Welcome to PAYDAY 2 - The Ultimate Game Review Compilation!

Hello Steemers and Welcome to my new series: The Ultimate Game Review!

In this Series, I share the very best thoughts from our friends in the comment section of Steam games. These thoughts are left by myself and thousands of other users on the Steam Platform. Every Review is Credited to the Original Poster by their steam name from the Steam Gaming App. None or these reviews are taken from professional writers on blog sites, websites or articles. These are all just people like you and me and their thoughts after trying a game.

The reason I decided to do this was because most Gaming Reviews always seem so one sided, perhaps the Author has an agenda, perhaps they are predjeduce or a bigot. Who knows. With this series, I feel like Gamers, like you and I will get the absolute best experience possible when trying to determine whether the game is for you or not. The reason being, we will get to see the thoughts of not just 1 but many "Average Joes" like you and I and their thoughts after playing a game.

So please, sit back and Enjoy this Ultimate Game Review that I've compiled together for you!

PAYDAY IS BACK

By Moss

Payday 2 added microtransactions!
Yeah!
Overkill said they would never do it!
Yeah!
We should forgive them since Starbreeze/OVK pulled it out the moment they were allowed to!
Yea-- Wait, what the f...
Just hear me out for a moment, will ya?

Payday 2 is a game you all have certainly heard of before, for better or for worse. Years ago, at launch, it was "barebones but fun with a lot of potential." Later, it was "a friggin' masterpiece every PC gamer should own." Later-er, it was "a good game but with questionable DLC policies." Finally, the later-est, it was "A &#%^ing disgrace with developers breaking promises that nobody should buy." So, let's look at what exactly happened, shall we?

Yesterday, Payday 2 celebrated its 100th update. Starbreeze completely bought out the rights to Payday from 505, a company known for being a bit dodgy at times with its business practices, under the deal that they would receive 33% of the profits from Payday 3 (which was confirmed yesterday, get hyped) but no more than $40M.

So what does this mean? Well, it means Starbreeze and Overkill can do whatever they want with the game.
THEY STARTED BY REMOVING MICROTRANSACTIONS ALTOGETHER AND MAKING THE BLACK MARKET FREE FOR EVERYONE.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-05-31-payday-3-confirmed-payday-2-ditches-microtransactions
I can't stress how important this is. NOBODY has done this in the past, EVER. Payday is the very first example of a step back on microtransactions, and they deserve much more than forgiveness for 505's mistake; they deserve your RESPECT.

From death threats to insults to slander, Almir was the beaten-down figurehead of a company taking the fall for a publisher's decision. Did he take it personally? Who knows? If he did, I can't blame him, because we learned that fateful day in November that the Payday 'community' certainly had the potential to be completely vile. Yet, Almir and the rest of Overkill's 75 developers, who have supported the game for four years of free and paid content under 505, have been apologizing to US and have finally given the means to reverse their mistake. Let me just recount some instances of microtransactions for you:
Killing Floor 2 has a trading market with microtransactions. This game hasn't even left Early Access, and is already charging for weapon skins and character items with plenty of "precious" skins for <$200 on the market.
Rise of the Tomb Raider, a $60 game, has over $300 in purchaseable content.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 introduced microtransactions and loot to the CoD series for the first time.
Overwatch, while launching at a reduced price of $40, has a loot-box system that offers lootboxes of cosmetics (normally obtained by one per level up) for $2 per 2 boxes or higher. Items are non-tradeable, permanent, and non-purchaseable gold for items can be obtained from lootboxes, so this is one of the more fair systems.
Most despicably, Valve themselves have THREE virtual markets; they have what is essentially gambling (but without excluding minors) for Team Fortress 2, CS:GO, and Dota 2. Team Fortress has no rating on the store page and no age-gate, and Dota 2 is rated T. No action is taken to stop a minor from wasting even hundreds on "unboxing" virtual crates for $2.50 per key.

