Starbreeze Studios have shared Episode 1 of the Payday 3 Dev Diary, revealing a lot of the pertinent features for the upcoming co-op heist shooter.
The first thing fans will probably want to know is that Starbreeze is taking the story element of Payday 3 seriously. So this happens a considerable amount of time after Payday 2, and the core gang of four is coming back together.
If you’re one of those players who cared about the story behind the crime sprees, you will be happy to know that Starbreeze is emphasizing the history of their characters from across three games now, and that they will be making those characters older, and they are written with all those past experiences accounted into it.
I won’t spoil the story here, but Payday 2 players know that there is one key character that didn’t survive the end of that game. We have to assume that that will be canon, and it will definitely tie in to the story of Payday 3.
That’s because Payday 3 sees the gang move to New York from Washington. The City That Never Sleeps is always going to be alert in some way, from the endless parade of pedestrians to the frequent movement of yellow taxis. That will have a real effect to the gameplay, but the New York location also has something to do with the story. In fact, two new operators will be joining the gang in this go around. Starbreeze states that eventually, the gang will be expanding to even more locations.
Starbreeze also alluded to the game’s many collaborations, the lion’s share of which, of course, happened all the way back in Payday 2. Just to give you an idea, those collaborations included other games like Hotline Miami and Shadow Warrior 2, as well as movies like Scarface and John Wick.
Starbreeze is going to focus on the core characters of the franchise for now, so fans may have to wait for a bit before they see new collaborations for the game in the future.
There are new gameplay scenarios incorporated into Payday 3, expanding on what you had to contend with from Payday 2. Stealth returns, as the preferred way to infiltrate and scout heist locations. Search is now a separate scenario, which you enter into when bank guards go looking for you.
Also a new separate scenario is Negotiation. Before the proper authorities arrive, you can give up hostages to first responders. Hostages can be traded to the first responders early to buy time, or for resources such as getaway vehicles later on.
As you can see, we were only given a small taste of what Payday 3 is going to be. Keep reading GameRanx for future news on Payday 3.
Payday 3 will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows, on both Steam and Epic Game Store. You can watch the first dev diary below.
