Smash and Grab in Heist Shooter ‘PAYDAY: Aces High,’ Launching Today on Meta

Blog|Geplaatst door Phil Hornshaw|5 Nov 2026|

For almost 15 years, the PAYDAY series has captured a very specific experience for first-person shooter players: breaking into a bank, cleaning out the vault, and shooting your way out. The series places you in situations that mirror the best scenes in movies like HEAT and Point Break, putting you in the role of a master thief, joining a team of heist legends, controlled by other players, as you fight to make it out with the loot and your lives.

PAYDAY: Aces High (Rated Mature 17+), launching today on Meta Quest 3 and 3S, brings that formula to VR and makes the heist fantasy even more immersive, as you use gadgets to circumvent alarms and break into vaults, grapple with your weapons under pressure, and lug bags of loot to the getaway car. The game follows the story of four thieves, known as the Aces, who are thrown in jail after they’re framed by a wealthy business titan named Warren Jupiter. After years in the Big House, they manage to break out, and set about using their unique skills to bring down Jupiter’s business empire by taking it from him, one duffle bag loaded with money at a time.

While the goal of each Heist is to steal everything you can, how you actually go about doing that is up to you. Each mission begins with planning, as you and your team decide how you’ll go for the goods. You can sneak your way in, taking out cameras, unlocking doors, and avoiding being seen — or you can punch your way through the front door, guns blazing. But even the best-laid plans can go awry, so it’s always important to keep your exits in mind and be ready to grab whatever you can carry and make a run for it.

You’re likely going to have to fight your way through Jupiter’s security goons sooner or later, though. The good news is that there are a whole lot of weapons and gadgets to help, from alarm jammers to keep guards and reinforcements at bay, to gun turrets to help you hold down a chokepoint or defend the team while you break into a vault. As you complete jobs, you’ll use the Cash and Reputation you earn to buy even more stuff to help on the next run.

While you can play PAYDAY: Aces High alone with computer-controlled teammates, the best way to experience the game is in co-op with up to three other players. As you come together as a team, you can choose your thief and customize their approach to the job, too. Each character has elements they specialize in, like stealth or explosives, and you’ll be able to choose your loadout and skills to match both your playstyle and your role on your heist squad. Working together to pull off a Heist in the PAYDAY games feels great, but the most fun usually comes from improvising as a team to salvage the situation when things go wrong.

With PAYDAY: Aces High hitting Meta Quest, we sat down with Chief Creative Officer Erik Odeldahl, Community Manager Kris Zandecki, and Chief Marketing Officer Andreas Juliusson of developer Fast TraveL Games to talk about the team’s approach to creating a PAYDAY game in VR, what players can expect from planning and executing their heists, and what’s in store for the future.

The tactile nature of VR seems like a great fit for PAYDAY, where players do a lot of things like using gadgets and carrying bags of cash. How else does VR change the PAYDAY experience that fans of the franchise might really enjoy?

Erik Odeldahl: Both stealth and action really benefit from the immersion you get in a VR headset. Slowly sneaking through a heist, or madly rushing toward the exit, bullets flying, is always so much more immersive for me in VR. It’s a different way to experience the classic heisting of PAYDAY, and I hope both a lot of new players as well as old fans get to feel the same exhilaration as I do every time I play the game.

Were there any big challenges in bringing PAYDAY to VR, and capturing the feeling of working together to pull off a big score?

EO: There are always challenges when building a new game, but we tackled them together with a really strong team. When playing the game in co-op, the team will benefit greatly from using voice chat, but we also spent a lot of time on making sure your computer-controlled teammates will inform you consistently on how they help you by, for example, supplying you with new ammo or medic bags.

We’ve seen a lot of footage and images of heists in action, but planning is also a big part of the experience. What can players expect from that side of the game, and what choices can they make as they’re putting together a job?

EO: Every heist starts by the Planning Table in your Safehouse. You have access to all the objectives and a map. The first few times you take on a heist is also how you learn its ins and outs. Returning to a heist later, maybe on a harder difficulty, or with the intent of successfully completing it without setting off the alarm, will require you to decide along with your teammates which gear to bring, and who has which responsibility. We’ve had a lot of fun in the dev team working these things out together.

Each of the different Aces has their own personality, so how do those translate into gameplay? How different are each of the characters, and how can players make them work within their play styles?

