Check back in like 5 years

Diabolical ♥♥♥♥, wish I could refund this garbage.

The foundation of the game is corrupted, and no amount of "operation medic bag strike team" can fix it. An overhaul of the entire game's systems is needed

Armor has been ruined. Payday: The Heist had default intrinsic depth with it's armor system. You had to treat your armor as your health, and your health as allowances. If you wanted to reposition, revive or do the objective, you would have to spend health to do these things, though with skillful play and playing around your armor, you could mitigate or outright remove the health cost. In Payday 3, armor just exists as a damage sponge in a game with hitscan ai, and when you run out, you almost instantly die. Yes this is intentional, but all this adds up to is making the game lame to play, and makes the entire experience dull and boring. This of course means that the only deployable worth taking is the armor bag, and if you don't bring it, you're throwing. Adaptive armor attempts to rectify this, but it behaves like regular armor with chunks, and cops still aren't fun to fight. With upcoming changes with shots piercing your armor, doing both armor and health damage, the game feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ soulless.

The ui and hud are absolutely awful, and literally take after call of duty, which already has serious ui issues. The beta had a better hud, and it was just the current release but curved! On top of everything being ugly, you can't even see what your teammates are bringing ingame.

Progression sucks and is very slow. Weapon leveling is a thing, and while it could've been good, it then looked to call of duty AGAIN and locks things that could make weapons usable behind weapon level requirements. The currency of the game is terrible. In this heisting game, there is almost nothing you can buy with money you steal.

Music is mostly a step down, with the exception of the big bank knockoff heist track, and we can't choose tracks for heists.

The ONLY positives in this game: Joy isn't annoying and has better characterization, the movement and potential gameplay COULD feel good, and gold sharke's music is genuinely amazing

I am appalled at this abhorrent mess of a game. This game is marked by developers who wanted to leave their mark in a game, and somehow became so lazy that basic design concepts swept past them. Not only is current Payday 2 awful, but years have been spent developing Payday 3 and it is not even a shell, it's a blueprint that got ♥♥♥♥ on because Starbreeze likes to smell their farts a little too much. Almost an entire year has passed since release, and basic QoL is STILL not ingame. For MONTHS there wasn't even an unready button. I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I hate this game, and it is literally impossible for them to come back from a 200-500 play avg on steam at this point. They did more than ♥♥♥♥ up, and they plan to develop 2 more live service games by 2028. I hope Starbreeze finally dies, because after multiple failed games they have proved their incompetence time and time again, and at some point you cannot blame a publisher anymore, developers have gotten increasingly lazy and apathetic.

Anyway, go play Payday: The Heist. Much better game and very in-depth despite it's simplistic exterior, allowing for complete skill expression and fantastic gameplay.