Review | PayDay 2: Crimewave Edition: licence to kill

It's amazing to consider the freedoms one is offered in video games - not just in terms of the incredible worlds we're given to explore, but the sheer audacity of taking part in ridiculously illegal criminal activities. Robbing banks, killing civilians, wreaking city-wide havoc and generally being an antisocial reprobate.

Grand Theft Auto is the industry benchmark for that kind of thing - "the most elaborate a****** simulation ever devised", one renowned game writer dubbed it - but the PayDay series isn't far off.

PayDay 2 was originally released back in summer 2013 and despite generally positive reviews, it was mostly ignored, its thunder stolen by GTA V a few weeks later.

This Crimewave edition hopes to rectify things. Available for the PS4 and Xbox One, it's been given all the remake standards: hi-def graphical update, improved frame rate, DLC aplenty, as well as all features and add-ons from the PC edition.

They're all well and good, and great to have for obsessives and completists - but the real meat of PayDay 2 is surprisingly in the original game.