izigame.me

Payday 3 is not a good successor to Payday 2, but it didn't have to be a bad game, it was marketed that way. I bought the game knowing full well that it wasn't going to be the chaotic power fantasy with unique and gimmicky builds, however everything, and I mean everything that was unique to Payday 2 and built specially for a heisting game ended up being replaced with generic COD inspired systems, which work well with COD don't get me wrong, but didn't translate well to the very unique Payday gameplay loop.
Things that made Payday 2 unique are long gone in trade of nothing, for example:
In depth weapon customization? try literally the same mods on every weapon with little to no impact on the gameplay.
The lobby menu that lets you choose between all the public heists going on right now, just like a criminal choosing which contract with wich crew he wants to take? Try a generic barebones matchmaking system.
Unique builds that force you to play a certain way and encourages diversity and individuality? Try the same armor AR build with 3 different skills each time because skills are either essential or completely useless with no in between and no need to get crappy basic skills in order to aquire the build defining, game changing skills.
Of course, they wanted to appeal to a more general audience to get more money, it is gaming in 2024 after all. But sacrificing everything that made Payday unique for that? Ignoring fan feedback and dismissing concerns like, what if the servers go down? "No need to worry man the servers won't go down that isn't even a possibility" (very appreciative of player feedback you see). Now after the botched launch the general audience is gone, and I am expected to care?
And even then I tried sticking with Payday 3, Payday 2 had a rough launch right? But there's nothing to stick with here! Only 6 heists which wouldn't be a problem if they were well crafted cinematic bangers, I can boot up Sonic and play Green Hill zone again and still have a blast! but can I boot up any heist in this game and still have fun? No way, they get repetitive DURING the first playthrough and none of them stick out, just go in, crack a type safe/container, grab the loot and get out, it's impressive how they made these different heists be executed so similarly. By the end of the Payday 2 DLC cycle it was actually a breath of fresh air to have a standard bank heist, and even then it was a complex multi-step process, making the player run around all over the map completing unique objectives. But this game can make a gigantic bank and a luxurious penthouse play the exact same.
Payday 3 tried to introduce Payday to a new audience, but instead it introduced the Payday audience to every single run of the mill forgettable uninspired semi-realistic FPS out right now, I have played 50 hours of this game and that was more than enough for a lifetime, I can still come back, I still have it installed in my PC but I can't bring myself to playing it, anything else seems more appealing.
So yeah, gun-play is worse, levels are worse, shield and health mechanics are worse, story is surprisingly worse, customization is worse, cosmetics are worse, user interface is worse, progression is worse, Payday 2 must have never existed for whoever made this game, no point in learning anything from the best heisting game ever.
Don't buy this game, the community has bailed out Starbreeze/Overkill too many times, the hardcore fans are very much being taken for granted but despite all the trust I had on the team (enough for me to pre-order the game) I can't bring myself to play the game and the devs probably won't even get the chance to fix things up, they chose money over making something good and special for the people who already liked them and it shows.