Game Information
Game Title: PAYDAY 3
Platforms:
- PC (Sep 21, 2023)
- PlayStation 5 (Sep 21, 2023)
- Xbox Series X/S (Sep 21, 2023)
Trailers:
Developer: Starbreeze Studios
Publishers: Deep Silver, PLAION
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 67 average - 47% recommended - 18 reviews
Critic Reviews
Cerealkillerz - Nick Erlenhof - German - 7.3 / 10
Payday 3 takes a big step forward in what has been the sole field of heist simulators. The new stealth mechanics are motivating, the gameplay has been improved and the heists are varied. However, there are still some drawbacks in the current lack of content, the AI and the general polish. However, some things are already being worked on, so that Heist fans will soon be able to let off steam here.
Checkpoint Gaming - Omi Koulas - 6 / 10
PAYDAY 3 offers a cooperative gameplay experience with an array of heists and a progression system that has its merits. However, it’s not without its share of issues. AI inconsistencies, unremarkable objectives, and underwhelming audio-visual elements tarnish the experience. While it’s an imperfect addition to the series, it still offers a taste of the criminal underworld. Like any complex caper, it has its moments of brilliance, but also a few unexpected hiccups along the way.
Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 3.5 / 5
Payday 3 doesn’t shake up its predecessor’s formula much, but a strong batch of initial heists sets the live service shooter up for success.
Game Rant - Dalton Cooper - 2 / 5
Not only can fans expect future Payday 3 updates to add more unlockables to the game, but more substantial content like new heists are in the pipeline as well. Future updates will likely iron out Payday 3’s matchmaking problems and immersion-breaking graphical mishaps, resulting in a smoother and more consistently entertaining experience. With future updates, Payday 3 may even be a game that surpasses its predecessor, but it has a seriously long way to go. Those still curious should consider checking out Payday 3 through Xbox Game Pass instead of buying the game at full price.
Gamer Guides - Paul McNally - 7 / 10
Payday 3 is a great version of Payday, which in itself was a whole lot of fun. At a decent price and with frantic heist action when things go wrong there is such a lot of fun to get out of the game but we are left wondering whether we could have seen more new stuff after a decade of waiting for this follow-up. It will live or die on the loyalty of the playerbase which hopefully means it will do well.
Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner - 6.7 / 10
Payday 3 does play it safe, it feels like Payday 2 with some refinements and modern elements while not greatly expanding upon the core concepts of play.
Generación Xbox - Javier Bassols - Spanish - 85 / 100
PayDay 3 is the next logical step in the room. Without forgetting their place of origin and what made them known and successful worldwide, Starbreeze Studios proposes a new series of heists with great additions. From an advance in the movement of the perosnajes, with options such as sliding, a great gameplay and gunplay and an increase in customization, the studio surprises us again with a very good shooter.
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser - 7.5 / 10
Payday 3 is designed around those emergent moments that only come with friends, when you’re trying desperately to stay in control.
Hobby Consolas - Daniel Quesada - Spanish - 68 / 100
It offers shocking moments and its proposal is very attractive, but it is too outdated in the technical and sometimes the development is unnecessarily convoluted.
IGN - Travis Northup - 7 / 10
Payday 3’s cooperative heists are off to a strong start, even if the vault is a bit bare at the moment.
Press Start - Harry Kalogirou - 6.5 / 10
While PAYDAY 3 will no doubt please series veterans and newcomers, it’s still a few updates a way from being definitively better than PAYDAY 2. When everything is working seamlessly, it offers some of the highest highs in the series thus far, but frustrating omissions and questionable progression design restrain PAYDAY 3’s ability to be consistent.
Push Square - Simon Fitzgerald - 5 / 10
Payday 3 has its enjoyable moments, bringing its well-known cooperative heists into a new game engine. However its lack of content, outdated gunplay, underwhelming AI, and unfinished cutscenes leave a lot to be desired. If you’re a series fan looking for a substantial step-up in this sequel then this isn’t it. However, if you’re after a multiplayer title to clown around in for a few hours, this will suffice.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Alice Bell - Unscored
Payday 3 has some good, complex levels to do your co-op heisting, but the matchmaking and levelling systems make it harder to have fun with other players.
Seasoned Gaming - Alex Segovia - 7 / 10
The caper fantasy experience that the series continues to provide always makes it a good time even when the messy technical aspects threaten to derail it.
Stevivor - Hamish Lindsay - 7.5 / 10
It’s an easy recommend for series fans, just don’t expect it to be the lumbering behemoth that was Payday 2… yet.
Try Hard Guides - Erik Hodges - 6 / 10
Beyond the new enemy types, fancy new graphics, and a handful of well-designed levels, I’d say it’s business for usual for the Payday series. With improvements over the second game and the promise of continued dev support for what could be years, I’d definitely say it’s worth upgrading to the new title if you’re a big fan of the second. However, these promises are blindsided by serious server issues and simple quality-of-life problems that need to be addressed first, so I suggest you keep Payday 2 installed for the time being. If you aren’t a die-hard Payday fan and you’re looking into an entry into the series, I’d give this one a pass and hit up Payday 2 until these problems are addressed.
VideoGamer - Amaar Chowdhury - 8 / 10
As any larcenist knows, all the best robberies begin discreetly before snowballing into a wild frenzy soundtracked to upbeat electronic music. Payday 3 does this with brimming style, before running away with the money.
