Recent reviews by Vectorman

I have not played this game.

Game looks great, gunplay is fun, and feels balanced when you roll with a team. Diesel engine is a thing of the past, thankfully, and hopefully the planned upgrade to Unreal 5 doesn't completely destroy the game.

The mini-games of lock picking and safe cracking are a welcome change from "Hold F to interact." Hope to see more of this with other interactions in the future.

I personally like the way assaults are setup with a final wave occurring on the way to escape. Bulldozers no longer endlessly spawn and are more like a boss-type enemy. Also, changes to shields and the new grenadier are awesome. 'Nader gas is devastating and creates a dynamic challenge. Not sure why Tasers in NYC are now Zappers... that just sounds stupid.

The hostages serve much more purpose than simply costing cleaning fees and the occasional HP regen with skills investments. The human shield mechanic is pretty cool and, as long as your gun is not aimed, police will cease fire for a time. They can initially be traded for assault time to allow your team more setup or traded during assault break for medkits.

The favor/pre-planning system is changed, players no longer "buy all assets." Each player brings an asset that can be purchased in the vendor menus; however there are also random assets that appear and can affect both stealth and loud. This puts solo players at a bit of a disadvantage, but this game seems to be pushing players away from that playstyle.

Stealth seems to be more challenging as the whole detection system has been completely dropped. Pros and cons to this, but this allows for more stealth flexibility in terms of weapons/armor. Casing mode also allows for a LOT more interaction and stealth options, especially when playing with others.

Doors can now be closed. Took an engine upgrade and a sequel to make this happen, but next gen has arrived, folks.

Always online is not great, but matchmaking is functional again.
I've yet to run into any other bugs or gameplay issues (which is saying something after PD2) other than the lobby/party/matchmaking needing the biggest overhaul next. Having to "wait for a match" when you have a full team or want to play solo... just terrible. Resetting the game seems to alleviate most issues, but having to do that after almost every match? That definitely needs the bulk of developer attention.

Content is light at launch. There's 8 heists to start, but they are all varied and not constant drill babysitting. Actually, there are only two instances (three if you count the large vault drill) where drills need any monitoring currently. Looking back at PD2, it's easy to forget how little that game had at launch too, along with all the criticism it received as well. I know that DLC is planned, but I don't think I'd recommend anything beyond the base game price currently, especially since it's past launch day.

Bots are trash. Reminds me of when the SWAT Turret released in PD2 and bots would gravitate to them, dropping like flies in the bullet rain. The ONE benefit that bots bring to the game is they will drop equipment randomly during a heist. Bring humans whenever possible.

Melee feels useless and may as well have been removed; altered in a way that it's in no way comparable to PD2. You can no longer kill guards in stealth with melee, instead simply tapping them your weapon, and effectively alerting the whole area. There are no melee weapons, which is maybe a good thing, but it feels like a step backwards in regard to the role of melee in general.

This game is already a lot more gritty and feels a lot more grounded than PD2 and it's ridiculous weapons, skills, overpopulated roster, and endless crossover universe-breaking nonsense. This feels more like a sequel to Payday: The Heist than a successor to PD2, which is a welcome shift in my opinion.

While I understand always online may be here to stay for revenue protection reasons, unfortunately, that is a large part of why this otherwise awesome game is being dumped on. There needs to be some improvements than can be made for lobbies/partying soon, and once there is, this will be a worthy successor in the series.

Imagine playing as Jason Bourne in Streets of Rage, combat has a Batman/John Wick vibe, yet the brutality of Redeemer, then toss in a soundtrack that could rival Hotline Miami... fantastic beat-em-up with a surprising amount of skill variation and character customization depth.

For the record, this is a better John Wick game than the actual John Wick Hex game.

Despite this game being seemingly in EA hell for a decade, it has drastically improved since I first started playing. Devs are more regular with their updates (no longer annually) and continues to get better with crafting, skill trees, and XP reworks.
I've been most impressed with the newer block shaping system that has drastically improved crafting ease and accuracy. Highly recommended from me as one who has fallen down the survival game rabbit hole.

If you think that hammering a nail through your ♥♥♥♥ is a good time, this game is probably right up your alley.

Definitely a fun, turn based John Wick experience. However the robotic animation and lack of takedown/weapon variety from The Baba Yaga is a bit disappointing. Fun, but lacking some polish that would really elevate this game to the next level.

It's the only scenario where I run the kitchen and my wife listens to me.

A great family game that has an unbelievable amount of words as summonable objects.
Pretty much the only game my daughter and I play together. Highly recommended.

I am writing this review based largely upon my experiences within the co-op realm.

My first impression is that Uplay is user-unfriendly and harbors all the negatives of extra DRM than simply running through Steam. The co-op invitation process and navigation of the various menus of Uplay is horrible and I wish Uplay was scrapped, however that is not possible for how far Ubisoft has pushed this secondary DRM platform.

Anyway, the co-op is fantastic and exactly what I had hoped for in FC3, but instead felt rushed as it's a scripted set of missions that have no replay value. The downside to FC4's co-op? You have to slog through a good bit of the campaign before you can even access the feature. Also, it's only for two players, so you can't get the whole guild together for this one.

However, once it is available to you, it's quite an accomplishment. Both players can use their main profile, skills and weapons intact, and explore the open setting that is Kyrat. There is no player to player damage, you can revive your friend w/o special items/meds, the death timer is generous, marked enemies show for both players, and you can also share ammo and meds with yout friend, should you feel inclined.

Taking down fortresses, ambushing convoys, or flying above it all to plot a perfect aerial copter strike on Pagan Min's forces feels and plays great. Campaign missions and progress are halted once co-op is engaged, however I had such a blast with the exploration, hunting, fort clearing and collecting activites, I didn't even feel I was missing out on a co-op campaign feature.

I have been keeping my fingers crossed for the multiplayer Skyrim mod to be stable and released one day, but now I have this game. This is a strange mixture of Skyrim meets GR: Wildlands, and maybe that's a bizarre combination, but I would say if you're a big co-op gamer this is worth a look.

This is hands down the best co-op survival game there ever was.

Polished, expansive, and consistently updated with new material.

I'm not trying to sell copies because I get anything out of it but I promise you will.