While Payday 2 had this gambling system I despise, it wasn't of the developers' free will , and they have made a completely unprecedented move by pulling them. In a way, I kind of view Overkill and Starbreeze above many other developers now. It's really great to see something like this in the day and age where microtransactions are starting to just be tolerated.

As for whether you should buy the game or not? Well, it's Payday 2. If you like smashing and grabbing things, like taking down lots of zombies with guns cop uniforms, like the feeling of crap in your pants when you hear a Cloaker flying across the room, and don't mind a bit of grinding as you schedule weekly appointments to smash down a mall's windows, then yes, Payday is a great game. Friends not included, sadly. This isn't even mentioning the various overhauls since the incidents above, such as the new Safe House with daily raids, and revamped mod support with auto-update capabilities. PAYDAY is back!

Wasted Potential

By Nvlddmkm.sys

I've been playing this game since its beta, back then, the game used to have a lot of potential, It was a game I was excited for back in 2013.
When Payday 2 was finally released, it was a broken, unpolished piece of software, the base content was alarmingly low and some of features announced before its release were nowhere to be found. However, the gunplay was a blast and the addition of skilltrees, mask/weapon customization and the card drop system kept the game interesting despite its lack of levels.
At this date, the base game offers an acceptable amount of content for its price but still remain broken and unpolished.

I would actually recommend the game if it wasn't for Overkill's behavior these past years.

Of course there are the sheer amount overpriced DLCs and the microtransactions but that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Back in 2014, Overkill hosted the first community event known as the Crimefest, where the community could be awarded free stuff by joining the community group.
Reaching 3 millions members would unlock a the last reward which was a secret at the time. Unsurprisingly, the community thought that this last secret reward was going to be something awesome, so they started to gather everyone they could in order to reach that 3 Millions member mark.
And then Overkill ruined everything when they revealed that the secret reward was the fact that they were going to use those 3 Millions of people to advertise a movie and later on the AlienWare Alpha and their own VR Googles and if you leave the group to avoid that kind of advertisement, you can kiss all the the free content released after the event goodbye.
Not to mention some of the rewards unlocked were post-poned and released roughly one year later during the second Crimefest.

A couple of month after that event, Overkill released 2 DLCs on the same day which started the trend of putting 2 DLCs on the storefront instead of regrouping all the extra content they made for Payday 2 into one single DLC in an attempt to squeeze as much money as they can from their playerbase.

Then we got the second community event : The Hypetrain which is a Crimefest where the "free" rewards are unlocked with a set amount of hypefuel that can only be obtained by buying DLCs on the store. Two DLCs were introduced : The Overkill Pack and the Completely Overkill pack which were not related in any way as their name would suggest (The first being a simple weapon pack and the later being a 25$ "support" with 4 masks and a weapon skin "crafted with love and care [...] A true Payday collectible").
I suppose Overkill thought it would be hilarious to confuse everyone.

But this wasn't enough for Overkill, all the money they were already making wasn't even close to enough.
Fast foward to the Road to Crimefest ; the third community event, Overkill came up with the neat idea of giving the community actual in-game challenges that would unlock the rewards upon completion. Once again, the community worked hard to overcome all the challenges and managed to unlock the final reward.
And then Overkill once again ruined everything when they revealed that the final reward was in fact a microtransactions system à la CS:GO.
"But it is not that bad because CS:GO and TF2 does the same thing and get away with it... Right?"
Well, not really, TF2 is a Free-to-play where that kind of business model is expected while CS:GO may be a pay-to-play game but is updated on a regular basis and all the content added to the game beside weapon skins is free of charge.

Meanwhile Payday 2 is not free-to-play, has those kind of microtransactions, is updated on a regular basis but the content added to the game may be paid DLCs. The microtransactions are there just to, again, squeeze as much money from the playerbase rather than support the developement of the game itself.

