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What is it?
Remember that incredible cops-and-robbers shootout with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the movie Heat? Payday: The Heist, coming later this year for PC and PS3, aims to recreate those kinds of moments in game form. It's a fast-paced, online co-op shooter in the mold of Left 4 Dead…but instead of shooting zombies, you're capping police officers and taking hostages.
Why is it cool?
Being the bad guy is always cool, especially when fighting the good guys is this much fun. Developer OverKill (comprised of former members of GRIN Games) designed their hordes of cops, SWAT agents, and other enemies to flank, rush, divide, and outwit your squad. And the locations for your crime sprees — six heists will be ready at launch, with more maps available via DLC — contain multiple paths and points of entry, meaning you can never turn your back and feel safe.
You'll gain experience points as you complete objectives like planting explosives, drilling through safe walls, destroying security cameras, or taking hostages. As you progress, you'll unlock different class specializations, including assault rifles, explosives, sniper gear, and more. So you and your buddies can pick the upgrade path that suits your criminal activities best.
The moment we learned that crime does pay
In our brief demo, we worked our way through a labyrinthine city bank to the vault below, where our A.I. teammates held off the boys in blue while we stuffed stacks of money into bags. True, we got gunned down on the way out through the lobby, but even making it that far was incredibly fun.
And that was just playing with bots for partners. With three friends on the headset, grabbing the goods will only get better.