Looking up!

With heavy footsteps, a special operator resembling a giant bear appeared among the police ranks.

This monstrous thing stood over two meters tall, fully armed, wearing the heavy protective suit typically used for bomb disposal.

On his burly frame, a riot helmet spray-painted with giant white honey badger teeth made him appear even more formidable and invincible.

Most crucially!

Right now.

In his hands was unmistakably a Gatling rotary machine gun with six barrels—

Click.

As the bear-like operator's hand pressed the fire control switch on the rotary machine gun!

"Holy fucking shit!!!"

"Run—!!!"

Rrrrr—BRRRRRRR—!!!

The rotary cannon activated!

Ruthless bullets instantly wove into a dense web of fire, instantly shredding the entire corridor!

The four Payday crew members fled like frightened dogs, desperately rushing toward the elevator doors behind them!

BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!

Gatling bullets stormed densely behind them, turning the entire intensive care unit into a deadly zone bursting with sparks!

The Payday crew sprinted!

While the panicked medical staff also screamed and scattered in all directions!

The piercing screams instantly made the already chaotic intensive care unit even more tumultuous!

"Quick! Quick!"

The lead robber dashed forward to press the elevator button, with teammates filing in behind!

However!

At this critical moment!

Crash—!

The female robber at the rear, not paying attention, immediately collided head-on with a screaming fleeing doctor!

The cooler case shattered open, sending three blood sample tubes flying through the air.

Although in that instant, all four robbers widened their eyes, trying to catch the samples.

One glass tube containing a sample still fell to the ground.

Glass fragments scattered everywhere!

And along with the glass, the female robber's mask also fell off.

Instantly!

The scene fell deathly silent!

"Uh—huff—huff huff—"

The doctor on the ground looked utterly terrified!

Cowering on the floor, legs weak, panickedly watching as the robber leader wearing the clown mask with the US flag pattern placed the remaining two samples back into the cooler case.

Then.

The four boarded the elevator.

And as the elevator doors closed!

The dark muzzle of the 1911 pistol rose from the elevator door crack, like greedy eyes peering at fresh life in the pitch-black night.

The doctor outside even forgot to breathe, mouth agape as they shuffled backward half a step:

"Don't—"

!!!

Complete darkness.

The elevator slowly descended.

The chaotic footsteps and police radio chatter grew increasingly faint.

In the silent darkness, a clear and horrifying cough suddenly sounded—

"Cough cough—"

"Cough—cough—"

"Ugh—"

"I feel a bit unwell somehow..."

[Demo version ends here]

[Thank you for your experience]

[Payday]

[Coming soon]

[Golden Wind]

—!!!

As the demo version concluded!

Instantly!

The four streamers' livestream chats erupted in excitement!

'OHHHHHHHH—! This ending is amazing!'

'Holy shit, I got goosebumps!'

'So that means Patient Three is the beginning of Left 4 Dead, the Payday crew actually drew samples containing the initial biochemical virus, and accidentally broke one, causing the full outbreak!'

'Can't exactly say the outbreak happened because they broke the test tube, more like from the moment they opened Ward Three, this world was doomed, since according to the setting, Left 4 Dead's biochemical virus can spread through air!'

'Looking back now at Left 4 Dead's original trailer, it's really fucking chilling!'

'Yes yes yes! The beginning of Left 4 Dead's trailer showed someone with a clown mask shooting and killing a doctor, then the biochemical virus outbreak—perfectly connecting with this demo's beginning and end!'

'No wonder after the boss and others saw the Gatling operator, the game switched to CG cutscene—it was for that perfect circular narrative!'

'This game is too amazing! Feels like overlapping timelines!'

'That shot killing the doctor really made my hair stand on end, this feeling is truly magical!'

'Within our lifetime, brothers, within our lifetime!'

'So the main game should be about events before the Mercy Hospital heist, right? This demo is like an inverted narrative beginning!'

'Definitely! After this comes the Left 4 Dead storyline!'

'Really fucking amazing, seriously, even though we always call Old Thief dogshit, his games—whether playability, creativity, or even nostalgia—all score perfect marks!'

'This game is too amazing...'

'Nostalgia is unbeatable...'

......

"Fun! Fun fun! Amazing amazing! This game is really amazing—"

The livestream chat exploded with discussion!

And streamer Ayin couldn't help but shout with excitement!

