them to buy abilities and bonuses from skill trees representing five criminal archetypes and playstyles. It is not possible to max out any single tree and players are often encouraged to mix and match skills from each tree to maximize usefulness (such as combining a skill to carry bags faster and throw bags farther in the Enforcer tree with a skill to pack and pick up bags quicker from Ghost). Players also receive "perk points," in proportion to their experience earned, that can be used to unlock additional bonuses from six "perk decks." Players can switch between perk decks and 5 sets of skills at no cost before starting a heist.

When a player reaches level 100, they can opt to raise their "Infamy" level, up to twenty five (as of 5 March 2015; there are only five levels of Infamy on PS3 and Xbox 360). Becoming Infamous grants a player access to special skill trees and items and gives them special poses in lobby screens. However, raising one's Infamy level causes them to lose all of their spending money and experience, and a sum of $200,000,000 is deducted from their offshore account.

Plot and characters

Payday 2, when first released, allowed players to control one of four pseudonymous robbers. Three of these returned from Payday: The Heist: former Chicagoan mobster Dallas (portrayed by Eric Etebari, voiced by Simon Kerr), bankrupt Swedish software developer gone mad Wolf (Ulf Andersson), and rogue Navy SEAL and mercenary Chains (Damion Poitier). The fourth member of the gang, the English robber Hoxton (Pete Gold), is in jail at the start of the game, so Dallas' troubled younger brother (Derek Ray) is recruited to take his place.

The gang's command and control, the secretive Bain (Digger Mesch on camera, Simon Viklund as his Voice), is now also portrayed as the owner and operator of Crime.net. Bain arranges for The Payday Gang to relocate to Washington D.C. and helps them set up heists and jobs in the area. Bain also works to connect the gang with other contractors: Vlad (Ilia Volok) - a Ukrainian gangster trying to reassert his power after getting out of prison, Hector Morales (Gary Daniels) - a Colombian drug trafficker trying to oust the rival Mendoza cartel, and "The Elephant," (Bokeem Woodbine) a corrupt Republican politician who hires the gang to aid his party and friendly lobbyists.

The "Big Bank" DLC introduced a new contractor named "The Dentist" (Giancarlo Esposito) - a middleman for a number of wealthy clients. "Big Bank" is the first of a series of jobs from the Dentist, and in return for the gang's service he helps them break the original Hoxton out of jail. "Old Hoxton" returns to the gang, determined to find out who gave up evidence on him, with the "New Hoxton" renamed "Houston." After hacking the FBI database, they manage to find out where the rat lives. Breaking into the residence, they find out that the rat was Hector, and kill him. A promotional tie-in with the 2014 film John Wick added the film's title character (voiced by Dave Fouquette) as a playable heister as well, with the explanation that Wick and Chains used to work together in the military.

A new crew member named Clover (Aoife Duffin) joins the crew as they are about to descend on the National Gallery for the new heist "The Diamond", hailing from Ireland, she is the first female heister to be available to play as in the Payday series. The character was announced by then lead designer David Goldfarb via his Twitter feed, then after no news on her status for months her trailer was shown live on the "Crimefest" stream on 18 October 2014 as part of celebrating the Payday series' third birthday where she sang happy birthday to "Crime.net", the trailer was released on YouTube a week later. She was teased in the 2014 annual Halloween event where her name was accidentally revealed, next she was teased in the promotional art for the "Gage Historical Pack" downloadable content, she was again teased in the 2014 annual Christmas event song "The 12 Days of Xmas" before finally being confirmed for release on 16 December 2014 along with the "The Diamond" heist.

On 22 January 2015, a fourth DLC character a crooked Croatian Interpol agent named Dragan (Dragomir Mrsic), was released as part of the Dragan Character Pack. His addition ties into to a new contractor "The Butcher" (Mira Furlan), whose contracts are part of "The Bomb Heists" pack. With the arrival of the Hype Train and 1,200,000 Hype Fuel a new female character got added: Bonnie (Rhona Cameron). Not much about Bonnie has been revealed so far but we do know that she is a gambler who has recently been released from prison. She is also one of the oldest characters being 43 and the only one to come from Scotland and was mainly invited into the Payday Gang because of her knowledge on Hoxton's "rat".

Shortly before Bonnie's arrival another promotional character Jacket from the Hotline Miami series joined the crew. His reason for joining is unknown and his character is likely non-canon. His mask is his signature Richard the chicken mask and he uses a tape recorder to communicate with his crew. The only way to play as him is through normal means on Xbox One Crimewave Edition, getting a rare special developer code or owning Hotline Miami 2 deluxe edition on Steam.

Long after Bonnie, came Sokol (Alexej Manvelov), a Russian Hockey Grinder who agreed to join the Payday Gang because of his skill as a Grinder and his technical know-how. He was required for the heisting of the Golden Grin Casino which was the final Job that The Dentist set up for the crew. Sokol built the BFD ("Big Fucking Drill") in order to break through the thick vault of the casino. The casino held something dear to The Dentist in the vault which is currently unknown but very likely to be the Ark of the Covenant .

