Just a week ago at the VR Games Showcase, Fast Travel Games debuted the first gameplay trailer for PAYDAY: Aces High. If you haven’t been keeping up on VR news you may have missed it, but this is the officially licensed VR co-op heist game set in the PAYDAY universe by Starbreeze Entertainment. With that announcement, Fast Travel Games also announced a closed community playtest that started today. We were luckily enough to snag a spot, as well as get an in-game tour hosted by Erik Odeldahl, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder for Fast Travel Games.

Just a warning about the recorded gameplay of the session which I have linked below on our YouTube: unfortunately, the Meta Quest 3 does not record in-game voice chat of other party members. This means that a lot of what is going on in the gameplay video does not have context and only has my questions, responses, and comments. There is amount of awkward no context parts, but I put some timestamps on it so you can skip to the gameplay. I will be, of course, telling you mostly what we talked about here as well.

Erik was either trying to tell us about the mission, or he was doing the Thriller.

PAYDAY: Aces High, much like the other entries into the series, is mostly focused on co-op teamwork either with friends or randoms. You can play it solo if you want to just take your time and explore, or get really good at the stealth. However, Fast Travel Games made it clear that they are working very close with Starbreeze to make sure this VR version stays true to the characters, level design, and gameplay philosophy of the IP. If you’re already into this IP, you should feel right at home here.

There is a really in-depth tutorial that brings you through all the processes and teaches you how the vault drilling, watch hacking, and general gameplay handles. Erik emphasized that having a high level of VR interactivity is important to them, but so is accessibility. Gun handling feels very smooth and natural with the aiming being accurate. The weapons have an accurate recoil to them so you can’t just unlock recklessly. Reloading with the AR you can either press the magazine release button or pull it out yourself. Insert a fresh magazine, and then rack a round into the chamber.

When the mask goes on, it’s about to go off!

The pistol also has the same level of interactivity. However, if you prefer, you can do everything with buttons in PAYDAY: Aces High. While you will still need to change the mag, if you struggle with racking the weapon, you can just press a button to do that for you. There are also a ton of customization options for how you hold the weapons.. For example, if you are sitting, you can change where the weapons are on your body to make it easier to select them. Instead of having the pistol on your hip where it’s harder to grab sitting, you can move both weapons to your chest for easy access.

 After you mess with all your settings, and change your basic clothing style, it’s time to start a mission. The intro mission is to infiltrate a bank and steal the main ledger in the vault. The goal here is to get more information on your nemesis, Jupitar. Steal the ledger, leave your mark in the vault, and steal a bunch of extra loose cash sitting around. The main war board shows a layout of the bank, as well as some other POIs like where to drop the bags of cash for a quick escape if things go south. Oh, and they went south.

It was at this point, we knew we messed up…

It’s almost impossible to do this stealthy especially with the starting loadout. Hell, I even had the grapple gun which I bought since I played a round before. However, there are so many guards and cameras that without more advanced tools, things are going to loud. I tried to sneak to the roof with my grapple hook to jump down into the vault security room to unlock it. I had Erik and another player there as look outs and trying to tell me what the code is. We knew where the code is and we could kind of see it, however, it was behind the security line and it was too far away to see clearly.

I tried several codes, but eventually the bank manager made her rounds and spotted me. It’s time to put on the masks and open fire. In PAYDAY: Aces High you can stay blended in as long as you don’t have the mask on, in fact, you won’t even have access to your guns or gadgets until its on either. Slap that mask on and it’s time to take some people out. Bank manager had to die first which, unfortunately, gave us a civilian kill… oops! With things getting hectic, they ran closer to the code to read it: “Oh damn it, it was 5826!!”. We all start laughing as we finally break into the run to open up the vault security gate. It was a great moment of how co-op games can be so fun. The stakes are high, pressure on, but it was so funny finally getting the right code because they swore it started with a six.

WHAT’S THE DAMN CODE!?

Finally in the vault security area, we had a few things to pay attention to. First, we had to order in the vault drill to start tapping that lock. There are three layers of metal to break through, and a player has to keep the machine going. Second, we had to break into the security lock boxes to steal that sweet sweet loot. Before we can unlock it, we have to find the code. For this mission the code was easy to find, and all the boxes had the same code. Third, we had to cover our backs because there were waves of guards coming in, and they are getting increasingly more powerful. More armor, more gear, better guns. This is because Jupitar is sending in his personal guards to stop you.

Erik placed a stationary turret at the middle staircase to help take out some guards coming down which helped a ton. With the vault open and ledger taken, we now have to take our duffle bags of loot out to the drop zone. By the way, if you’re playing solo or have only a part human team, the rest of the players will be AI. They will hang back why your stealth around, and only join once the action starts.

A well placed turret helps a ton!

The loot drop was in the back alley down a manhole opening. Once the loot is secured, we needed to go grab a bomb, and our calling cards. The cards are to leave your mark so everyone knows who just robbed them. Leaving the cards in the vault is the ultimate slap in the face. We drop the cards, bring the bomb to the sewer entrance metal door to blow open, all while still taking out waves of enemies. after the sewer blew open, it’s a mad dash to grab our loot and get to the escape area.

Once finished, PAYDAY: Aces High tallies up all your earnings and you gain additional funds by completing side objectives, or playing it on harder difficulties. You will earn cash and rep which can be used back at the store in the main safe house. You will be able to buy weapons that range from ARs, SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols. Gadgets like the grapple gun, various grenades, and stim pack upgrades are available. Deployables are stuff like ammo and health drops, or as I mentioned, Erik had a turret. Skills are pretty cool also, these not only boost you when activated, but also your whole crew.

For example, there is one called the Precision Master where landing enough headshots will boost your entire party’s damage. There are defensive skills, some that focus on explosives, and some that are just passive as well. Squading up with a team that maximizes these skills will be huge.

Having a full team that diversifies the team skills will be massively beneficial.

The mission wasn’t long, but it’s basically the tutorial mission. Before we ended our play session I did talk to Erik a bit more. I wanted to know if they used their experience with Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice in using verticality in PAYDAY: Aces High’s level design. Erik’s response is that they will have some aspects of that with accessing the roof and scaffolding, as well as using the grapple hook. However, this is a first-person shooter action game first, while Vampire was more action RPG with powers. There will be aspects of that, but they will feel totally different.

The other player with us, Ben from Road to VR, asked if there would be other activities within the levels besides the security box opening and drilling vaults. Erik’s response was that drilling the vault will be in every level due to that being a main mechanic. However, there will be levels with other activities like hacking and breaking into other places. They are even work shopping some other stuff to include in the game as well.

Before we were done Erik gave us a sneak peak at the launch levels. Including the first level we played, there are a total of six levels that will be at launch with one being featured at Area 52. Fast Travel Games plans on supporting PAYDAY: Aces High heavily after launch which includes new maps, weapons, customization, as well as new ways to play previous level. The goal is to have replayability, which is something I noticed even with this first level. As you grow and unlock better gear you can play it full stealth, harder difficulties, and try and max out each level.

PAYDAY: Aces High was a blast and I plan on putting some more time into this closed playtest to try out other paths and gadgets like the camera scrambler. It is shaping up to be a great co-op time with some friends in VR, and I’m glad to see the IP continue to grow and try other things. PAYDAY: Aces High doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s shooting for a 2026 release still on Steam VR and Meta Quest 3 and 3S.