REVIEW – 505 Games and Overkill Software thought about those, who so far didn’t have a PS3 and a PC beefed enough to run games – but there’s a slight problem. PayDay 2: CrimeWave Edition didn’t really upgrade the game, which might have better visuals, but in the end, it’s just another in the pile of current generation ports…

PayDay 2 is an FPS, mainly oriented towards cooperative gaming, which was originally out on the PlayStation 3 in the summer of 2013. You can already spot a trend here: most prev-gen bigger games close to the release of the current generation consoles get pushed over to the PS4, with not much exception.

Hoxton

So it’s a coop FPS? Yeah… now add a pile of masks to it (Team Fortress 2 hats… anyone?), and put the entire thing into the environment of robberies and banks. This is something, that was tried to be replicated by Battlefield: Hardline’s multiplayer, and it wasn’t really a success in the end. The problem is that PayDay 2 not going to be a memorable on the PlayStation 4 either, and I’m saying this for those, who would want to jump ship (or in other words, a generation).

There’s a big issue here: you can’t just import your progress over from your PS3 version. Why? Seriously? In my opinion, this is one big issue, that should have been noted way before release, this should be fixed later on, because it kinda makes the port pointless for PS3 owners.

Dallas

What’s CrimeWave Edition improved over the PlayStation 3 version? Well, there’s a bigger crew here, so you can get to play the female robber, whose name is Clover. New weapons, new masks, the latter one even goes as far as including the Hotline Miami content. Speaking of Dennaton’s game, that DLC is also here, so you can get to play a difficult, yet enjoyable mission too. Back to the weapons. That kitchen knife. A laugh is guaranteed. You have to see how this turns things into Psycho with that slow-motion kill with that seemingly harmless breadslicing tool out of mom’s kitchen… It’s creative.

Visuals also got some improvement, but it’s natural to see, when a game jumps a generation. 1080p and the bigger framerate should be ESSENTIAL for these ports, making it a thing to achieve. But the game didn’t get much graphical polish as say, The Last of Us: Remastered or Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. These two games have shown how a jump from number three to number four can make games look absolutely brilliant. And about the framerate: it seems to be thirty. Again.

Wolf

I don’t recommend playing single player for a long time. It’s pretty much only for practicing and warming up for new players. Even then, the AI might do stupid things. Despite having a good chance in defeating other players, the objectives don’t really seem to be going as well for the computer controlled teammates. They follow around almost all the time, and the cops can also pull off some very weird stuff.

Once, I came through a door and saw a cop run towards me… without shooting one, single, bullet. How on Earth is that even possible? But if you can leave the AI behind and begin playing with other players, the game starts to show a different face.

Safe-breaking is still quite an annoyance („Open, you damn thing!” is a regular sentence heard!), but when the reward is there, then you can end up improving on a revamped, updated skill tree. The game can really be enjoyable, because there’s some alright ambience going on while defeating each other… but only in multiplayer.

Chains

While PayDay 2 doesn’t have as good gunplay as some of the biggest FPS franchises – namely, Call of Duty and Battlefield -, the ambience can make you forget it. The PlayStation 4 version of the game can’t really improve over the prev-gen one, because while it has slightly better graphics, it could and should be better and this applies to the framerate too.

Also, there’s the unexplainable lack of importing from the PS3 version. Although the audio is good (and you can tinker with the soundtrack cues), it’s basically the best thing of the game. I only recommend getting this version if you never had a PS3 and don’t own a good PC. I think I said the same thing about ArcaniA too… dejavu. Oh well, it’s just another current-gen port…

-V-

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: Overkill Software

Genres: FPS, bank robbery

Publication: June 9, 2015