In Payday's cops-'n'-robbers fantasy world, SWAT teams respond instantaneously to blown heist attempts. They pile into banks and museums with license to shoot on sight, and then they pile up in hallways as you and your team of superthieves gun them down while shuttling riches into a getaway vehicle. You can play Payday 3 like that—a wave shooter with stealing-related chores—but I prefer the harder stealth approach, and my team and I came so close to pulling it off before I blew it.
Payday 3 doesn't stray far from the decade-old Payday 2. The co-op levels I previewed saw me and three heistmates case a building, find a way in (front door, guns out is an option), and then complete a series of semi-randomized tasks to locate and remove its valuables. In Secure Capital Bank, the loud way into the vault involves collecting bags of thermite from the roof and burning a hole through the second floor. The quiet method is much more complicated, and includes the classic heist movie move of sticking a bank executive's face into a retinal scanner. That was the last thing I did before everything went sideways.
