Payback 2

Last updated

Payback 2
Payback 2.jpg
Developer(s) Apex Designs Entertainment Ltd.
Publisher(s) Apex Designs Entertainment Ltd.
Programmer(s) James Daniels
SeriesPayback
Platform(s) Android, iOS
Release
  • WW: 4 October 2012
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Payback 2 is a 2012 mobile online multiplayer action game developed and published by Apex Designs Entertainment Ltd. It is the sequel to the 2001's Payback , [1] and was released on 4 October 2012 for iOS, became free-to-play in 2013, [2] [3] and was released for Android on 10 October 2014 [4] under the title Payback 2 - The Battle Sandbox. [5]

Contents

Gameplay

Payback 2 has a single-player "story" mode consisting of multiple chapters, the usual objective of each chapter being for the player to complete missions in order to obtain enough money to complete the chapter, unlocking the next. The player receives a mission after answering a ringing payphone, where instructions from "the boss" are given via an accomplice. The mission instructions include various criminal acts such as assassination, robbery or racing. The player may also obtain money from activities such as destroying vehicles, killing pedestrians and delivering certain things. After committing crimes, the player has to avoid being arrested or killed by the police, SWAT or military.[ citation needed ]

Payback 2's "campaign" mode consists of multiple "episodes", each of which contains various kinds of solo or team events played against or 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 claim parts of the map; "Kingpin", similar to "Conquest"; "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 in last place is eliminated on an interval. [6]

Payback 2's multiplayer mode lets players create and configure multiplayer versions of the event types mentioned above, that are hosted on one of the four proprietary game servers of choice. Once the first round finishes, the players can then vote between two randomly generated configurations for the next game. 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.[ citation needed ]

The music used in Payback 2's startup cutscene is Requiem Mass in D minor - Lacrimosa dies illa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. [7]

Development

Payback focused on single-player gameplay, [8] however when developing Payback 2, James Daniels [9] from Apex Designs decided to 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, the lighting mechanics were also upgraded significantly too. [9] In December 2016, Payback 2 received another major update, adding a proper and more realistic rigidbody physics system, improved gravity, vehicle models, character models, driving physics and more. [4] [11]

Reception

Upon Payback 2's initial release, TouchArcade praised it for being a competent "Grand Theft Auto clone", but criticized its lack of a good story. [12] Slide2Play would criticize the game, claiming that it "...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] Several journalists noted having issues connecting, or finding, people to play with online as well. [13] [8]

Related Research Articles

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the Mario franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up items. It features characters and courses mostly from the Mario series as well as other gaming franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, F-Zero, Excitebike, and Splatoon.

<i>ChuChu Rocket!</i> 1999 video game

ChuChu Rocket! is a 1999 action puzzle game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. The objective is for the player to place arrows on a board to lead mice into escape rockets while avoiding cats. The game features single-player modes in which a player must save all the mice on a board, and a multiplayer mode in which players battle to collect the most mice.

Blockland is a sandbox game in which players build and play using Lego-like building blocks in singleplayer and multiplayer modes. It was created by American developer Eric "Badspot" Hartman, using the Torque Game Engine, and was originally released as freeware on November 15, 2004. The game is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, the Lego brand, but at one point, Lego was in talks with Hartman about purchasing the game. Blockland was spotlighted on The Screen Savers on February 11, 2005, drastically increasing the user base overnight. It has also been featured on Shack News. Blockland was officially released on February 24, 2007. It was released on Steam in December 2013 after spending nearly a year on Steam Greenlight.

Mario Kart Arcade GP is a sub-series of arcade games in Nintendo's Mario Kart series developed specifically for arcades in collaboration with Namco. To date, four entries have been released—Mario Kart Arcade GP (2005), Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (2007), Mario Kart Arcade GP DX (2013), and Mario Kart Arcade GP VR (2017). The first three entries are considered to be relatively rare outside of Japan, with the fourth title not seeing a release outside of Japan at all. The games have been generally been well-received by critics, who have praised the game's transition of traditional Mario Kart gameplay into an arcade game format, while lamenting that none of the entries have been released outside of the arcade format onto any of Nintendo's home video game consoles.

<i>Nicktoons Racing</i> 2000 video game

Nicktoons Racing is a Nickelodeon crossover racing video game. The game was first developed by Pipe Dream and released for the Game Boy Color, while versions for different platforms were released in subsequent years. Most versions were developed by Software Creations with the exception of the Game Boy Advance version, which was developed by Crawfish Interactive, and the arcade version, which was developed by Chicago Gaming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

Puyo Puyo (ぷよぷよ), previously known as Puyo Pop outside Japan, is a series of tile-matching video games created by Compile. Sega has owned the franchise since 1998, with games after 2001 being developed by Sonic Team. Puyo Puyo was created as a spin-off franchise to Madō Monogatari, a series of first-person dungeon crawler role-playing games by Compile from which the Puyo Puyo characters originated. The series has sold over 10 million copies, including the Madō Monogatari games.

<i>Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2</i> 2010 video game

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 is a 2010 racing video game developed by Swedish studio Polarbit and published by Activision for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and a sequel to Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D. The game is the seventeenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series. Unlike the original, Nitro Kart 2 has been given an online multiplayer mode. The game was released on May 27, 2010.

<i>Trenches</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Trenches is a strategic World War I video game first developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch by American studio Thunder Game Works. The initial version launched on December 24, 2009.

<i>Tom Clancys Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard</i> 2011 video game

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard is a 2011 first-person shooter video game developed and published by Gameloft for iOS, Xperia Play and Android devices. The game is a remake of the original Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six video game.

