Sony Online Reveals Squad-Based Crime Sim Payday: The Heist

[Earnest Cavalli]

Sony Online Reveals Squad-Based Crime Sim Payday: The Heist

Sony Online Entertainment wants to push you into a life of crime.

Though I'm sure there's a joke about the state of the PlayStation Network in there somewhere, I am referring instead to the company's newly-announced shooter Payday: The Heist.

In short, Payday is an attempt by SOE and developer Overkill Software to recreate the best Hollywood heist films in squad-based shooter form. As the official press release puts it, Payday is "a high-intensity squad-based first person shooter where players take on the role of a hardened career criminal pulling death-defying heists in the never-ending pursuit of the next big score."

I'll admit, that's a solid premise for an action game, but a quality concept does not a blockbuster title make. Let's hear about the game's features:

KEY FEATURES

Six High-Intensity Heists: Whether you're blowing the roof off a building to extract a safe via helicopter or emptying the vault at the First World Bank, these action-packed heists will have players on edge and always checking their six.
Interactive Co-op Gameplay: Whether AI or live, your crew of four must operate as one to bring get the "big score." Sharing extra ammo and med kits, helping regen wounded partners, guarding key positions, taking civilian hostages or cracking through various security measures - it's all for one and one for all.
Endless Replayability: Dynamic environments, adaptive enemy behavior, shifting entry points, FBI agents repelling down on ropes through the skylights, SWAT teams crashing through the windows and special units crawling through the ventilation shafts makes each play-through of every heist a unique fight.
Massive Character Progression Tree: Players choose a specialty - assault, sharpshooter or support - to gain weapons and equipment that fit their preferred form of violence. Unlock trip mines, silenced pistols, machine guns and much, much more.
Shout Out Button: Players need to be vocal and shout commands and directions to the co-op crew, as well as hostages and the police if they want to survive to spend their cut of the take.
Hostage Trading: Hostages can be a lifeline. If anyone in the crew is taken into custody, trade hostages to get crew members back and increase the odds of completing your objectives.
PlayStation or PC: For keyboard and mouse marksman, as well as handheld controller snipers, PAYDAY is the uber-FPS for a high intensity shooter fix.
More DLC: Additional heists, weapons and equipment means PAYDAY - a digitally distributed AAA quality title for less than half the price of a retail game - is total OVERKILL.

Well there you have it. Payday "is the uber-FPS for a high intensity shooter fix." How can you argue with that?

In all seriousness, the most intriguing bit of this entire announcement is in the masks worn by the criminals. That "patriotic clown" look is a bit tired, but a Ronald Reagan mask [http://www.amazon.com/Point-Break-Adrenaline-Patrick-Swayze/dp/B000GUJZ4G] would be totally boss.

So far the game lacks a solid release date, though SOE's press blast promises the title will be on shelves later this year.

Permalink

 

[dragongit]

Is this... suppose to be ironic?

 

[Kopikatsu]

This looks pretty cool, and I honestly think we need more co-op FPSes where you need to work together to get through it. (CoD doesn't count. It's basically every man for himself, despite having a team.)

I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[Racecarlock]

Oh come on sony, now you're just stealing flash game names. No, seriously, look: http://www.johnnytwoshoes.com/game/theheist

 

[DEAD34345]

Sounds like a blatant re-skin of Left 4 Dead to me...

4-player co-op shooter focusing on keeping the same few missions "Endlessly replayable" by having shifting entry points and dynamic AI? Not to mention the apparent focus on teamwork and sharing resources. I can't be the only one thinking Left 4 Dead here, the only major difference other than the setting seems to be some extra RPG elements.

 

[Gindil]

Oh come on sony, now you're just stealing flash game names. No, seriously, look: http://www.johnnytwoshoes.com/game/theheist

I thought they got this from the Kane and Lynch 2 multiplayer myself...

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I could have sworn I saw this game announced forever ago, I just assumed it was cancelled...

Sounds like a blatant re-skin of Left 4 Dead to me...

4-player co-op shooter focusing on keeping the same few missions "Endlessly replayable" by having shifting entry points and dynamic AI? Not to mention the apparent focus on teamwork and sharing resources. I can't be the only one thinking Left 4 Dead here, the only major difference other than the setting seems to be some extra RPG elements.

And the lack of zombies and the fact that you're stealing shit, not surviving?

This whole "X game is a blatant rip-off of y game!" thing is getting ridiculous...

 

[DEAD34345]

I could have sworn I saw this game announced forever ago, I just assumed it was cancelled...

Sounds like a blatant re-skin of Left 4 Dead to me...

4-player co-op shooter focusing on keeping the same few missions "Endlessly replayable" by having shifting entry points and dynamic AI? Not to mention the apparent focus on teamwork and sharing resources. I can't be the only one thinking Left 4 Dead here, the only major difference other than the setting seems to be some extra RPG elements.

