After getting pulled into a black hole of next-gen coverage the last few weeks, I finally had time to sit down with the Payday 2: Armored Transport expansion; Overkill Software's first downloadable add-on for the co-op heist shooter that remains a top contender on my 2013 Game of the Year list.
For the uninitiated, Payday 2 is the sequel to 2010's Payday: The Heist; a first-person shooter in the same vein as the Left 4 Dead franchise that swaps its inspiration's never-ending horde of zombies for a near-endless stream of law enforcement personnel. You and three friends, AI-controlled teammates or random strangers from the internet will team up to complete a variety of heists, and dispatch of any/all those who try to stop you
After each mission, you're awarded experience, disposable income to purchase new guns, attachments and masks. You'll also receive offshore funds that can be used to buy new Crime.net contracts and/or increase your odds of finding "Infamous" gear during the post-heist payout. With each increase in difficulty, players will be entitled to higher experience and cash payouts, but will also find themselves running into far better-equipped police and SWAT units.
Full Disclosure: The copy of Payday 2: Armored Transport used for this review was provided by 505 Games and Overkill Software via a third-party press representative.
In total, six new heists are included in the Payday 2: Armored Transport DLC; however, only one of those (Transport: Train Heist) actually takes place on a new map. The Payday 2 expansion's one-day jobs, each of which tasks players with robbing three or more armored trucks, take place on slightly modified versions of maps from the base game's existing heists and escapes. Those hoping to take part in the train heist will first need to find the mission intel, a rare drop that only gives you temporary access to Transport: Train Heist, while looting armored trucks in the Payday 2: Armored Transport DLC's single-day offerings.
In addition to the new jobs, the Payday 2: Armored Transport DLC also features three new firearms, a set of POTUS-themed masks and an unspecified number of mask customization parts. While certainly not short on content for its seven dollar price tag, the Payday 2: Armored Transports DLC is hampered in one major way: It does almost nothing to extend the life of a game that's very quickly beginning to feel old.
Sure, there are a few moments of excitement to be had on Payday 2's new truck jobs -- like cracking open the doors on a truck and finding a Bulldozer waiting inside -- but the novelty of (slightly) new environments for your mischief wears off pretty quickly if you've spent any significant time with Payday 2 already. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting close to the 100 hour mark at this point, and starting to wonder if Days 4-7 are ever going to get any love from the dev team.
The experience and cash payouts for each of the five missions is also disappointingly low, giving relatively little incentive (other than the train heist) to return to the Payday 2: Armored Transport content. Worse, you're likely to lose at least a couple of those payouts, thanks to Overkill Software's decision to implement the new job as a bonus segment of your current mission, rather than a standalone heist. In fact, I found myself in just such a situation once already, losing out on the (admittedly meager) payout from a successful Tranport: Underpass job after my team failed to complete the new train heist as well.
With "Rats" farming having given rise to tens of thousands of level 100 players, who are less useful in gun fights than the universally-despised AI holding back the Payday 2 single-player experience, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find an entire team of Payday 2 players who actually know what they are doing. With the Reputation filter effectively rendered useless, it's almost impossible to know whether or not your current squad can handle the game's most-difficult mission until you pass/fail; at which point, the session generally devolves into a combination of angry accusations, rage quitting and a feeling that you just wasted your time.
To be clear, I still stand behind my belief that Payday 2 is one of the few must-play games to have emerged during 2013. I just can't, in good conscience, recommend spending seven dollars on an expansion that could easily be completed in less time than it takes to watch a 90-minute film.
I'm even willing to admit that there are some interesting concepts at play Overkill Software's Payday 2: Armored Transport add-on. But the game still lacks anything that feels as enticing to me as the infamous Overdrill vault, a massive payoff hidden inside of Payday: The Heist's First World Bank mission that was introduced after a three-month ARG back in 2012. Though entertaining at times, the Payday 2: Armored Transport DLC fails to offer anything that makes the seven dollar add-on feel like an essential purchase; especially when you can still join the lobbies of all those who do own the Payday 2: Armored Transport content.
Recommendation - Don't Pay Full Price
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more on Payday 2, including the rest of the downloadable add-ons being developed by Overkill Software, as we keep an eye on all the rest of the Payday 2 DLC being released in the months ahead.
Have you spent any time with the new Payday 2: Armored Transport content? Glad you didn't have to spend any extra cash to check out the new heists introduced by Overkill Software? Want to share your own thoughts on the Payday 2: Armored Transport DLC and/or the current state of gameplay in Payday 2?
Let us know in the comments section!