Afterwards, a Yakuza named Jiro (Togo Igawa) joined the Payday Gang, having come to the United States looking for his son Kento. He is currently the oldest member of the gang, at 52 years of age.

A character called Bodhi was added to the game, being part of the Point Break Heists DLC. The character was from a promotion for Point Break, based of main antagonist Bodhi from the film. His background also made references to the movie itself, having done a heist in Mumbai.

Jimmy was added to the game, being apart of the Hardcore Henry Packs. This character is from a promotion for the film Hardcore Henry, and is voiced by Sharlto Copley.

On 28th Aug 2015, a new heister named Sydney was confirmed, though little information was revealed, except that she would be voiced by Georgia van Cuylenburg and originated from Australia. Sydney was released on 12th May 2016 in her own character pack, designating her as an Anarchist and, to date, the youngest member of the Payday gang.

Downloadable content

Since release, over two dozen downloadable content (DLC) packages have been released for the game including new heists, weapons and game mechanics. The weapon pack DLCs are usually named for the gang's arms dealer, Gage, who was introduced in the Payday webseries used to promote the game. Other weapon packs were later introduced through a new character, the Butcher, though lately most weapon packs have been issued by Gage again.

Payday 2: Hotline Miami is a collaborative project between Dennaton Games and Overkill which includes a heist influenced by Hotline Miami. The John Wick pack is a collaboration between Lionsgate and Overkill to bring the titular character from the John Wick movie to Payday 2. In 2015, a second Lionsgate collaboration featuring Point Break has been announced containing two heists and a character inspired by the film. The Goat Simulator Heist was added on 14 January 2016, in collaboration with Coffee Stain Studios. The Hardcore Henry Packs were added to Payday 2 on March 24, 2016. The Packs were split up into two DLCs; the Jimmy Character Pack, and The Hardcore Henry Heists.

Crimewave Edition

Announced for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the Crimewave Edition of Payday 2 includes many features and add-ons from the PC version of the game. It was released in June 2015. It includes all of the aforementioned DLC and graphical enhancements such as an improved framerate and texture quality. The developers have stated that future updates will not arrive on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 citing hardware limitations as the reason.

Soundtrack

Two soundtracks for the game exist. The main soundtrack comes with completed mix tracks as well as remix materials (such as clean instrument tracks). The soundtrack was also praised as one of the better parts of the game by critics. New soundtracks usually come out to coincide with a new DLC or heist. There are currently around 56 tracks in the game, five of which are remixes of songs from the first game, Payday: The Heist.

All songs written and composed by Simon Viklund, except where noted. 

Tracklist
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Note	Length
1.	"Mayhem Dressed in a Suit"	Gustaf Grefberg	Guitar and Bass: Simon Viklund	3:08
2.	"Master Plan"			3:30
3.	"Time Window"			2:39
4.	"Black Yellow Moebius"			3:40
5.	"The Mark"			6:54
6.	"Full Force Forward"			4:10
7.	"Tick Tock"			2:50
8.	"Fuse Box"			3:28
9.	"Razormind"			4:35
10.	"Calling all Units"			2:42
11.	"Where's the Van?!"			2:46
12.	"Hard Time"			4:10
13.	"Clean Getaway"			3:18
14.	"Mayhem Dressed in a Suit (Remix)"	Gustaf Grefberg	Remixed by Simon Viklund	2:36
15.	"Let's Go Shopping"			3:01
16.	"Armed to the Teeth"			5:59
17.	"Sirens in the Distance"			4:06
18.	"Wanted Dead or Alive"			3:39
19.	"Death Wish"			3:10
20.	"Shadows and Trickery"			4:43
21.	"And Now We Wait"			4:17
22.	"Ode to Greed"			3:12
23.	"Ode to Greed (instrumental)"			3:12
24.	"And Now We Run!"			2:57
25.	"Blueprints"			2:27
26.	"Blueprints (old version)"			2:21
27.	"Freeze (theme from the launch trailer)"			3:46
28.	"Supersledge"			4:31
29.	"Evil Eye"			3:23
30.	"Hot Pursuit"			3:11
31.	"The Gauntlet"			3:42
32.	"Something Wicked This Way Comes"			4:26
33.	"Criminal's Ambition (feat KwoteONE)"			3:13
34.	"Criminal's Ambition (Instrumental)"			3:13
35.	"Clowns are Scary"			5:26
36.	"Ho Ho Ho"			5:20
37.	"Breach 2015"			4:10
38.	"Searchlights"			5:56
39.	"Kicking Ass and Taking Names"			4:01
40.	"Backstab"			3:53

A second soundtrack entitled A Merry Payday Christmas features music played during the "GO Bank" heist from a boombox in said bank. It consists of humorous Christmas music sung by Hoxton (Pete Gold) from Payday: The Heist while in prison.

