GTA-Like 'Payback' Reduced to $4.99
posted by Blake Patterson on February 19th, 2009 12:03 PM EST in $4.99, Action, News, Role-Playing, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Apex Designs has reduced the price of their Grand Theft Auto-style action / role-playing title Payback to $4.99 in the App Store [link], down from $6.99.
Payback features dozens of vehicles and 11 cities to explore. The player starts off each city on-foot and must get to a payphone to receive mission details. At first, the player’s only weapons are his fists, but crates scattered about the cities contain shotguns, grenades and other weapons that aid significantly in wreaking various flavors of havoc upon the cities’ inhabitants.
The developer indicates that v1.1 of the game will arrive soon, bringing the following enhancements:
- Much improved minimap
- Easy way to restart missions
- Built-in instructions
- Optional new camera angle
- Support for different device orientations for more comfortable use on the iPod touch
- Bug fixes
- Lots of other tweaks
See the gameplay video that accompanied our Payback review.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
App Store Link: Payback, $4.99
Instead of lowering the price so quickly, they should just add a lite version.
I always thought $6.99 was kind of a strange price… not sure why. I guess it just doesn't stand as sort of an increment for me or something.
I still hate that the missions r timed in this game. i can't control it well enough to complete any of them on time and it's kinda soured my experience with it =(
Good move Apex, here's hoping Payback makes it back into the top 50, where it belongs. Maybe more people will be able to enjoy the game this way and an underrated developer will rake in some much deserved cash.
I love these kinds of games but I'm not willing to shell out any cash until I can toy around with a lite version to see if I can stand to play it. I've purchased too many games that I thought I would like in theory only to be frustrated by crap controls or some other annoyance.
The HYPE monster got me back when this came out – paid full price for it, and still really haven't played it. I would even say I did't even care for what I played, that much, maybe I just need to give it a bit more time (sorry folks.) It does have really high production values and a nice visual style going for it ; so, if you are actually interested in this type of game, the $4.99 price tag isn't bad. Watch a YouTube – you get pretty much what you see.
Sounds good. I like the sound of a new camera angle, I hope its 3rd person, will be far more fun and easier to see whats coming.
What disappoints me from most games is all the crap you have to deal with before you get to play the game, i.e. developer screen, publisher screen, presentation, title screen, select game mode, and wait for it to load. that's more than a minute before gameplay. Nowadays all I play is iShoot cuz it loads quickly and it goes straight to the game, you don't have to deal with all that crap I just mentioned. I'm not sure if this is the case with Payback, but knowing the missions are timed, IMO that takes some of fun out. I would really like to see a lite version. Just like DannyV said, if they had released a lite version I guess the price drop wouldn't have been neccessary.
The front end's pretty snappy in Payback. There is an intro but you can skip it. All told it takes about 10 seconds to get to the gameplay (less if you're autoresuming).
They keep dropping the price just after I buy the game. DOH!
This is incredibly annoying. Especially since I didn't like the game. I'm waiting a while after CJS comes out (if I can).
You are absolutely right, rich_952000. This game definitely belongs to the top 50.
I disagree. This game does not belong in the top 50. Its really NOT all that impressive. The gameplay is sub par. The graphics are pretty bad (in the game not the intro) the game itself is very unpolished and you lose interest quickly because there is no real lasting content. Its the same ole thing packaged in an uglier box and all the story/plot it taken out of it.
one thumb down the other half way… Good effort Payback… unfortunately you fall way short.
nope not worthy of top 50.
Lite version please!
I'm on a budget… Bought too many games that suck! Can't trust reviews, bia$ed blog$, video demos, etc…
Opinions will be what what they will. I can think of at least 32 of the top 50 apps that Payback entirely puts to shame. Here, I will name a few:
Fastlane Street Racing
LightBikes
Blocked
Yo Mama
Wobble(ugh!)
Any game that is developed be EA Mobile that may have snuck it's way back into the top 50
Kitty Kannon
Just to name a few.
Oh, wait, also add both inXile games to that list too.
The top 50, to my limited understanding, is based soley on a simple formula of #of copies sold within the time the app has been available.(?)
I agree MN, to an extent, @$7.99 the ammt. of copies appearantly didn't merit Payback to stay in the top 50.however, whether a $4.99 Payback deserves to be there, well we soon shall see.
If Apex Designs wanted to "whore" out copies of Payback at a price point of between $.99-$2.99, then undeniably Payback would "deserve" the #1 ranking in the Appstore.
In closing everything is sheer speculation at this point on my part.(yeah I'm humbly zen) Anders brought up a good point somewhere earlier; if ratings/popularity were injected into the equation, then that top 50 app list would read like a whole different book.
The game has too many bugs
Welcome back to the top 50 James
I agree with DannyV. From a business perspective, the price drop may have come too soon. A free "lite" version would probably have bumped up sales of the game at the original $6.99 price point, and then, once that well would start to run dry would a lower $4.99 price point make sense. Way too many devs are following the Gameloft/ngmoco strategy and not enough are following the longer term Sega strategy. For small indy devs with "quick off" type games (games that aren't "long") the aggressive pricing strategy makes sense. For the bigger devs, or devs with "long" style games, the Sega strategy seems to make the most sense.
I dont agree with rich
Blocked, Fastlane, and Light Bike are much better Iphone friendly games.
I would much rather sit down and play gta4 then spend hours try to drive my car through the city with a top down view to the objective in time.
Fastlane especially outclasses almost all the games in my opinion. It has especially smooth framerates, excellent mechanics, the best racing controls, and amazing graphics.
Payback has low rez textures, an imperfect view, and very little originality.
@Bilal, I can respect your opinion. I do have one question; do you think Fastlane has originality?
I will admit though, as far as in-game progression goes I've made it farther in Fastlane than I have in Payback:)
Fastlane has originality concerning my own gaming. The only thing it reminds me of is ridge racer. But when i play payback im just thinking about why im on the iphone playing a gta clone with a horrible view instead of just playing the real thing on my pc or xbox.
But on second thought i guess i cant really substantiate my opinion of fastlane having originality where payback doesnt.
Maybe i have to give payback another try but i just love the simpler easier to get into games better(fastlane being the only one where i toil hours on end trying to get a time one second faster then my best).