Recent reviews by Dakafak

Fun heist in solo stealth but I think it would be even better with a group. It was definitely challenging at first but once you realize you can stay in casing mode and remove all cops from the upper floor (by distracting with donuts) it makes it a lot easier. It's one of those heists where the casing specific skills really come in handy. Like not getting detected by civs when you have rush. Still not worth the price they're asking but it's a fun heist.

Most of the heist is a lot of fun for stealth, but the end is so painful. Having to drag all the loot back up and outside to the van is very awkward and easy to get caught. It's so painful to get all the way through the heist and then fail or fight your way through the end. Some might call that an added challenge but it's completely unnecessary. The rest of the heist is fun and challenging so there's no reason the loot securing should be a challenge in itself. Also far too expensive for one heist, at least the pricing as of writing this review.

I like the amount of depth in this heist for stealth. Having multiple approaches really makes it feel like it's up to you how you tackle the heist. That's really key in a good payday heist, you don't want it to feel one dimensional. At the start you can stay in casing and hack through or you can mask up and crawl through vents. Later you can pretend to be press or you can skip that part. It's a common theme throughout the heist where you can tackle the problem how you want, within reason. I contrast this with the heist "Fear and Greed". I wouldn't say this is worth $8, so my recommendation is purely based on the design and play-ability.

Feels one dimensional for stealth. There's no casing mode so that removes the dynamic of splitting responsibility between teammates or taking advantage of special skills like cameras or citizens not detecting you with rush. Speaking of rush, there's no way to rush through the heist. Not without getting lucky anyway. That's not the biggest deal but it's fun learning a heist inside and out and know how to rush through it faster.

Because there's no casing mode and it's so one dimensional for stealth, you basically move down a hallway, wait for a civ to move, move down another hallway, wait for a guard to move, etc. If you get spotted by a civ or gaurd on the floor, you're done, so it's pretty painful to go through every step of the heist just to go loud from one tiny mistake.

It definitely feels like there's something missing to this heist. If they had casing mode and had a couple different approaches to sneaking through, I think that would REALLY help the replay-ability of this heist. Feels like a waste of money for a DLC heist when you can't even tackle it in multiple methods.

To summarize, this heist is very one dimensional for stealth. so there's no replay value. It's not worth $8 just to play a couple times. It's a shame because it's a fun concept but it's extremely lacking any depth.

Let's start with the good:
- I really like the new mechanics with key cards, lock picking, safe cracking, hacking, etc.
- The new casing mode is far more interactive and useful than ever in payday 2. Some heists can actually be completed without ever masking up which is such a cool dynamic to add to a game.
- Some skills further improve casing mode to make it even more functional.
- public/private/secure areas really add depth to heists.
- Removing body bags and simply allowing you to move bodies wherever is a huge improvement.
- Taking human shields is useful to more quickly move civs whever instead of waiting for them to follow you.

Now let's talk about the bad:
- When maintenance or server issues happen, you can't play.
- The skill system is awkward and really not rewarding and is lacking depth. In payday 2 the skill system was more traditional style where the big rewards are up top so you had to invest many points to reach them, but this forced you to decide between various skills. The new system is grindy to unlock and then you basically set it once and forget it.
- There's no detection level on weapons and armor, so I guess just stealth run with a machine gun and heavy armor because why not? Slightly kidding.
- Extreme lack of weapons and they make little difference, at least for stealth, primarily because of the lack of detection level
- Linear modding for weapons. Probably in part because of the missing detection system, but even so, it's basically just leveling the gun so you can get the good mods and then you're done.
- You constantly get booted back to using your secondary weapon so it's annoying if you want to use your primary.
- Lack of included heists so you get bored really fast.
- EMC Jammer is pointless. I stick with the motion sensor which is helpful but that was disappointing to lose.
- I don't even understand why the overkill weapons were added. Obviously they don't come in handy for stealth but it's just awkward for payday. Maybe people who enjoy loud heists like the addition.

Somewhat in the middle:
- I like how some hesits from payday 2 are remade in payday 3. Murky station (now turbid station) and cook off were added. I'd love to see some of my favorites get remade with the new mechanics, like election day, shadow raid, bank heist, car shop, the yacht heist, and maybe even fire starter or one of those other multi day heists.
- I'm not really sure what to do now that I'm leveled and have everything unlocked. I did like the infamy system from payday 2 because you got rewards for leveling up and restarting, adding more replay-ability.
- There isn't a range of easy/medium/difficult heists created for different levels. I suppose I rarely played ukranian job, four stores, or jewlery store, but they were fun to occasionally do for a break from the difficult heists.

The biggest downside is the game doesn't let you murder the main characters, at least to my knowledge. The game play and graphics seem solid but the main characters and writing make me want to blow my brains out (figuratively). It's like they took saints row and replaced all the characters with whiny San Francisco hipsters cracking jokes about college loans and rent. I'm going to keep trucking along and hope it gets better, seems like there's potential with the side missions so I'm going to burn through the campaign as quickly as possible.

Update at about 2/3rds completion. Wow the writing makes me want to dump in a box and send it off as fan mail - but that would ruin a perfectly good box. It's a shame because there's some improvements to game play, like the way you build the empire. It's more involved than saints row the third where the buildings are available and you just go around and buy them. In this reboot it's more interactive. But here I am playing as a gang where there's murder, robbery, and every other illegal activity under the sun, and the characters are all of a sudden worried about a legal issue that could hurt the gang? That makes no sense whatsoever. I'm not asking for "realism", just a plot that makes at least a lick of sense. I'm going to keep trucking to the finish line and hope I don't develop an aneurysm.

Update after completing the game:
*Me playing through the game*: Wow how is it possible to make a game so cringey, lame, and out of touch?
*Me watching the credits*: Oh that makes sense.

I don't like horror games and the camera system was weird. That being said, the story was awesome. Would recommend.

I Haven't felt this immersed in a story since I was a kid playing half life 2. It's really hard to predict what comes next so the game really makes you think about your dialog and questing choices. In most games I ignore the side quests and power through the main story, however in Cyberpunk it was rewarding to check them out.
The open world and hacking game play reminds me of Watchdogs.

I do wish there were more customization options for your character and vehicles, similar to Saints Row or GTA. Also it would be cool if you could call up contacts and have them come with you on missions, but that may have not worked well with the story.

No matter how I look at it, well worth the money. I'd love to see certain story lines continue with DLC or new games.

Stealth is a lot of fun. Not a whole lot I would change there.

I wish loud heists had higher rewards. I feel like loud heists take a lot longer to complete and are more difficult (with fewer than 4 players) so I often find myself avoiding loud heists because they feel like a waste of time.
Still a lot of fun though if you can get a group.