Two things I just realized: Payday 2 is an actual game scheduled for release later this year, and I adore the down-tempo approach this new gameplay trailer takes.
Generally speaking, when a studio wants to scrape together a trailer to promote its latest title – particularly if that title heavily features gunplay – they opt for the “bigger is better” approach. Explosions bloom for no physically apparent reason, dubstep blares at viewers like a drunk animatronic monkey and the entire thing is edited in the schizophrenic, jump-cut style that Hollywood will always, ALWAYS blame on Paul Greengrass.
I expected more of the same going into this new trailer for Overkill Software’s Payday 2. As you’ve probably guessed from that numeral at the end of its name, the game is a sequel to 2011’s Payday: The Heist, a downloadable, team-based first-person shooter which tasked players with swiping stuff from heavily guarded locations. Think of the series as virtual recreations of the heist scenes from Point Break, and you’re essentially on the same page as the developers.
But back to the trailer: For the first one minute and forty five seconds, it’s eerily calm. Granted, there are burly men in stylized horror masks methodically planning a robbery while calmly gunning down anyone who might identify them, but beyond that it’s almost serene.
Unfortunately, the bombast floodgates burst toward the very end of the vignette and it becomes a stereotypical montage set to even more stereotypical music, but for a little while there Overkill Software and 505 Games had me convinced that they were taking a novel approach to this game. Here’s hoping they realize the value of silence before Payday 2 hits shelves on August 15.
Source: YouTube
