Gaming

Wait, so When Was Someone Going To Let Me Know That ‘Payday 3’ Was Actually Decent Now?

It took Starbreeze Studios a while to get here, but ‘Payday 3’ is finally in a place where it’s good to play and has some worthwhile content.

Jacket from 'Hotline Miami' in 'Payday 3'
Screenshot: Deep Silver

Payday 2 is one of the greatest games of all time, and I will not elaborate further. I mean, I happily will. But, I don’t think you want to hear me talking about the sheer amount of content the game has, and why it’s so great. If you’ve played it, you already know more than what I could say. When Payday 3 finally came with a whimper, folks weren’t happy. Performance issues, launch day woes, and a lack of content made many think this game was DOA. I finally jumped back in for the first time since October of 2023, and I’ll happily say it. It’s playable now!

Jacket holding an NPC hostage in 'Payday 3' inside of a club
Screenshot: Deep Silver

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? To Get To the Side Where ‘Payday 3’ Is Actually Good

I can’t lie; the re-introduction of Jacket from the Hotline Miami series was the first reason why I wanted to check out Payday 3 again. As my main in Payday 2, I couldn’t wait to step back into the shoes of this homicide fowl once more. And it had been a very long time since I played the game. When Payday 3 released, it was in a very, very rough spot. It didn’t have even 1/8th of the content the previous game had. And playing it was a chore — if you could even get online with it at all. Even though plenty of people got this one for free on Game Pass, they likely still wanted a refund.

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But, following its newfound “live-service” roots, Payday 3 has seen a lot of new content make its way into the game. Where it stands right now is how it should have been when it was released, to be completely honest. It has a Single-Player mode, finally. I could actually boot up the game and not have to worry about being kicked off the server. It seems like Starbreeze Studios is finally starting to cook. But, why did it take so long to finally get here?

A lot of people have already brushed off Payday 3, and I was one of them. But seeing that it was coming to the PS+ lineup for February, I figured I should see if it would be worth my time downloading it again. So, I booted it up on Steam, bought the Jacket pack, and got to work on a few missions. It was fun again — something I didn’t expect.

Dallas holding his mask in Payday 3
Screenshot: Deep Silver

Don’t Get Me Wrong, There’s Still a Lot of Work To Be Done Before it’s Great

Starbreeze Studios has done a much better job of keeping the community up to date with ongoing fixes for the game. They’ve finally started implementing some of the different features they’ve been promising since the abysmal launch. And Payday 3 is decent to play, roughly a year after its release. It’s a shame they even had to launch the game in the state it was in. There’s no particular reason they needed to do so, especially since it soured the goodwill fans have had for the franchise for many years.

But, we also need to remember that Payday 2 didn’t launch with the massive amount of content it has now. That took years upon years to build to what it currently is. And while Payday 3 is finally starting to play catch up on the content front? It’s at least in a playable state and still offers some of the most fun you can have with friends, randoms, or yourself. I mean, what other game is going to let you waltz into a bank as a massive chicken man and start unleashing Hell? Not many, I can say that much.