Payback 2

Payback 2 has a story mode with multiple chapters, the usual objective being for the player to accomplish missions assigned by the player's boss, a crime lord, to obtain enough money to complete the chapter, unlocking the next. The player will answer the ringing payphones, where instructions from the boss, usually via one of his associates, are given. The player can also obtain money from activities such as destroying cars and killing pedestrians. After committing crimes, the player has to avoid being arrested or killed by the police, SWAT or army.

The campaign mode has multiple episodes (chapters), each episode including various types of solo and team events against/with the AI characters. Some of these events include: "Brawl", the objective being kill the most opponents, "Gang Warfare", practically "Brawl" but with two teams, "Capture the Swag", a parody of the outdoor game Capture the flag, "Conquest" where the player must capture "zones", "Kingpin", similar to "Conquest" but only takes one zone to capture, "Race" where the player races against the AI characters in various vehicles around various routes in the different maps, "Sprint", practically "Race" but the routes are shorter, and "Knockout", like "Race" but the player on the last place is destroyed.

The multiplayer mode lets the players create and configure multiplayer versions of the event types mentioned above, that are hosted on one of the four game servers of choice. Once the first round finishes, the players can then vote between two randomly generated configurations for the next game. The private multiplayer matches are created in the same way, and the creator can share the four character long "shortcode", which is required to join, with whoever they want to play with. On completion of a public or private match, players earn an amount of "XP" depending on their result.

Payback 2 also has an online challenges mode where hourly, daily and weekly challenges are automatically generated for the players to compete with each other. The player competes against the AI characters, with their result submitted to the leaderboard.

There are various weapons in Payback 2, including a shotgun, pistol, knife, rocket launcher, handheld minigun, auto turret, grenade, flamethrower and remote-controlled explosive.[5][6]

The music used in the game's startup scene is Requiem Mass in D minor - Lacrimosa dies illa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.[7]

The original Payback focused on single-player gameplay,[8] however in creating Payback 2, James Daniels[9] from Apex Designs decided to use the Unity game engine instead of the original's, create better graphics, and put more emphasis on multiplayer gameplay.[10][8] In May 2015, Apex Designs released an update that dramatically improved the game's visuals. The original textures, which had been in use since the original Payback, were replaced with remastered versions, and the lighting mechanics were upgraded significantly too.[9] The default camera view was also changed from an overhead POV to a 3rd person POV. In December 2016, Payback 2 received another major update, including a proper, more realistic rigidbody physics system, better gravity, improved vehicle models, character models, driving physics and more.[4][11]

When it was released, TouchArcade praised Payback 2 for being a competent Grand Theft Auto clone, but criticized its lack of a good story.[12] Slide2Play was less enthusiastic, claiming that the game "...still has issues with its basic design. Winning a race is literally as easy as pushing forward... it's hard to target the (other) bad guys in the game's on-foot shooting mission... Shooting is also made difficult by the fact that everybody on-screen is tiny and seems to blend in with the dull environments."[13] Multiple journalists noted having issues connecting, or finding, people to play with online as well.[13][8]