Overkill Software released a new trailer for Payday 2 that focuses on the game's skill tree and advancement. The trailer is short and sweet and gives players a basic rundown of the archetypes and their capabilities when they're on a heist.
There are four different character types, including the mastermind, the technician, the enforcer and the ghost. Each one offers players something slightly different in terms of play-style and the necessary skills to complete a heist without everything completely going south.
Each archetype will play a vital role in how smoothly or jagged a heist will go. For instance, you'll need a mastermind to run crowd control and maintain a sense of stability in a situation, especially when there are hostages involved. Alternatively, the mastermind can also heal teammates when things go downhill and the shooting starts.
The technician is one of the most important guys on the team because he'll have the skills necessary to break into vaults, use drilling equipment or other heavy machinary to nab certain high-market valuables. As the missions get more complex, the technician's role becomes more prominent. The reason for this is that a lot of times stealth and efficiency is reliant on timing, and the more high quality your equipment, the more likely you are to get in and out in a timely fashion.
The enforcer is probably the weakest link of the group. While the enforcer carries around an ammo bag for the group to re-supply their weapons, he only brings brute force and heavy artillery to the group, a rather useless thing for stealth-oriented missions. Still, there will be times when brute force and bullet-sponging is required, and the enforcer enables for that exact kind of gameplay.
The ghost is a very interesting archetype, insofar that you'll need to stealthily go about stages to find ways to circumvent alarm systems, security guards or potential motion detectors and trip wires. The ghost is probably the most vital character on the team if you want a successful heist without all the “going south” syndrome. At the same time, this is probably one of the trickier classes to play as well, given that there's such a high requirement to detail and patterns, and one mess up from the ghost and the whole thing will be going south.
Payday 2 is scheduled to release this August for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and for PC. You can pre-purchase the game right now from Steam and opt-in to the game's beta. Payday 2 really does seem to be shaping up to be a big sleeper hit of the summer and I hope it all pays off because this could easily pave the way to much bigger and better heist games.
If you're not entirely convinced about the game and you need to learn more, feel free to pay a kind visit to the official Payday 2 website.
