Affably Evil: Bain will offer nothing but encouragement and the only time he ever raises his voice to you is if you kill civilians. If you fail a mission he'll even apologize and say it must have been his plan that went wrong because he knows you're the best. All in all he seems like a pretty nice guy... Then he drops a guy out of a helicopter to his death and threatens to do the same to Mr. Garnet's son when Mr. Garnet refuses to give up the vault codes. Unless, Luck-Based Mission says the guy gives up the codes in which case, Bain lets him live.
The crew has shades of this as well...at least some of them do. If you have a bot on your team during the bank heist, they'll jump up on a table in the lobby and tell the civilians in the bank that they're not after their money and they won't get hurt if they just stay quiet.
AI Teammates also have a few shortcomings beyond those put in for balance. They always try to kill law enforcement (even when you're getting them to cuff themselves), they tend to ignore the Taser that has you stun-locked and kill every enemy EXCEPT the taser (and thus leaving you to get downed from the taser), and prior to a recent patch, they wouldn't follow you through the escape route in First World Bank, although that doesn't stop them from rescuing you from a football field's distance away.
Boom, Headshot: An excellent way to conserve ammo. This is especially important when facing Bulldozers, as you once you crack their visors they go down much more easily.
The Caper: But of course. Some of them don't go according to plan, like "Heat Street", and what you play is the fallout and attempt to turn it around.
Character Class System: Sort of. Your choice of class only affects what your next reward will be upon a Level Up. In practice, you can mix-and-match weapons, equipment, abilities and crew bonuses to your liking. You begin the game with a silenced pistol, assault rifle and the "Noob Lube" crew bonus, which causes your teammates to earn extra cash.
Choice Of Three Weapons: Each character can carry a primary weapon, secondary weapon, and a sidearm.
YMMV due to a chance of him dropping the bag of C4 in the back alley, as far as humanly possible from where it may be needed. There is also a bug that stops him from coming in to land because there are "Too many cops on the roof" when the roof and the roofs of the surrounding buildings are clear.
Cluster F-Bomb: The crew will voice their displeasure with civilians, cops and just about anything else at will. Chains, especially.
Crazy Awesome: The "Panic Room" heist concerns a small fortune in cash hidden in a panic room in a downtown slum. The crew doesn't have the time or patience to crack it open to get at the dough, So they just steal the whole damn panic room. They use automated saws to cut it out of the floor, blow a hole in the roof with C4 charges and then airlift it out by helicopter.
Damn You, Muscle Memory: The default use key (which is also used for starting heists, using zip-ties, and screaming at people) is "F", not "E". "E" is the default melee key. Cue newbies accidentally meleeing the Bank Manager in First World Bank for an accidental civilian kill, and when it bugs them enough to swap the two, cue them accidentally whacking the Bank Manager AGAIN because they forgot they swapped the keys.
Danger Deadpan: The team's helicopter pilot, Alex, is a smooth talker. Even at times when a lesser man would be screaming in terror. How the hell do you casually ask people to take out the sniper when you can probably see the red dot on your windshield?
Disaster Dominoes: This happens to an extent in "Diamond Heist", involving some bad door codes and a succession of kidnappings. Whether it goes all the way is up to you and your crew, of course.
Funnily enough it has the potential to be the smoothest mission the crew pulls off. If the codes work first time - there's a minor but still possible chance of this happening - you can be in and out without much in the way of trouble. If they don't work, well...
Easy Mode Mockery: Only the first two heists can be played on easy. The second two require you to play on at least normal, and the last two originally required hard or above.
Elite Mooks: The cops have four types of "specialist" units they will send after you. How often they appear depends on game difficulty. In general, they take more hits then the regular cops and are very dangerous if faced alone.
Faceless Goons: The crew, though you can see their faces in some levels before the heist begins. A lot of the cops are this as well, mostly SWAT and the specialists. The ones that aren't faceless tend to suffer from Only Six Faces.
False Flag Operation: "Panic Room" begins with the crew feigning a drug deal with the thugs running the meth lab where said Panic Room is located.
Fast Roping: SWAT helicopters often fly in to drop squads behind you or in otherwise advantageous flanking positions. They often have a Taser or Cloaker mixed in, so it pays to watch where they drop.
FBI Agent: Occasionally mixed in with SWAT Units. Called "Hostage Rescue" in-game, they will actively seek out civilians you've told to get down, and order them to leave the area. They are otherwise no more dangerous then the local cops.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Dallas was a heavy smoker, and has shortages of breath at times; yet this topic never really comes up in game.
And on many of the heists that contain cameras its suggested through story that they are not functional. Bain has you sabotage the CCTV footage in First World Bank (Which suggests the cops can't use them if they don't get to the security room) and Bain has already deactivated the Cameras in Diamond Heist. The importance and effect of shooting out the cameras vary by mission - in FWB, The first batch of cameras affect if the cops know where you are, while the second batch (the 9 in the vault) determines how many elevators open up.
