Payday 2: Crimewave Edition cover art

Payday 2: Crimewave Edition

Learning heist layouts and skill builds so four players can route around scripted police pressure.

Here's the argument for where this game sits - disagree freely.
Match your experience?
EXECUTION6 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION7 /10

the cheat-test profile

The four axes - the argument

Each axis is rated on its own - how far one cheat would trivialize the game here. They don't trade off; low on all four means the game is an experience, not a contest.

  1. Execution

    cheat: Aimbot - perfect inputs

    6/10

    Aim and crowd control matter once a heist goes loud

  2. Reads

    cheat: Out-predict an adaptive opponent

    1/10

    Police waves are scripted spawns, not an adapting mind

  3. Variance

    cheat: See what's hidden / map the RNG

    3/10

    Randomised guard routes and loot locations shuffle each heist

  4. Optimization

    cheat: A perfect solver / coach

    7/10

    Builds, stealth routes and heist knowledge decide difficulty ceilings

How to read this

Each axis is named by the cheat that would break the game along it. Execution is the hands. Reads is out-thinking an adaptive opponent. Variance is hidden information & RNG. Optimization is the solvable systems layer. A game's region is the top one or two axes.

These four aren't one rating split four ways - they're independent 0-10 questions. A 9 on one axis takes nothing from the others, and a game low on all four isn't missing data: it's telling you there's no skill here to cheat.

The basis is how the majority actually plays this game - not a niche mode or a personal run. For a game with very different modes (a story campaign versus ranked multiplayer), that's the version most people mean.

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Game details

Released
2015
Developer
Overkill Software
Platforms
PS4, XONE
Modes
Multiplayer, Co-operative
IGDB critics
72/100
IGDB users
80/100
ShooterArcadeActionStealth