EO: The members of the Aces have very different personalities and that is mainly communicated in how they talk and look. For players though, we felt it was super important that they could create their own perfect heister by mixing and matching weapons, skills, and gadgets from the whole tree of possibilities. You can always choose your own preferred look and voice, though, so if you love playing as a specific heister, make sure to set that up on your mannequin in the Safehouse!

Can you tell us a bit about what to expect from progression and unlocking new skills? How does the Cash and Reputation you earn affect future heists?

EO: You will always earn Cash and Reputation when you play a heist, even if you fail. If you succeed, though, the take is much larger, especially on harder difficulties or if you complete them without setting off the alarm. There are many new weapons, with additional attachments, upgradable skills, and gadgets to purchase for Cash and Reputation in Gage’s Shop in your Safehouse. We will add more stuff to Gage’s Shop post-launch, which will change how you play the game. All new content will work in our upcoming heists, which will all be released for free to the whole community.

It sounds like there are quite a few different weapons and gadgets for players to use. What can players expect for building their loadouts?

EO: Every weapon type has their own perfect play style associated with it. SMGs and shotguns are perfect for close-quarters fights, but require different ways to handle shooting and reloading. Rifles are really strong at longer distances, and pistols shouldn’t be thought of as just a secondary choice. Some pistols are really strong in their own right, but you might have to sacrifice the ability to silence them during the stealthy stages of a heist. When it comes to gadgets, there are options for stealth in the form of alarm jammers of different kinds, but also for area defense, with deployable sentry guns, for instance. You could also choose to be the team’s medic, or the one who supplies them with ammo after having emptied a few too many clips into a Bulldozer. In addition to this, there are several types of skills that can boost your performance.

Are there any other interesting new features that might surprise PAYDAY fans?

EO: I really like the addition of the Stackable Buff skills, which reward the entire team with bonuses if you perform certain actions. If several teammates have the same skill equipped, they can rack up pretty awesome bonus streaks.

How did player feedback during playtests help shape the game? What surprised you the most during the playtests?

Kris Zandecki: Feedback from players is always good, and we have made quite a few changes to the game, mostly in regards to balancing, which will make it into the game in a Quality of Life patch soon after launch. Some of their suggestions are really good, but will require more time to implement, so those will come to the game at a later date. What surprised me most about the latest playtest is how quickly you can speedrun a successful completion of the mission “Stealing Candy From A Billionaire,” if you are a really good stealth player!

Players always manage to push the boundaries of a game when they finally get their hands on it. Were there any interesting things that players did during the playtests that surprised you or that you hadn’t anticipated, such as finding clever ways to use gadgets together?

KZ: Players are very creative, but even we couldn’t predict just how creative they can get. In the very first playtests, a very dedicated person with a lot of time on their hands decided to test the limitations of our game by putting around 100 or more Gun Turrets in the safe house. The funniest thing was that they would send updates after each 10 or so turrets were placed and it looked more and more crazy with each screenshot. Also, in the first Heist, there is a grappling hook spot outside the bank. The grappling hook was designed to be used outside the bank, but the speedrunners found it most effective to use as an escape tool through the small window in the break room instead! Suffice it to say, we can’t wait for people to find other ways to finish Heists in Aces High!

You’ve talked a bit about future plans for PAYDAY: Aces High after launch, including free DLC, new weapons and gadgets, and community challenges. Are there any more details about those plans that you can share?

Andreas Juliusson: Ready to add some details on our post launch road map! On November 26, we are launching “Community Challenges,” where we rally the player base and task them with achieving set objectives together — if successful, everyone who participated is granted unique in-game awards! These will happen quite often, and we have a special reward coming for the festive season…. But maybe more importantly: On December 14, we are launching a brand new heist, which will be free for all owners of the game! Also, new weapons, skills, gadgets, masks, and more will become available from time to time in “Gage’s Shop.” Already at launch, players will be able to acquire the OG Gang Masks from PAYDAY, and more!

Is there anything you want to bring up or add that we didn’t ask?

EO: You were pretty thorough! I am just very happy that the game is now in players’ hands, and I hope they have as good a time playing it as we have had developing it!

AJ: I suggest you join our Aces High Discord server, it’s growing extremely fast and you get to engage with us! Visit ftg.gg/PaydayAH-discord and we’ll see you there!

Now’s the time to recruit your team of thieves and get ready for your next job. You can find PAYDAY: Aces High for $24.99 USD on the Store. And if you’re a Meta Horizon+ subscriber, you can download and play PAYDAY: Aces High right now as part of your subscription — it’s part of the Meta Horizon+ catalog of more than 100 games.