I cannot think about this game without having a bitter taste in my mouth, Payday 2 could have been something much greater than a money extracting billboard meme-shooter if it wasn't for Overkill greed.

The game is still great but Overkill is ruining it. Since all the money they are already making through microtransactions and DLC sales will never be enough, they will probably come up with something even more disgusting than the introduction of microtransactions in the future.

Broken Promises

By yes

The game was good, but not anymore. Overkill have shown great innovation in how to mess up a great game. I've played the game for nearly 1,000 hours, so I'm not someone just blindly hating, nor do I take any pleasure in giving, what used to be, my favourite game a negative review.
-They fill it with advertisements, essentially turning it into a massive billboard and showing they have no care for the game itself, just the money it generates.
A John Wick playable character
Two Hotline Miami cross-promotions
A illogical heist based around a no name DJ with his face plastered throughout it and you are forced to listen to his music. The worst part? This advertisement costs $7USD
An Alienware promotion that was 2 masks and 1 melee which was built up for 3 days and the masks are only for people that own an Alienware Alpha, a $500 console
A Speedrunners crosspromotion requiring you to own Speedrunners which took up a day during an event which was supposed to be full of free content
A mask to advertise a VR which Starbreeze had invested money into
A 30 day countdown which ended on Payday 2's 1 year anniversary, which was filled with references to characters and locations in the game's universe, to advertise a new game they would be developing
A melee weapon from The Walking Dead
-They promise a lot of content, some which was paid for, some which was earned through community accomplishments and some which was supposed to be free, yet they don't release any of it and constantly delay it whilst they release a large amount of DLC in between.
Safehouse customisation was supposed to be a feature since the start of the game and was used as part of the game's advertisement, has still not been released almost 2 years later and shows no sign of it being released, they recently claimed they don't even know what it will be
An event which required the community to reach certain amount of members before October 2014 in order to unlock content has had much of it's content delayed including; FBI files, which have been delayed until at least 2016 and they have claimed to not know what it will be and a new enemy type, which is in the same situation as FBI files.
The Completely Overkill pack was a $20 pack which was available for only a month and limited to 50,000 copies. It contained 4 masks, a secret item to be released at a later date and was supposed to be for Overkill's biggest supporters and they claimed it was not supposed to be a donation at all, they even passive-aggressively commented upon those who didn't buy it. After the pack was no longer refundable, they then announced that the secret item would actually be 25, but purchasers would only be able to obtain 1 out of those 25 items. It's now 4 months later and Overkill have insisted on keeping their biggest supporters in the dark, the only information they have given about these 25 items is that it is a part of a larger project and has no ETA at all
The infamy update, which was released in January 2014, was released unfinished. They delayed the remainder of it for over a year, despite it being the most requested update by the community, while releasing SIXTEEN paid DLCs in between. The reason for it being delayed for so long is because they wanted to make it as awesome as possible, but evidently that was not what happened. The update consisted of 8 masks and that's all.
The Golden Grin Casino heist was promised to be released by the end of 2014, but they delayed it. It's now being released nearly 7 months later after being palmed off to another company, though at least since they sent it off to another company, it will have less of a chance of being a bad heist. Since the Casino was announced, they have released a large amount of other updates.
There were supposed to be balancing for the new Swat Van Enemy, this was promised 3 months ago and there has been absolutely no indication of there being any changes.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWxoD7SeYABgASkc7116I8CF4wgrjdGOr1vpdV3g1T8CQEFzQ_TA

Pros and Cons

By Fidanza

CONS:
-After crimefest 2015 Overkill has added microtransactions into the game and completely ruined the playerbase with Crates, Skins and a bunch of other crap. The game is now completely Pay2Win and none of the 'Free' fun is in it.
And paid skins actually give you an advantage. yay.
Not to mention 2 years ago they promised to never ever add microtransactions and then hoped people would forget a few years later and back stab them. shame on you overkill!

