Well, Payday 2’s beta didn’t launch last week like we were hoping, but it isn’t very far away.
Developer Overkill recently confirmed that the game’s testing phase will be open for business on November 16th. The news was announced on a 360-degree web page. This won’t include access to the entire game, rather a handful of yet undisclosed levels with more being added over time.
In an AMA session on Steam, Overkill confirmed that the game is set to use a Dashed-based locomotion system, in which a player looks at where they want to move and then rapidly leaps there. This system will include a cooldown feature which will hopefully compensate for the possible advantages they might give in combat. There will be no smooth movement option at launch, but the developer noted that it would look into it after release.
As for platforms, the game is still only planned for release on the HTC Vive at this point, with Oculus support a possibility if there’s enough interest. Rift players will, of course, be able to access the game on SteamVR, but there’s no way of telling if the control scheme will work well on Touch until it’s out.
During the beta VR players will still be able to join those using the traditional version of the game, though it’s not yet decided if they’ll be able to keep the progress they make once the full game launches.
Payday 2 VR will be available for free for everyone with a copy of the game on PC.
