Recent reviews by Simply Pear

To start, its easy to look at the server issues as being the main point to this game, and, believe me, they are annoying but likely to be overcome soon.

My main criticism with PAYDAY 3 (hence referred to as PD3) the features which have been lost compared to PAYDAY 2 (hence referred to as PD2) and the XP system which doesn't make any sense to a loyal player base.

PD2 has a lot of quality of life features which this game has lost, example - Pre-Planning, this feature was critical to helping players to put their spin on the game whether it was making missions easier with extra keycards or less cameras (or both). PD3 has none of this, the 'favours' system which has replaced it relies on a mostly loud play with no opportunities to view a map to help plan the heist. Another example which I loved from PD2 was the Stealth Bonus, the feature on its own incentivised stealth play and loud play. none of this exists in PD3.. you might as well do all of the heists loud.

The XP system is bonkers, you do not XP from completing the heist or leaving with extra bags.. no.. you get Levelling XP from completing in-game challenges. At the moment there are just over 1100 challenges split into three areas; Heists, Career and Combat. These are so poorly implemented that by the time you get to level 50-60, you reach a point where you need to farm for kills or heist completions. Let me give an example - Heists Challenges are mostly about completing heists successfully but some of these challenges are about completing the same heists up-to 120 times!! This means that the game openly wants you to rush heists to complete them. These are borderline unachievable challenges for the average person.

To conclude; there are positives to this game but there are serious negatives. The game is flawed in favour of loud play since challenges want you to kill x number of cops etc. The stealth IS awesome though, its been built beautifully with a lot of thought to the mechanics but even the stealth often uses the same mechanics (e.g. get a QR code, open a door, stand in circles to get WIFI). Visually PD3 is a massive step up from PD2, it looks stunning and the detail is on another level. The guns have a satisfying feel but the number and their modding options are limited.

At this stage, I do not recommend this game, its a fantastic base but development is required to correct some quite clear flaws.