"Heat Street" is also an odd case of not actually having an extra objective - The devs confirmed that there are supposed to be one less objective than actually noted at the end-of-mission summary screen, as the only way to get the last objective (Extraction at the base of the bridge) is to fail the objective immediately before it (Quickly clear an area for extraction at the top of the bridge).
Gun Accessories: The appearance of the guns will change to reflect certain upgrades. For example, the last accuracy upgrade for the AMCAR-4 (M4 Carbine) and M308 (M14) gives each a red dot sight, while the shotguns will get longer magazine tubes in response to capacity upgrades.
Gun Twirling: When first beginning the Heist, the crew can be seen spinning out their pistols as they put on their masks.
Hand Cannon: The Bronco .44 (Taurus Raging Bull) hits much harder then either the B9-S (Beretta M9) or Crosskill .45 (Colt 1911), and can put down Heavy SWA Ts with one or two shots.
145+ ends up cranking this Up to Eleven. You only get ONE bleedout without using medibags (if you get downed a second time, other players only have one second to get you back up before you go into custody), you get left with 25% health after being downed once, the Elite Mook spawn rate is brought over the top, certain new events only occur on 145+ (Including having 4 bulldozers in the bank vault on First World Bank), and you will generally be getting the short end of the stick on any and all random events.
Heal Thyself: Players can carry and drop a medical bag so the team can heal up. Upgrades from the Support tree increase how many refills the bag has.
Hostage Situation: In deference to the standard, this is actually beneficial. Innocent Bystanders can be taken hostage by simply ordering them to get down (by facing them and using the action button) and then cuffing them with twist-ties. If a player is downed and not helped up in the allotted time, they go into police custody. After a certain amount of time passes, you can trade a hostage for an arrested player, returning them to the game. This is, however, the only way to respawn on Hard and Overkill,*
Normal and Easy have a countdown timer that automatically brings your character back when it elapses
so manage your hostages carefully. They can be freed by cops if you aren't paying attention.
It's actually possible to get law enforcement to cuff themselves, which in turn adds to your hostage count WITHOUT requiring a twist-tie. You can even do this to the SWAT guys, although it's particularly tricky to get them to cooperate.
Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Only the two highest ones:Overkill. Overkill 145+ (from Patch 6) ends up being a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin - It's an even harder difficulty level SPECIFICALLY for players with a rep level of at least 145 (which, without DLC, gives you Mr. Nice Guy). It's not even available to those who are of lower rep.
Infinite Supplies: Played straight by the cops, but not for your crew. You have fairly limited ammo for each of your guns. The only ways to get more are to pick up paltry ammo drops from the cops or to use the ammo bag. Upgrades from the Assault tree can increase the amount of ammo refills you can get from a bag.
Kill It with Fire: Double-crosser Matt in "Heat Street" can't be arsed to get out of his wrecked van and hand over the stolen printing plates. So what does the crew decide to do? Burn him out. He gives up before he runs out of oxygen and comes out.
Killed Off for Real: Bruce, a getaway driver who tries to help you out in "Heat Street".
Lampshade Hanging: Upon meeting the requirements for the "Are You Ready Yet" Achievement (have Bain circle around 7 times in Diamond Heist), Bain will spout out "Okay, you've got your trophy, can we go now!?"
Last Stand: Take enough damage and you get downed. You can use your equipped pistol to fight off the cops, but you still take damage. Take enough damage while downed and you won't even be able to shoot back. If you are cuffed, tased down, or taken down by a Cloaker, you are completely helpless.
Level Up Fill Up: You wouldn't expect this to happen in a game like this, but if you gain a reputation level in-game, your health and inventory gets completely replenished. Very handy, as it even brings you BACK from being downed. However, it doesn't happen when playing on Overkill difficulty.
Luck-Based Mission: Each mission has some random elements in it, ranging from subtle changes
the locations of certain targets
to complete dick move.
The Secret door in Diamond Heist may not even be available, preventing you from getting the related achievement on that run.
Mission Control: Bain notifies you of your current objective, when police assaults begin and end, negotiates hostage trades with the police on your behalf, and coordinates with other support like the plane or chopper pilots. The voice overs at the end of each mission suggest hes the one masterminding the heists as well. If you fail a mission, he states he has ways of bailing you out.
Nakama: YMMV in-universe but as with L 4 D before it, being a gung ho lone wolf as a player is a really fast way of getting arrested or killed, perhaps even more so than L 4 D. Whereas L 4 D allows you a fairly generous amount of time to rescue someone against enemies with few, if any, ranged attacks and limited speed, Payback has fast enemies with multiple ways of attacking and subduing you, at range and at melee, and it's possible to run out of ammo for even your side arm.
Nerf: All over the place in Patch 3, with some old tried-and-true strategies no longer working without adjustments. Most notably, Overall difficulty was decreased across the board (particularly in single player). This was met with considerable amounts of complaining, which may have lead in part to the addition of Overkill 145+ difficulty in patch 6.