ZdobywcyGier.eu - Bartosz Michalik - Polish - 7 / 10
PAYDAY 3 is by no means a reskin of the second game, but a true flesh-and-blood sequel, introducing a ton of new features and improvements. The game takes many steps forward while going several steps back. In terms of content, PAYDAY 3 is like a very well-made skeleton that lacks muscle, blood and skin. Empty with just the basics, but with the potential for more.
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GaaS really fucks up basic game design. It’s like they intentionally are aiming to squeeze as much as possible out of a lime when they could just aim for a watermelon.
No idea how much always online server structure costs but it can’t be free. I wonder if the console manufacturers favor this type of game design as it brings them some cash in too.
The Steam reviews really reflect the gap between players and critics. Some of this is because critics need a working relationship between them and studios. No one wants to burn the free review copy bridge.
I’d say the reviewed aren’t too biased, while the gameplay itself is really really fun the score gets some points off due to server issues, the reviewers knows it’s temporary, while the players score are justified for the time being, the reviewers won’t review bomb for a temporary issue
A lot of the reviews on steam were mentioning lack of coherent design. No reason for the game to exist when the previous title does. A lot of people seemed to say this isn’t a server only issue but a gameplay one as well.
No one wants to burn the free review copy bridge
I’m sure the price of a new game is nothing for the big review sites
It’s more about the price of all the new games put together, and then the fact that a lot of review copies are sent in advance and for viewership purposes getting a review out quickly is important, but with some bigger studios not sending copies in advance more regularly now maybe we’ll see less incentive for reviewers to submit to their will.
Yeah, same at xbox. It has an avg rate of about 1.5 stars, lots of complaints about server issues, logging in, etc.
If this was about making sure they still got review copies, then 7/10s wouldn’t be the scores the game earned on the high end.
7/10 is three above average. Even 6 seems to high for this game. It looks like it’s far below average.
There are a million reasons for this kind of thing, cited for years now. These reviewers are exposed to more truly awful games than most of us, they’re less likely to latch on to one or two gripes in a score, they’re more likely to put the person in charge of the review who’s most likely to understand the game’s strengths (meaning they put the Dark Souls fan on the Dark Souls review and the Madden fan on the Madden review, for instance), and all sorts of other reasons. Were it me reviewing any game, I’d immediately dock tons of points just for the sheer act of requiring a server connection, because it can only ever make the product worse, but that hasn’t stopped people from loving Fortnite, Diablo IV, or any other live service game. It’s really just as simple as they came away from the game with a different opinion than you would have or expect. It’s not a conspiracy or incentives influencing it; not from real review outlets anyway. Actual review outlets don’t sweat it if they get cut off from codes, as it’s happened plenty of times, and they review the games anyway.
Depends on the scale of the reviewing site. I was a game reviewer for a few years and am now a game developer for the past 10. Reviewing sites absolutely want to keep those review codes and some sites don’t review games that don’t send them codes. Maybe with big titles they will go buy a copy but there is a race to have a review out by the time the public can purchase the game. It’s not money but time. That’s why review codes are important.
That said it’s also about appeasement of the game studios and the player base. 7 is “still good but could be better”. Many review sites are worried about angering the player base or studio and will be very cautious on giving anything less than a 5. For the longest time giant bomb was hated for giving lower scores as a popular review site. Now they hardly do reviews anymore because it’s not worth it.
That all said a lot of review sites are looking at simple recommendation blurbs instead of putting numbers to it. It avoids the whole issue of angering anyone just because number is too low or too high. Additionally as long as the blurb isn’t just the word “don’t” most published and studios will be content with it.
Being the first one out only matters to a few publications. You’re not competing with IGN and Gamespot just by being out first, so it doesn’t matter to most of them. Review scores tend to fall a few points after the first day the embargo breaks, because those are all the outlets the publisher bet would review it worse. I play Fantasy Critic, and you can observe this happening with just about every major release. That doesn’t mean the ones reviewing it with early review codes are any less honest about it.
Being the first and having a review out in the first day a person can buy it are different. Very little care about first. Lots care about being available for when the players can buy it.
Also embargo only applies to those getting review copies. So clearly those studios value getting the game for free rather than buying the game without embargo. A lot of time goes into a review. It could be a week or 2 of work. So still getting the game early is more valuable.
That said the reviewers without embargo are still the ones not trying to get embargoed. So the early reviewers are more likely to say nicer things.
While the moment to moment gameplay feels better (subjective I know) the design choices for the menus and leveling are completely backwards as far as improvements. Ui suffers from modern ui problems of just being poorly designed and having way to many tabs because icons and banners are so big. The xp coming only from challenges discourages team objective play as people are better of chasing challenges to level rather than complete the mission. And lastly, but probably the biggest issue, is always requiring online to play. Having to matchmake to play solo is horrid. Lagging while playing solo is embarrassing. They should take these server issues as a lesson and completely reverse this design choice because its clearly already showed why it wasn’t a good idea to begin with from day 1. Disappointing is an understatement they completely dropped the ball.
I’m sure they want to keep always online for the same reason other games do, it’s guaranteed DRM.
Mods were a fairly large part of PD2 which is just so odd to take the stance now