-Short repetitive maps with small objectives, most maps are just drilling, getting cash and going to the escape zone.
Only a few maps are low with lots of objectives and loud action such as Hotline Miami, but those aren't a lot of maps.
Most maps are just small with not many verities, most missions require you to camp at a small place and fight through waves of cops. compared to PAYDAY: The Heist where everything is open with lots of objectives and places to look through.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtmCiKdxOEM5zIQ7e3TVBSZ_-Cb35u-ow9xmP7Nx3SuitVesuL
-A 2 years old game that hasn't been optimized since the release, the players have to trust and struggle with mods in order to get a playable FPS in game.
And of course the latest maps they released, received a crap ton of complains about low FPS because the maps are so huge and their game is so poorly optimized.

-The textures are so rubbish that modders have to make HD mods so you could enjoy something rather than 1024 textures of your character model or NPC's dropped weapons (etc)
Sometimes i stand in a corner and see pixels on the floor trying to look like a pepsi can and other trash.

-AI is literally useless in this game, all they do is follow you and help you up.
Nothing else, absolutely nothing. so Multiplayer co-op is the main focus of this game, offline isn't as enjoyable as online.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfhd-tmW9nYJhtpnqacr7w7fgqKl8XHLB72xoK4sRuGd_6XPs6
-Apparently DLC releases are more important than bug fixes
The game has a shit ton of bugs that haven't been fixed since the release.

-If you want to actually enjoy the game and advance most your weapons to be Death Wish compatible you will need to purchase a few of the DLCs, or else its nearly impossible for a beginner.
If you don't pay, you are simply underpowered. Thank god there's no PvP.
Although its nice that paying for DLC isnt a must to play a certain map.
(Seriously RPG, Nade launchers and Flame throwers are great)

-A community based off most players farming their infamy ranks on SR or HB and considering themselves pros and kicking everyone under the level Infamy 5 from their lobbies and considering themselves as Godlike heisters.
No one actually cares about the heist plan, your role or the in game objectives.
All they care is that medic or ammo bag you bring to the heist to supply them.

-Over 2 years old free promised content hasn't been released until this very day.

-Most lobbies are too mainstream that its simply hard to find something different these days, like a loud Bank Heist or a Heli escape on Big Bank (you get the point).

-Developers listen to the community yet they are too bitchy to invest in a Workshop or a proper freaking in game AntiCheat.

-Infamy ranks are not as satisfying as you might think, they're actually easy to grind and a shit that isn't rewarding.

PROS:
+Cheap DLCs (recently also got a price drop)
+Monthly updates (DLC fun)
+Not a lot but enough free content from time to time to keep the Helmets Flying
+Mod support but they won't bother investing a workshop so we stop paying for sites to save mods
+4 and maybe more years of in game content support (2 more years of dlc and free content)
+A somewhat "Okay" plot in the background of the PAYDAY gang and Hoxton's betrayal.
+Wide variety of weapons, masks, modifications and so on.
+A somewhat balanced skills and perks system yet still buggy at some points.

I wrote a lot larger review than this but steam didn't let me post this because i wrote too much.
Anyways, i will clearly keep playing this game. i don't dislike it but i experienced and saw way too much in game to know that this game isn't something a new player would enjoy.
I would personally uninstall and ask for a refund if i tried to join lobbies 10 times in a row and some infamy trashy decides to kick me instead of giving me tips or helping me out.

Also, this is not a DLC complain post, i own them all and will probably own future ones as well.
No flame no hate, i love Almir and the other developers but you can't force the whole community to behave and stop being as cocky as Hoxton is to Houston.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRLUXFwKVq4tAa1NNtppkxTkv5yt-TuvOAbfqtWY53pIpQ_x9TGMw

Final Verdict:

80/100

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTNi0qbFXpp36niwh0uZTTSlwVuxr-Eo8rhZ33OwBQciBY2gfcw

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