For those not versed in the psalms of Hoxton, Dallas, Wolf and Chains, Payday 2: Crimewave Edition is far from your average shooter. Sure, it’s in first-person and you do have plenty of boomsticks to your name, but the shootouts are merely a byproduct of being an armed robber. The real meat here is the minutia of the heist itself – cuffing guards and keeping civilians in check while your teammates place an industrial drill on the vault. Fixing the drill when it breaks; checking camera feeds for SWAT teams; bagging cash and carrying them to an escape van. It’s the ultimate experiment in time management and co-operative play as you juggle the risk of transporting more moolah with the escalating police force attempting to stop you.
Overkill plans to support the Crimewave Edition, along with the established PC version, for the next 16 months, so you can commit time to these illegal endeavors safe in the knowledge the game isn’t being forgotten by the developer. In fact the game ships with 50 updates, all of which bring it in line with the well-established PC version. This support will include updates rolled out across PS4, Xbox One and PC (sorry PS3 and Xbox 360, no such support for you), new heists, extra weapons, and enough customisation options such as mask patterns and weapon add-ons to satisfy even the most picky of ex-cons.
Frustratingly, the shooting mechanics of Payday 2 don’t quite pop with the same impact as other shooters such as CoD or Battlefield (hit detection could do with tightening up and bullets don’t quite have the weighty impact they should), but the lack of punch is offset by upgradeable skills and perks unlocked as you complete tougher jobs. Thankfully, the heists themselves – ranging from smashing up malls to robbing industrial trains stranded in mountain passes – are so varied, and the core gameplay so compelling in its simplicity, that you’ll barely notice the weaker gunplay.
For those those with considerable hours clocked on other platforms there’s little to invest in here beyond the promise of future content (especially with no way to transfer progress across, even if you’re thinking of switching from one generation of the same platform to another), but for those completely new to the series and with a shiny new current-gen console under their TV, few last-gen ports are as unique as this.