For the purpose of making my biases clear and giving some context; I've been enjoying the PAYDAY franchise for just under 12 years as of the time of this review. I have 1840+ hours across the PAYDAY franchise, and a strong affinity for the PvE/Co-op shooter genre. (Vermintide, DRG, Darktide, L4D2, etc.) With all that being said I only feel comfortable giving a conditional positive review.

If you are interested in the co-op genre I think PAYDAY 3 finally offers a decent value proposition. Especially if you're somebody who enjoys playing around with different builds and trying different weapons. Depending on the price of the soon-to-be-released "Year One Bundle", I may even feel comfortable recommending this game to gamer outside the usual co-op sphere assuming it's around USD$60. If it's on sale for less, even better.

If you're reading this review before Fear & Greed I'd wish list it and hold off for a week or so. If I remember I'll update my review after the update drops.

December 2024 Update/TLDR:

I did correctly guess the price point for the year one edition 😅. That's where the good news ends however. I stand by what I said earlier this year, if you're a PAYDAY fan there's enough content to be satisfied at said price point. I can not however, in good faith, recommend this game to newcomers of the series. The future outlook is grim for this live service game. If you already have it, enjoy it, if not maybe hold off for another year. Hopefully it's still here by then.

For the purpose of making my biases clear and giving some context; I've been enjoying the PAYDAY franchise for just under 12 years as of the time of this review. I have 1840+ hours across the PAYDAY franchise, and a strong affinity for the PvE/Co-op shooter genre. (Vermintide, DRG, Darktide, L4D2, etc.) With all that being said I only feel comfortable giving a conditional positive review. [strike] If you are interested in the co-op genre I think PAYDAY 3 finally offers a decent value proposition. Especially if you're somebody who enjoys playing around with different builds and trying different weapons. Depending on the price of the soon-to-be-released "Year One Bundle", I may even feel comfortable recommending this game to gamer outside the usual co-op sphere assuming it's around USD$60. If it's on sale for less, even better. If you're reading this review [i]before Fear & Greed[/i] I'd wish list it and hold off for a week or so. If I remember I'll update my review after the update drops. [/strike] [b] December 2024 Update/TLDR: I did correctly guess the price point for the year one edition 😅. That's where the good news ends however. I stand by what I said earlier this year, if you're a PAYDAY fan there's enough content to be satisfied at said price point. I can not however, in good faith, recommend this game to newcomers of the series. The future outlook is grim for this live service game. If you already have it, enjoy it, if not maybe hold off for another year. Hopefully it's still here by then.[/b]