All songs written and composed by Simon Viklund. 

Tracklist
No.	Title	Note	Length
1.	"Intro"	A conversation between Hoxton and his Lawyer	2:16
2.	"A Merry Payday Christmas"		3:29
3.	"A Heist not Attempted Before"		3:31
4.	"If it has to be Christmas"		3:44
5.	"I've been a Bad Boy"		2:57
6.	"Christmas in Prison"		3:54
7.	"Deck the Safe House"	Music: Deck the Halls	1:50
8.	"If it has to be Christmas (American Version)"	Vocals: Simon Viklund	3:44
9.	"A Merry Payday Christmas (Instrumental)"		3:29
10.	"A Heist not Attempted Before (Instrumental)"		3:31
11.	"If it has to be Christmas (Instrumental)"		3:45
12.	"I've been a Bad Boy (Instrumental)"		2:57
13.	"Christmas in Prison (Instrumental)"		3:54
14.	"Deck the Safe House (Instrumental)"		1:50

Reception

Critical reception

Reception
Review scores Publication Score PC PS3 PS4 Xbox 360 Xbox One CVG 8/10 Eurogamer 8/10 Game Informer 8.25/10 8.25/10 7/10 8.25/10 4/10 GamesRadar IGN 8.0/10 8.0/10 8.0/10 Joystiq PC Gamer (US) 79/100 Aggregate scores GameRankings 78.52% 71.54% 68.23% 75.00% 67.43% Metacritic 79/100 74/100 71/100 75/100 65/100

Payday 2 has received generally positive reviews from critics with general praise from the cooperative elements but heavy criticism for the friendly AI. Vince Ingenito of IGN praised its cooperative gameplay, stealth mechanics and sound design, but was not as impressed at graphical quality. David Hinkle of Joystiq was impressed at the depth of customization, level progression and random elements. Dgan Whitehead of Eurogamer described it as "When all its clunky gear suddenly align, the result remains phenomenal: a combination of Left 4 Dead's randomly generated mayhem and the muscular precision of a hardcore shooter, topped off with the big screen frisson of being the smart-suited, fright-masked guy with the AK, ordering the hostages onto the floor or standing in the street, holding off the SWAT team in a flurry of cordite and thunder." Craig Owens of PC Gamer concluded that this game is a "smart co-op shooting slightly undermined by poor stealth mechanics and dogged insistence on withholding the best toys".

Microtransactions

On October 15, 2015 as part of Overkill's second annual Crimefest celebration, Overkill announced the addition of safes to the card drop system that contained weapon skins, some of which modified weapon statistics. The safes needed to be opened with drills which were only available for purchase with real world currency, leading a fan backlash to their inclusion. On October 20, 2015 the aforementioned drills were added to card drop system, however this did not quell the backlash and Overkill was criticized for poor management of the controversy and silence to the press.

On November 11, 2015 Overkill announced the contents of a previously sold DLC investment called the "Completely Overkill Pack" would be a single random skin unique to said pack with a special EXP or Money boost for the team, after promising originally that the contents of the pack will be completely cosmetic. They also announced that seven other DLC packs would be made available for free to owners of the pack, but again, fans backlashed against this seemingly unfair revelation, including the people who bought the Completely Overkill Pack, as the store page for the pack declared it would not contain one of the DLC packs it ultimately contained, and it left the people who bought both the Completely Overkill and Overkill packs feeling short-changed. In response, Steam community moderators for Payday started a protest against this treatment of fans and abuse by fans by refusing to moderate the community until granted an interview with Almir Listo, producer of the game.

On May 30, 2016 Overkill anounced that they have reaquired the rights to the PAYDAY franchise. They then announced that future safes would be completly free to open. Almir Listo then added, "Fuck that broke dick piece of shit drill."

Sales

Payday 2 is Overkill's first game to have a boxed retail release. The director of Payday 2, David Goldfarb, stated that "Payday 2 has become just too big to reserve release on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network alone." Reports of strong sales in the first week and shortages led 505 Games to work with retailers in distributing more copies of the game. The game will still be distributed through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam services as planned.

On 8 August 2013, just under a week before launch, Starbreeze Studios confirmed that the game was profitable from pre-orders, covering all of the money invested by the publisher 505 Games. All new profit will be divided between the studio and publisher. Starbreeze Studios president Bo Andersson-Klint said:

"Today Starbreeze has once again demonstrated that our strategy of focusing on our own properties is correct. Not only have we managed to deliver a desirable product in Payday 2 but also executed a promotion that few companies of our size can. We now look forward to the royalty income that can secure the company's development of its own IP in the future. That Payday 2 generates revenue for the company six days before the release is of course very unusual for games of this size and strengthens the long-term nature of our strategy."

The game has sold 1.58 million copies as of September 2013. 80% of those sales were digital. As of November 1, 2014, Payday: The Heist and Payday 2 together have sold more than 9 million units.

External links

• Official website