Is Payday 3 worth playing in 2025?

Payday 3 was the much-anticipated sequel to Starbreeze Studio's Payday 2. The game builds upon the IP's heisting shenanigans and has you plan heists that get progressively more dangerous and target larger entities. Well, with the game now more than a year old, players might be wondering if it is still worth playing in 2025.

Although the title did have a rocky launch, Payday 3 is worth playing in 2025, but only if you can stomach some less-than-ideal changes from its predecessor.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Exploring the good and bad of Payday 3 in 2025

Numerous Enhancements

Playing Payday 3 feels great (Image via Deep Silver)

The first change that you'll notice from Payday 2 to 3 is the visual improvements that the ten-year gap brought to the game. However, aside from the visual overhaul, the gunplay has also been improved massively. From gun handling to hit feedback, the gunplay makes for a satisfying experience when you do decide to go loud.

However, the mechanic that has seen the most amount of change is stealth. It has been streamlined and has seen many improvements, to the point where you can complete some heists without raising any alarms. It also provides you with a good bit of leeway, like when you get spotted by security, their first response will be to escort you to a public zone.

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A patchy offline mode

An always online requirement hurts the game's playability (Image via Deep Silver)

An important element of hybrid games being overlooked recently is the presence of a single-player mode. While having an online connection is important for multiplayer games, forcing players to go online even for a single-player experience is unacceptable.

Payday 3 did not have an offline mode initially, which contributed to its disastrous launch as players could not play the game due to the servers being down. Although the developers have since added an offline mode, you still need an internet connection to access it.

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Heist overhauls

Heists are much more dynamic (Image via Deep Silver)

Heists have also seen some new additions that make them feel more elaborate and engaging, with the variety of secondary objectives being the biggest one. You will constantly be moving around completing secondary tasks like collecting keycards, scanning QR codes, hacking phones, or searching for intel.

Hostages also have a bigger role to play here. You can trade some hostages to buy time or trade them for supplies, providing a new layer of strategy to the game.

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Earning Infamy feels slow and arbitrary

The grind is slow and annoying in the game (Image via Deep Silver)

Earning Infamy XP is important for unlocking new weapons and equipment in Payday 3. However, the way that you earn Infamy feels counter-intuitive. Instead of just completing the heists, you'll need to complete arbitrary challenges during those heists to earn XP.

This change can over-complicate things unnecessarily, as you're constantly focused on completing some random challenge instead of focusing on the heist. This also makes grinding for XP much more frustrating.

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To summarize the article, Payday 3 is currently stuck in a one-step forward one-step backward situation. The game is worth playing in 2025 if you want a heist game with improved gameplay elements, but can ignore the baffling decisions made by Starbreeze.

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