Last week's Xbox Games Showcase had the first reveal of the much-anticipated Payday 3, and perhaps the biggest surprise is how restrained Starbreeze has been in making the sequel. The studio clearly understands it has a formula that works, one that has attracted a large and loyal fanbase, and so Payday 3 doesn't take the series open-world or make any massive changes to the formula: instead it looks to be about refining the heists, and enhancing the elements of the game that give it such an exciting rhythm.
If you're not familiar with Payday, essentially the game splits between your gang being undetected, and getting on with the robbery, and what Starbreeze calls the loud portions, which is when the law comes for you and things get wild. One of the big additions to this has just been detailed in a new developer diary, which is the addition of what producer Andreas Häll-Penninger calls a "search" phase, when "guards are looking for you and they’re suspicious".
