Payday 3 - What You Should Know

Payday 3 expands stealth, adds new movement mechanics, and upgrades its look and feel while sticking to its guns on older gameplay mechanics. We played bank and art gallery heists and here’s what you should know. 

Payday 3 is upgrading the ten-year-old series using Unreal Engine 4. That means changes to environments, NPC interactions, and new types of movement like dashing and mantling. But the biggest changes to Payday 3 come from an expanded stealth phase that gives four-player co-op teams a lot more chances to fail. If players are caught in low-security areas they can now be escorted off the property or even arrested and rescued later. Players can now negotiate for more time before enemy waves begin attacking. The game negates the need for dedicated stealth builds with more tools to transition to loud phases of matches. There is a heavy emphasis on skill builds opening up a lot of variety as well as weapon customization. 

In our gameplay session with developer Starbreeze Entertainment, we experienced two heists one at a bank and the other at an art gallery. Players go around levels finding key cards, cracking safes, and playing minigames to pick locks and open windows. It will be best to have a communicating group of players to get as far as you can before getting caught because Payday 3 still leans into older gameplay mechanics like the lack of regeneration health and armor as well as the inability to pick up weapons off the ground. Environments have some visual upgrades and light destruction elements.

Payday 3 is only for current-gen consoles Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. This allows for crossplay and all updates and DLC to come out simultaneously on all supported platforms. Payday 3 is set to release on September 21, 2023.