Payday: Aces High first impressions: VR is so back, baby!
Robbing a bank isn't something anyone should ever aspire to, but it's clear the fantasy of being a would-be bank robber is quite lucrative, given the nature of the Payday game series. The series is 15 years old this year and spans 3 entries, and I got a chance to play the new fourth entry with the game's developers for an hour on my Meta Quest 3 headset.
I've been a fan of the series since the beginning, particularly when hosting LAN parties at my house during the original's 2011 release, then again for several years after the 2013 sequel (plus a revival when Payday 2 added VR support years later). To say the new Payday: Aces High felt like a revival of the LAN party days (in all the best ways) is an understatement, and it brought back not only those joyful glory days of in-person multiplayer gaming, but a sense of comradery that few games manage to deliver.
The Payday concept is pretty straightforward: choose a mission, plan the heist, execute the plan, and get out with every team member intact. Of course, what seems like a fairly simple task is never simple, especially once the cops get called in and the stress piles on. Veteran VR developer Fast Travel Games is at the helm of this one, and I couldn't think of a better company to put in charge of Payday's first VR-only entry.
Planning a heist for dummies
Payday: Aces High branches from the main timeline and includes four new characters instead of the long list of folks from the mainline Payday series. In this game, you'll choose one of the Aces - the Ace of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, or Spades - in a quest for revenge on billionaire Warren Jupiter, who landed the crew in jail a few years back.
At launch, Payday: Aces High features six missions with varying difficulties and a range of objectives to complete. Many objectives are randomized to ensure unique playthroughs. For example, you might find the keycode to the security room on a sticky note in a desk during one run on a mission, while another run on the same mission sees that key code written on a whiteboard in the breakroom.
Likewise, missions can be completed in numerous different ways. The ultimate goal is perform missions as stealthily as possible, as that always guarantees the greatest rewards at the end, but you can go in guns blazing, if you prefer. Just remember that the easiest exist are only available when no one is aware of your heinous acts.
A huge set of unlockable skills will also help change things up as you progress in the game. Starting out, it's going to just be you, a pistol, your AMCAR-4 Carbine Rifle, and three friends along for the ride. Communication is key in a game like this, and there's no downplaying the importance of studying the map of each area on the planning table ahead of a mission.
Because VR is so inherently good at communication and body language as a medium, planning and executing a heist feels like you're actually there doing the dirty deed. During one of the three missions I played during the hands-on event, one player used his grappling hook to get on the roof and sneak into the security room using the code another player found in the employee breakroom. It felt like an Oceans 11 heist played out in real time.
I also loved the new VR-centric mechanics and interactions. Drilling into the vault requires a "skill check" sort of minigame to hone the drill to the materials on the door, while opening safes requires you to deftly turn the dial left and right to the correct positions using a combination you find somewhere in the office.
The amount of replayability in this game is far beyond what I had expected, especially with the massive skill tree and equipment list available. I also loved that skills weren't just for you as an individual; there's an entire skill tree is devoted to team buffs, and plenty of skills that work just as well for you as an individual as they do for your team as a whole.
While I played this on my Meta Quest 3, the game is also available on Steam VR and will have official Steam Frame support with full crossplay between platforms. If you're lucky, you can join the beta test, which starts today, August 20. Otherwise, look forward to the game launching sometime in the next few months. I know I sure am!