And the lack of zombies and the fact that you're stealing shit, not surviving?

This whole "X game is a blatant rip-off of y game!" thing is getting ridiculous...

I was talking about game-play, and I did specifically say "the only major difference other than the setting...". This games seems to be advertising itself with the exact same points as Left 4 Dead was advertised with, which just seems a little weird to me.

Maybe the game will turn out to be a completely different type of game, but when I hear about the interactive 4 player co-op focusing on teamwork and sharing resources, I think Left 4 Dead.

When I hear "Endless Replayability: Dynamic environments, adaptive enemy behavior, shifting entry points" I think AI Director.

When I hear "Shout Out Button: Players need to be vocal and shout commands and directions to the co-op crew" I think of the same feature they advertised for Left 4 Dead.

Finally, when I hear "More DLC" I think of the same promises Valve made for L4D.

I'm not saying that the game is going to be bad, I'm not even saying that it's going to be a rip-off. I'm just saying that if you removed the specific words like "Heist" and "SWAT teams" it seems very reminiscent of all the advertisements that came out for Left 4 Dead.

 

[DerpyDerpyDerp]

I could have sworn I saw this game announced forever ago, I just assumed it was cancelled...

-snip-

And the lack of zombies and the fact that you're stealing shit, not surviving?

This whole "X game is a blatant rip-off of y game!" thing is getting ridiculous...

I agree with you. Calling everything a rip off is just pointless. So just any co-op based game where you can interact with your partners is now a rip off? Replaying missions was originally from L4D? I thought all shooters did that.


As far as my opinion goes, this sounds like it might be fun. My group tends to be able to make any co-op game at least slightly enjoyable but I'll wait for more information and maybe some game play footage of the mechanics before I make my decision.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I could have sworn I saw this game announced forever ago, I just assumed it was cancelled...

Sounds like a blatant re-skin of Left 4 Dead to me...

4-player co-op shooter focusing on keeping the same few missions "Endlessly replayable" by having shifting entry points and dynamic AI? Not to mention the apparent focus on teamwork and sharing resources. I can't be the only one thinking Left 4 Dead here, the only major difference other than the setting seems to be some extra RPG elements.

And the lack of zombies and the fact that you're stealing shit, not surviving?

This whole "X game is a blatant rip-off of y game!" thing is getting ridiculous...

I was talking about game-play, and I did specifically say "the only major difference other than the setting...". This games seems to be advertising itself with the exact same points as Left 4 Dead was advertised with, which just seems a little weird to me.

Maybe the game will turn out to be a completely different type of game, but when I hear about the interactive 4 player co-op focusing on teamwork and sharing resources, I think Left 4 Dead.

When I hear "Endless Replayability: Dynamic environments, adaptive enemy behavior, shifting entry points" I think AI Director.

When I hear "Shout Out Button: Players need to be vocal and shout commands and directions to the co-op crew" I think of the same feature they advertised for Left 4 Dead.

Finally, when I hear "More DLC" I think of the same promises Valve made for L4D.

I'm not saying that the game is going to be bad, I'm not even saying that it's going to be a rip-off. I'm just saying that if you removed the specific words like "Heist" and "SWAT teams" it seems very reminiscent of all the advertisements that came out for Left 4 Dead.

Well yeah, but when the settings are so dramatically different I hardly think it's fair to exclude it.

To me, it sounds like a co-op game with a moderately similar framework to Left for Dead, not a "blatant re-skin". Let's continue this train of thought. Call of Duty and Halo both have focused and linear single campaigns, a strong multiplayer community, feature regenerating health prominently, and are in the first person. The only major difference seems to be the setting and CoD's RPG elements.

And yet, the two games are very different to play. Who knows, maybe it will be a re-skin. But since it's the way it looks and plays that would differentiate it, let's wait for gameplay videos or demos.

 

[DEAD34345]

Well yeah, but when the settings are so dramatically different I hardly think it's fair to exclude it.

To me, it sounds like a co-op game with a moderately similar framework to Left for Dead, not a "blatant re-skin". Let's continue this train of thought. Call of Duty and Halo both have focused and linear single campaigns, a strong multiplayer community, feature regenerating health prominently, and are in the first person. The only major difference seems to be the setting and CoD's RPG elements.

And yet, the two games are very different to play. Who knows, maybe it will be a re-skin. But since it's the way it looks and plays that would differentiate it, let's wait for gameplay videos or demos.

Well, maybe. The difference in how I see it is that Left 4 Dead had certain very different, unique features that haven't really been done much before the game or since it came out. Then suddenly this game appears and seems to have not just one or two, but all of those unique features.

To be honest though my point was mainly that they seem to have advertised the same things as were advertised for Left 4 Dead, to the point that all I could think of while reading was that it sounded the same. I doubt the game really will be all that similar, but this particular key features list made it sound like a blatant rip-off to me, apart from the setting.