You all complete a big job. Then you get a message congratulating your group, telling you that you're "set for life", recommending, however, more heists – for the thrill of it. If you end up locked up, deals will be made and you can try again. There's no real plot, nor is one needed – like with a sports or racing title. It does channel Heat and other classics.
This contains no more than seven different missions, and the two DLC ones which you can join, though not start, if you don't buy them. These include stealing from drug junkies in an abandoned apartment complex, breaking into two suburban houses during the day(!) and ambushing a prisoner transport in heavy rain weather(yes, there is some escorting, but the character seems to be invulnerable, so it's just staying alive as you have him go where you need him to go). Of course, there are two heists, one of them a bank, as well – still, keep that in mind, given the name of this. And frankly, these are so varied(go in, steal/kidnap/move/etc. someone important/something expensive, get back out), these guys aren't professional bank robbers
they're straight-up mercenaries, it approaches Kane & Lynch: Dead Men! Except there are still servers. Half to a full dozen, typically, and you're always manually choosing between them. There are filters of "how close to you"(geographically) which can be set to "globally", and "difficulty"(with four total, and some challenge even on the lowest). There are no dedicated ones, so every match is hosted by a user. This can be frustrating as the host can just decide to kick you out whenever they feel like, and if the he quits/loses internet connection, the game is over. This can happen 10% of the time. Actually, some of these are very similar to Dog Days – that came out a year before this, so it's possible this ripped that off. Still, this helps prevent them from getting samey, they're distinct, with each their identity and compelling atmosphere. This is aided greatly by the highly well-done hard rock score, which captures both the intensity of the battle and the quiet moments inbetween. Diamonds, printing plates, bills by the hundreds, you'll be grabbing a number of different things. In two of them, and only those two(the rest you only choose when to start the job, and all can be in different key positions), you can sneak, rather than just blast everyone
knock out cameras, don't get in front of/be caught in the flashlight of, guards, try not to kill
if must, use silencers so not located by others, can post-pone the police response a lot.
This contains random elements which alter things in subtle ways, increasing replayability. These can make the team have to think on their feet, quickly making and following a different strategy, and it's always fast-moving without overwhelming or staying at the same height of this. Of course, it's still enormously scripted, this controls when and what you can do. You'll usually be stuck in one medium-sized area, with multiple floors, many rooms, organically designed to be logical to find your way through and not getting lost, defending your positions and every so often, have to restart a drill, turn the power back on, etc. There may be two or more places this can happen, and splitting up to be near them can be useful – risking, of course, being taken out, since some of you may be alone. Some of this is just having to wait, survive until something has been completed! Thus, completing one of these can take a full half hour, you can't rush through it because some aspects of it *will take the time they take*. Even early into this, it gets repetitive and monotonous, and you either love it and don't mind that, or you find that to be too much of an issue. Neither is wrong. This has rightly been compared a lot to Left 4 Dead, an insult to neither. It does lack the constant drive to get from point A to B, you can't choose any pre-set vocal commands, and there is a ton more nuance. In both, there are automatic exclamations of what someone needs, what you are facing, and it's a good idea to go two together. And one of the big draws they share: enemies come at you from, and thus you together have to cover, all angles in hordes, crawling in windows, dumping down from holes in the ceiling, entering via doors. Shoot SWAT climbing on the outside of a building! There'll be snipers on nearby roofs, they approach from 20 metres away from where you are, on the street and such. And these assault waves are not constant, there's an AI Director pacing it well.
This provides a phenomenal co-op experience. I found most people do well at it. In the lobby, you can see what others have chosen to bring, and thus judge what makes most sense to add to that. You can carry one of the following type per match: bags of ammo or healing, tripwire mines that can be turned on/off and that you can't set off, etc. You can carry one handgun, one two-handed, and one secondary(such as an SMG or a small shotgun, that you can get early). You have an assault rifle and pistol from the onset, and both are solid. There is no picking up or using any weapon you didn't bring with you. You'll fight different types of opposition, some requiring more than one person to take out or he'll kill you, similar to Special Infected incapacitating you. Frontal-cover shielded, the heavily armored Bulldozers, ones that taze you, ones that sneak up on you and one-hit-kill you, etc. I experienced no lag, bugs or even glitches.
There is a lot of bloody, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to anyone who wants to live out their fantasy of what this offers. 7/10