"Everyone saw the livestream,"

"Just like Left 4 Dead, it's also four-player cooperative multiplayer format,"

"But it has more playability than Left 4 Dead, of course I'm only talking about the original version, let's not count mods,"

"From what we've seen, there should be both stealth and direct assault routes, you can take either path,"

"Maybe some friends prefer picking locks, sneaking around, then go stealth—early difficulty might be higher,"

"Other friends prefer strong assaults, electronic music robberies, then go direct assault, but you all saw the results,"

"That final Gatling bear... hard to say, definitely tougher than Sword Saint and Professor Yang, higher late-game risk,"

"Overall..."

At this point, Ayin clicked his tongue:

"Fun, really fun brothers,"

"Especially after the fighting starts, it's that kind of pure fun game, really good,"

"Most importantly, its nostalgia boost is too strong, really gives that feeling of playing Left 4 Dead back in the day..."

After the gameplay experience!

Ayin gave his honest evaluation based on his actual gameplay experience.

Nothing else, just fun!

First of all, the theme itself is fun!

Pure bandits!

Who could resist breaking laws in the virtual world, experiencing that feeling of being the arrogant villain from movies?

Even more!

Golden Wind's unique AI tuning has now reached perfection.

Powerful AI logic enhancement makes every NPC character in the game come alive like real people, incredibly vivid with super immersion.

As for weapon feel and feedback.

This thing doesn't really need discussion anymore.

Second-generation FPS—Golden Wind is the ancestor!

In the shooting game field, Golden Wind is the sky, their original expertise handled absolutely skillfully and flawlessly.

Of course!

As the achievement showcase for Golden Engine's alpha test, Payday can't be called perfect either.

New theme, fast pace, thrilling experience... these are certainly its advantages.

But simultaneously, compared to Golden Wind's previous games, Payday's shortcomings are also obvious—

......

Golden Engine's First Appearance! Room for Improvement Still Plentiful!》

《Undeniable Game Design Quality! Golden Wind's New Game Payday Impresses! But New Engine Performance Slightly Lacking?》

《Long Road Ahead Still Requires More Effort! Golden Wind's New Engine Work Debuts, Criticized for Having Gameplay But Lacking Performance》

[Just yesterday, the "Golden Engine" jointly developed by Golden Wind leading seventeen Huaguo manufacturers opened alpha test demo gameplay. This demo is Golden Wind's crime shooter game Payday specifically created for the new engine. As a prequel to Golden Wind's foundational work Left 4 Dead, the game received widespread player praise upon release, but simultaneously, issues like mediocre industrial quality, rough visual presentation, and lack of breakthrough improvements in game features were widely discussed...]

[...Many media outlets and industry insiders bluntly stated that Golden Engine's debut can only be called barely satisfactory. Perhaps for Golden Wind, more breakthrough and creative improvements are the only way for Golden Engine to break through the competition...]

[...Regarding this, SNG editor-in-chief Simon said: Clearly, Golden Wind's engine didn't keep up with Gu Sheng's rhythm this time. If Payday had a better engine, its quality would undoubtedly reach a whole new level.]

["Obviously, this time Golden Wind didn't achieve matching good horses with good saddles, but this is also the best Golden Wind can currently do—they need more time..." Poland's Pride Engine vice president commented this way...]

...]

With Payday's release!

For a time, overwhelming coverage—almost half the gaming world—was discussing this game!

From players to media, to various industry peers.

Clearly!

Regarding this game's theme and setting, most reviews held positive attitudes!

Unprecedented pure crime theme, unparalleled foundational tuning, and close relationship with second-generation FPS pioneer Left 4 Dead.

All of this fully demonstrates Gu Sheng's game design level remains at highly active peak performance.

But!

From various reports, it's also apparent.

Regarding the "Golden Engine" Golden Wind currently uses, people don't seem entirely satisfied.

As one report stated, this Golden Engine can only be considered "barely satisfactory."

Calling it garbage would definitely be unfair.

With just three months development time, despite over twenty-person team technical support and hundreds of millions in cost investment, the timeframe was still too short.

Now, Golden Wind being able to present it for testing within such short time and actually apply it to make games is already commendable success.

Even.

If this weren't Golden Wind's work, but any other game company, it would be considered miraculous.

But unfortunately!

This is Golden Wind's work.

And people accustomed to experiencing unparalleled amazement and shock in Golden Wind's works, upon seeing such an unremarkable, plain, even somewhat "dragging down" Payday engine.

Dissatisfaction inevitably arises.

This is like exam scores.

A student who usually only scores passing marks, occasionally getting 90 points, is enough to surprise and excite people.

But a student who consistently gets perfect scores, perhaps just because they didn't complete bonus questions this time, will disappoint and make people feel regretful.

For higher-level manufacturers.

People's expectations naturally run higher.

This is human nature.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com