Payday 2 Coming Summer 2013

Back in October of 2011, a little game titled Payday: The Heist came out. The object of the game was simple and straightforward...you are one of four heist men that must complete Some sort of criminal mission. Of course, there was more to it than that. The game felt very much like Left 4 Dead, the zombie shooter. The difference was that instead of zombies, you were fighting cops and SWAT teams. Each mission had different stages, such as setting up a drill on a lock, or disabling the fuse boxes. This created excitement as the cops are trying to stop you as you wait for the dang drill to punch through the lock. The game had six original levels, which were creative, challenging, and extremely fun. Unfortunately, extra levels took a long time to arrive, and the game sort of grew stale. Well, that's all about to be ancient history. Yesterday, it was announced that Payday 2 is coming to the PlayStation Network and PC this summer!

Now with more $2 bills.

These days, my PS3 is mainly an expensive, nice looking decorative piece that sits beneath my TV. I simply don't have the time to play video games like I used to. But if ever there was a game that was going to get me to devote countless hours to it and wasn't named SOCOM, it would be the sequel to Payday.

The qualifier in that last sentence relates to the greatest game series ever made. Period.

This sequel seems to have all the right things going for it. The developers are improving many of the downsides of the first game, while keeping all of the awesome aspects intact. Payday 2 is said to feature 30 new levels, which are all full of random events and layouts. The game will also focus on role-playing game (RPG) elements, which allow the player to truly customize how they want their character to work. There are currently four professional skills that you can improve abilities in, and they include mastermind, enforcer, ghost, and technician. Even though I've never had much interest in RPG games, using these elements in a shooter has turned out very well for the Borderlands franchise. Of course there will also be plenty of new weapons, gadgets, mods, masks, and other items to buy with the in game money that you steal.

And if all these upgrades weren't enough, one example of how the campaign will play out was mentioned by the developers. They said that your heist men may decide to steal some artwork and/or paintings in one mission. The next mission might have you hiding cameras inside the artwork, and then selling the stolen goods to some rich people. The mission after that would have you casing their mansions (not Japanese apartments) via the hidden cameras, so that in the next mission you can rob them.

Philip J. Fry knows what I'm talking about.

To top everything off, the developers really went the extra mile when it comes to paying homage to their influences. I always thought the first game's aesthetics were at least partially inspired by The Dark Knight (which is the best Batman movie by far), and this cements that thought. Watching the first teaser trailer for the game, I noticed an obvious reference to the almost opening shot of The Dark Knight. The comparison is below.

Spoiler Alert: that's The Joker

This put a smile on my face.

Obviously the developers are tipping their hats (masks?) to such an awesome shot in an awesome movie. And I love it. That scene totally makes the trailer, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Having said that, here is the trailer:

You can find out more about Payday 2 by visiting Overkill Software's site, which can be found here.

Finally, in the spirit of bank robberies and The Joker, I have a couple awesome pictures to share. The first two are from behind the scenes photos. The last one is something that somebody very talented photoshopped. Enjoy.