PAYDAY has gone into a headset. PAYDAY: Aces High, from Fast Travel Games, launched on November 5, and Meta's Quest blog lists it at $24.99 for Meta Quest 3 and 3S. It's also included for Meta Horizon+ subscribers, so anyone already paying for that service can download it as part of the subscription.
Quest isn't the only way in. UploadVR lists PC VR through Steam and Steam Frame as well, with crossplay enabled between them.
That matters more than usual here, because this is a co-op game first. Meta says up to four people can play together, and UploadVR calls it the first game in the series built from the ground up for VR. The series began in 2011 with Payday: The Heist, and UploadVR says Payday 2 went on to sell more than 40 million copies.
What's in the box
The setup is deliberately simple. Per Meta, four thieves known as the Aces are framed by businessman Warren Jupiter, go to prison, break out and set about taking his business empire apart. UploadVR says the story mostly stays out of the way for anyone who doesn't care about it.
UploadVR counts six heists at launch. Each one starts in your safehouse, where Meta says the crew plans at the Planning Table before choosing how to go in, whether that means sneaking through or attacking directly. Gadgets include alarm jammers and deployable gun turrets, and the cash and reputation you earn get spent in Gage's Shop. The game is rated Mature 17+.
The VR angle is physical. UploadVR describes slinging a weapon over your shoulder, slamming magazines into guns, twisting safe dials with your fingertips and hoisting bags of loot by hand. Teammates who go down get revived with a syringe, and you hack terminals by tapping a watch on your wrist.
What's coming next
Fast Travel Games has already laid out the first few weeks. Meta says Community Challenges with in-game rewards begin on November 26, and a new heist arrives on December 14, free for everyone who owns the game. A Quality of Life balancing patch is also planned.
How it reviewed
The first review is a strong one, with a real caveat attached. UploadVR calls it "one of the most fun VR games of the year," but it also wishes for more heist variety and more enemy types, and for objectives that are easier to read in the middle of a fight.
Two of its complaints stand out. The reviewer found that every heist went wrong at some point, which eventually made runs predictable, and says the game often feels more like a wave shooter than a burglary sim. Stealth, UploadVR notes, is effectively the game's hard mode, according to what Fast Travel Games' Chief Creative Officer Erik Odeldahl told the outlet in August.
The bigger one is company. Meta says solo play is possible with computer-controlled teammates, and UploadVR found the bots competent. But it also says Payday "just isn't as fun as a solo experience," and that without friends you'll be relying on strangers or bots. Crossplay and the Horizon+ inclusion should help with the player pool, UploadVR adds, and there's an option to avoid players who have been reported.
Mason's take: Launching on a subscription with crossplay on day one looks to me like the sensible way to ship a VR co-op game, because a game like this lives or dies on finding a crew. Aces High seems to understand that, and the December heist gives it a reason to keep crews together past launch week.
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