<i>Sniper Elite V2</i> 2012 video game

Sniper Elite V2 is a 2012 third-person tactical shooter stealth video game developed and published by Rebellion Developments. It is the sequel to 2005's Sniper Elite, which takes place in the same timeframe and location—the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945—but with an altered narrative. The game's story follows an American OSS officer who must eliminate a group of scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket program before the Red Army captures them. A sequel named Sniper Elite III was released in 2014. A remastered version for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One was released on May 14, 2019.

Limbic Software, Inc. is an independent mobile game development company founded in 2009 by Arash Keshmirian, Iman Mostafavi, and Volker Schönefeld. Limbic has designed and developed iOS and Android titles TowerMadness, Grinchmas!, Nuts!, Zombie Gunship, TowerMadness 2, and Zombie Gunship Arcade, with over 25 million game downloads worldwide.

Dead Rising is a series of action-adventure games created by Keiji Inafune. It was originally developed by Capcom in 2006 until Capcom Vancouver took over developing the franchise and Microsoft Studios took over the publishing rights. As of June 30, 2024, the game series has sold 17 million copies worldwide and is currently Capcom's sixth most successful intellectual property.

<i>Groove Coaster</i> 2011 Video game series

The Groove Coaster series is an iOS / Android and arcade rhythm game franchise developed by Matrix Software and published by Taito. The first Groove Coaster was released for iOS on July 28, 2011. This rhythm game follows a roller coaster type track on screen, where players must make the appropriate controller inputs. Like many rhythm games, a life bar is attached to the game play. Players gain or lose points on the bar depending on the input timings.

<i>The Blockheads</i> (video game) 2013 video game

The Blockheads is a survival sandbox indie mobile game created by David Frampton, an indie developer and owner of Majic Jungle Software, a studio based in New Zealand.

<i>SpellTower</i> 2011 puzzle video game

SpellTower is a 2011 word puzzle game developed by Zach Gage. In the game, the player must clear the screen before it overflows by creating words from assorted letter tiles. The game has several game modes and a multiplayer battle mode. The impetus for the game—the concept of combining elements from Tetris and Boggle in what was a prototype of the puzzle video game Puzzlejuice—inspired Gage to create SpellTower. The game was released for iOS in November 2011 to generally favorable reviews. Versions for OS X and Android followed over the next two years. In 2017 SpellTower Minutes was released. This browser-based Flash game created special "blitz" like modes not found in the mobile releases. A new iOS version released in 2017 swapped out the unnamed dictionary and began using Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. French and Dutch language specific versions were also released. A 2020 release, SpellTower+, added new game modes, cleaner visuals, and a jazz soundtrack.

<i>Junk Jack</i> 2011 video game


Junk Jack is an action-adventure sandbox video game by Italian developer Pixbits. It was released for iOS in 2011. A sequel, Junk Jack X, was released on August 29, 2013. Junk Jack X was renamed to Junk Jack, and the original game has been renamed to Junk Jack Retro.

<i>Hitman: Sniper</i> 2015 video game

Hitman: Sniper is a 2015 mobile shooting gallery video game in the Hitman series by Square Enix Montréal. As the series' mainstay protagonist Agent 47, the player looks through a first-person sniper scope vision on their touchscreen device to assassinate several powerful figures who have assembled at a lakeside compound without alerting their associates. The player uses the environment to find creative ways to kill these targets, sometimes prompted by secondary objectives. Through mission progression, the player unlocks more powerful weapons and new weapon abilities.

<i>Survivalcraft</i> Sandbox video game

Survivalcraft is a 2011 open sandbox video game developed by Marcin Igor Kalicinski under the brand Candy Rufus Games. Following early test versions, it was released on 16 November 2011 for the Windows Phone, and is also available for Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows. The game is set on a deserted island in an open world, where the player collects resources and items that can be made into survival tools. The game has six different game modes: Survival, Challenging, Cruel, Harmless, Adventure, and Creative. The first four involve the player gathering necessary resources to stay alive. The Creative mode gives the player unlimited items and health, and the Adventure mode is used for quest and parkour maps.

Geometry Wars is a series of top-down multi-directional shooter video games developed by Bizarre Creations, and, later, Lucid Games. Originally published by Microsoft Games Studios, the first title was included as a minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2 for Xbox. An updated version was released in 2005 as a launch title for Xbox 360 and later ported to Windows. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, the second installment in the series, was released for the Xbox 360 in 2008.

References

  1. ↑ Sarkar, Samit (21 September 2012). "'Payback 2' developer explains changes to multiplayer and controls". Polygon. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Farokhmanesh, Megan (10 April 2013). "Payback 2: The Battle Sandbox now free-to-play from iTunes". Polygon. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Payback 2 goes free-to-play". 18 April 2017. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Apex Designs News (Old)". www.apex-designs.net. Archived from the original on 15 June 2000. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "Payback 2 - The Battle Sandbox - Overview - Google Play Store - US". Sensor Tower. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "Payback 2 - Indie app of the day". Android Authority. 18 November 2014. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "Payback 2 FAQ - iPhone". www.apex-designs.net. Archived from the original on 21 June 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 Fahey, Mike (4 October 2012). "The Original Grand Theft Auto iPhone Clone Returns with Payback 2". Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  9. 1 2 "Payback 2 "Dev Diary"". www.apex-designs.net. Archived from the original on 18 August 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "New Screens for 'Payback 2', Sequel to iOS's First Open-world Sandbox Game - TouchArcade". toucharcade.com. 11 September 2012. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  11. ↑ "Payback 2 Updates". www.apex-designs.net. Archived from the original on 18 November 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  12. 1 2 "'Payback 2' Review – It's Payback Time (Review) - TouchArcade". toucharcade.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  13. 1 2 "Payback 2 HD Review - Slide to Play". 5 October 2012. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.