Payday: Aces High reviews are in, and the verdict on Fast Travel Games’ first made-for-VR Payday is clear: critics broadly agree the co-op heist action is exciting, and they broadly agree the enemy AI holds it back. Scores so far run from a 4 out of 5 “must-buy” at UploadVR to a 6.5 out of 10 at Road to VR, while early Steam user reviews sit at Mixed. This roundup collects every major review published since the game launched on November 5, 2026, with links to each one.
Payday: Aces High at a glance
Payday: Aces High is a four-player co-op heist shooter built for VR by Swedish studio Fast Travel Games. It launched on November 5 for Meta Quest 3 and 3S and for PC VR through Steam, including Valve’s Steam Frame, with full crossplay. The game costs $24.99 and is also included for Meta Horizon+ subscribers, according to UploadVR. We covered the announcement and launch details in our earlier report on the Payday: Aces High release date and price.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Developer and publisher | Fast Travel Games |
| Release date | November 5, 2026 |
| Platforms | Meta Quest 3 and 3S, SteamVR (Steam Frame supported), crossplay enabled |
| Price | $24.99 (Steam price checked November 8); included with Meta Horizon+ |
| Players | 1 to 4, with AI bots filling empty slots |
| Launch content | Six missions; a free seventh mission, Coup de Grace, is due December 14 (per 9to5Google) |
Payday: Aces High review scores
| Outlet | Reviewer | Score | Verdict in brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| UploadVR | James Tocchio | 4 / 5 | “One of the most fun VR games of the year”; a must-buy |
| Shacknews | Donovan Erskine | 7 / 10 | Strong gunplay, weak AI, “a solid option” |
| Road to VR | Scott Hayden | 6.5 / 10 | “A Card Shy of a Royal Flush”; AI is the biggest flaw |
| 9to5Google | Nicholas Sutrich | Unscored | “My multiplayer VR game of the year” |
| Steam users | Players | Mixed (64% of 117) | Early user reception, checked November 8 |
Metacritic had not yet produced a Metascore at the time of writing; its page for the game lists only one counted critic review, and a Metascore requires at least four.
UploadVR: 4 out of 5, “a must-buy”
UploadVR delivered the most enthusiastic score. Reviewing on Meta Quest 3S, James Tocchio called it “VR’s best new co-op shooter” and concluded: “I love Payday: Aces High. It’s one of the most fun VR games of the year, and an incredibly engaging experience that could only exist in VR.” He singled out the thrill of planning a heist with friends and then surviving when it goes wrong.
The review was not without caveats. Tocchio wanted more heist variety and more enemy types, found objectives hard to read mid-firefight, and noted that because nearly every heist eventually turned into a gunfight, runs became “a bit predictable.” He also judged that the game “often ends up feeling like more of a wave shooter than a burglar sim,” and that the friendly bots, while competent, “can’t really replace human-controlled co-op pals.”
Shacknews: 7 out of 10, “a solid option”
Donovan Erskine at Shacknews called the gunplay “the strongest element” of the game, praising weapon handling that requires two-handed grips and manual reloads. His main complaints were linearity compared with the flat-screen Payday games, the difficulty of staying hidden in VR, and enemy AI he described as “incredibly weak,” with police spawning in plain view and allies standing idle under fire. Even so, he wrote that he “was never bored” playing with a friend and recommended it to anyone with a headset or a new Steam Frame.
Road to VR: 6.5 out of 10, “Good”
Road to VR’s Scott Hayden gave the lowest critic score, broken down as Gameplay 6, Immersion 4 and Comfort 10. He described the game as technically proficient and “quite good looking on Quest 3,” but called the AI “without a doubt, the biggest flaw” right now: enemies that fire randomly, rarely take cover and react little even on the default difficulty. He added that higher difficulty mostly gives enemies better armor and aim rather than smarter behavior, and that the problems are magnified without a good group of players.
9to5Google: unscored, “multiplayer VR game of the year”
Nicholas Sutrich at 9to5Google did not assign a score but was the most positive voice of all, calling it “my multiplayer VR game of the year, hands down.” He praised the on-body inventory, the repair minigames, physical lockpicking and the ability to hack a computer while shooting in another direction. His wish list echoed other critics: more bespoke VR interactions, such as grabbing characters, breaking glass with melee attacks and throwing objects to distract guards, plus deeper stealth.
What players say on Steam
Early player reception is cooler than the critics’. As of November 8, Steam lists the game’s reviews as Mixed, with 64% of 117 user reviews positive. That sample is small and covers only the Steam version, so it does not include feedback from Quest players. We will update this roundup if the picture changes meaningfully.
Where critics agree
| Common praise | Common criticism |
|---|---|
| Thrilling co-op heists with friends | Weak, unreactive enemy AI |
| Physical, satisfying gunplay and reloading | Stealth is hard to pull off; heists turn into shootouts |
| Smart VR-native interactions (inventory, hacking, lockpicking) | Limited heist and enemy variety at launch |
| Strong Quest 3 visuals and performance | Much less fun solo or with bots |
| Crossplay across Quest and Steam | Fewer bespoke VR interactions than hoped |
Should you buy Payday: Aces High?
The reviews point to one deciding factor: who you play with. Every outlet that enjoyed the game emphasized playing with friends, and every outlet flagged that the experience weakens solo or with AI partners. If you have a regular VR group, the critic consensus suggests it is one of the better co-op purchases of the year, and it belongs alongside the picks in our guide to the best co-op VR games. If you mostly play alone, the AI issues raised by Road to VR and Shacknews are worth weighing first.
Price also matters. Horizon+ subscribers can play it at no extra cost, which lowers the risk considerably; see our breakdown of whether Meta Horizon+ is worth it. Steam buyers paying the full $24.99 may want to watch for discounts in our early Black Friday VR deals coverage, with Black Friday falling on November 27. For more on this week’s launches, see our XR week in review and the November 2026 VR release calendar.
Bottom line
Payday: Aces High has landed as a good-to-very-good VR debut for the heist series: critics praise its co-op thrills and physical gunplay and fault its enemy AI and thin stealth. With a free mission due in December and community challenges planned, according to 9to5Google, Fast Travel Games has room to address the most common complaints.
Sources: UploadVR, Shacknews, Road to VR, 9to5Google, Metacritic and the Steam store page, all checked November 8, 2026.