Notice This: Objectives, teammates, player-dropped bags and "spotted" persons are all highlighted with colored outlines, making navigation a snap.
Oh Crap: The character's reactions upon spotting a specialist unit usually sound like this. The player might do this too.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The "Heat Street" heist isn't actually a real heist, it's the aftermath of a job gone wrong (the crew's newest member betrays them and makes off with the loot, they have to chase him down while the cops are chasing them). It's left unclear how the actual heist went down, but given how the ones in the rest of the game go, and that it involved printing plates for US currency, it must have been quite the spectacle.
Alternative though since Matt double-crosses the team and Bruce (the getaway driver) mentions that the police seem like they've already set up roadblocks as if someone tipped them off, it may very well be that it was always intended for the job to go easy by the police. This would allow them to get the bad guys out in the open and in a van and stop them in a place they've evacuated as opposed to a drawn out gun battle with civilians. The police, most of the time, for instance will go straight after Matt in the van at the start of the mission and will drive right by you coming out of the alley.
Pacifist Run: You can perform a heist with no violence and no alarms being tripped, but good luck. It's Nintendo Hard.
Pistol Whip: You can perform a melee attack with any equipped weapon. This is a good way to force cops to surrender— generally, one whack and then spamming your "use" key will do the trick.
Pragmatic Villainy: Don't shoot civilians. Each civilian is a potential hostage, and every one you kill makes the Police take longer to agree to a hostage trade if you get taken into custody. You also receive a cash penalty at the end of the round for every civilian killed. Morality doesn't really enter into it...
Private Military Contractors: You fight some Murkywater mercs in "Slaughterhouse", who are escorting the armored truck of gold you are hitting. This was also Chains' former occupation.
Regenerating Shield, Static Health: You have a regenerating armor layer on top of non-regenerating health. It pays to let the armor regenerate, as the only way to get health back is the precious medic bags... or a well-timed Level Up Fill Up if on Hard or below. Your remaining health also determines how much armor you'll get.
Safecracking: Pssh, who has the time? In "First World Bank", the crew burns through the vault roof with cans of thermite, bypassing the door entirely. In "Panic Room", they simply steal the whole panic room. In "Diamond Heist", the codes either work... or they don't, and a Hostage Situation ensues to get the vault open. In "Slaughterhouse", they drill through the front of the safe. Sensing a pattern yet?
Sniper Rifle: The M308 (M14) rifle serves as one, with far and away the greatest accuracy of any weapon and a red dot sight to help you along. Some heists feature SWAT snipers which can quickly inflict nasty damage on you if you aren't smart enough to duck. However, their shots have highly visible tracer lines and they aren't any tougher then Blue SWA Ts. However, given the distances they set up at and their spectacular accuracy, simply hitting them can be a challenge depending on the weapons you're carrying.
Status Buff: The crew bonuses. Each affects only your teammates, but you benefit from each one your teammates equip, though they do not stack. "Noob Lube" isn't usable after you reach a certain level, but if you max out one of the class trees you get access to the "Nice Guy" bonus, which does the same thing.
Shout Out: Each of the heists is based on a movie. For example, the "Heat Street" heist, involving an open-air shootout with the cops on crowded city streets, is heavily inspired by Heat.
Have an AI teammate in the bank lobby at the start of the "First World Bank" heist. Neil McCauley's line from the bank robbery scene gets quoted, word for word.
There is one to Left 4 Dead in the form of an achievement, Left for Dead, which you get for finishing a heist in custody while all three of your teammates escape.
The 7th Patch added zombie-related movie-posters to "Panic Room" and some very familiar red first-aid-kits - four in a room only avaible in Overkill 145+, two in the cellar you escape through. In addion, "Diamond Heist" got a few posters with a young woman, which looks a lot like Zoey with a bit longer hair and no ponytail. And then of course there is the upcoming update, which will feature a full crossover between Payday and Left 4 Dead.
Another achievement, for finishing a heist having killed a bulldozer and not having taken damage from any, is called Dodge This!
Super Window Jump: Averted, the cops will break the windows before jumping through, or blow them out with an explosive charge in the case of the heavy glass in the front of "First World Bank."
Voice with an Internet Connection: Bain, who guides you through each heist. Among other things, he will tell you when an Assault is about to happen and when specialist units are heading your way.
We Cannot Go On Without You: If all human players are in custody, the heist ends in failure, even if the difficulty is on normal or easy and any player is 3 seconds away from auto-respawning. In Single-Player, this pretty much means you (and only you) have to survive the entire level without being taken into custody.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Bain is no chessmaster, but he's surprisingly good at improvising. He has about nine backup plans for the Diamond Heist, sets up an enormous trap on short notice for The Slaughterhouse, and still arranges your escape after everything goes wrong on Heat Street. It helps that he's always listening to police scanners, and knows every move the Police make.
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