Fun little heist game with a poor monetization scheme.
Playing the game in stealth feels like a linear puzzle most of the time, since everything is predetermined (guard positions, cycles, etc). Once you know how a map works there's no real challenge except increasing your efficiency and then getting the timing right.
The combat is fine for what it is. It feels like polygonal payday.
There are some problems. First, and most forgiveable, the multiplayer is really buggy when it comes to physics. It's really hard to do a mission in stealth when the game will occasionally catapult you into a different room and down you in front of a guard (this must have been interesting to see from the guard's perspective). And it's frustrating to be trying to transport loot in a bag or on a dolly and have the whole thing flip wildly into the air when an NPC brushes up against it or two players touch it at the same time. This is annoying but it's the kind of jank that I expect with a game like this.
Second, more important, is the progression. Missions (and everything else!) are level locked. For the first handful of missions, this is no problem. You'll unlock them as you play, maybe needing to replay a map or two. By the time you get to the tenth mission you'll really start to feel the grind. Levels slow down drastically after the eighth and almost everything is locked behind them. You'll find that the scope you unlocked for your beginner gun doesn't unlock for the AK you can buy next- which means even when you can buy the next gun, there's no point until you are an even higher level so you can get various mods that make it not suck. The need to continually replay maps hurts because there's not many of them and they're pretty much the same each time.
Finally, the monetization. This is where the game really needs to change something. Base game is free but it should really be a demo with a regular price attached to the full game. Instead they've got a microtransaction system- not only for almost all the cosmetics, but for many of the missions which are not unlockable any other way. You can't just buy the missions using real currency- no, you need to use their special in-game coins. And, predictably, the coins are set up by increments that don't allow you to get exactly what you want. Say you want to buy all 5 'premium' missions. Each costs 1200. Well, you can buy 1500, 3150, 8500 or 20000 heist coin packs, which each one offering a better conversion rate than the smaller one before it- standard microtransaction stuff. So the cheapest I can find to buy the 'whole game' (minus any cosmetics) would be to buy two of the 3150 packages for a total of $20. For that you get the current premium missions (but no others that might be added later) and can afford a mask or two. This feels like a pretty high price point for what the game is and it uses an unnecessarily complicated (maybe even predatory) monetization system.
I don't know if they could unwind this system since people have presumably already bought the coins but it would be much better to use a system where either the maps are free to anyone who pays for the game or they are purchasable via regular transactions as DLC, instead of selling coins.
