I'm going to preface this by saying this game has insanely anti-consumer business practices and you should not buy it under any circumstances if that's something you care about. The developers have done little to nothing to alleviate the concerns ever since the game first introduced their horrible microtransaction systems, alienating their entire fanbase in the process (EDIT: This has more or less been been improved by Overkill as of May 30th. See bottom of the review). Beyond that a considerable chunk of the game (15gb or so) is locked behind a paywall of 150€, making playing this game without buying ludicrous amounts of stuff crazy repetitive. Not that it isn't repetitive anyway.

Just something to consider.

With that out of the way you might wonder if you should buy it if you don't give a damn about dubious companies and their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ attitudes, you just want to play a co-op shooter with your friends. The answer to that question is still "probably not". These devs can not handle an original IP to save their lives. Here's my reasoning behind that.

Exhibit A)
The game relies heavily on being a grindfest for its replayability, with all of the positive reinforcement coming from unlocking new masks, ranks, achievements and weapons. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing because any meaningful sense of progress a player might've felt before has been removed on account of Overkill not caring enough to ban hackers who unlock everything at the press of a button - after all, hackers still pay Overkill. You might think that it isn't so bad, as hackers can't possibly be all that plentiful. You'd be wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

Exhibit B)
The game features a metric ton of original and good-looking weapons. All around, about five of these are viable alternatives if you don't want to be terrible. Making them assymetrically balanced is just too much work for too little payoff, innit Overkill?

Exhibit C)
The enemy AI is god-awful. I mean that. Instead of improving it to add challenge on the higher difficulties, Payday 2 chooses to stack damage and HP on them like it's christmas, making Death Wish heists a boring drudge instead of a fun challenge if you - god forbid - consider going loud to switch things up.

Exhibit D)
The matchmaking and netcode is terrible. The host has an advantage but the rest of the players are going to get shot when they are technically in cover and other such shenanigans. The matchmaking is unintuitive and slow, making sure that you'll be bored of the game before you've even started playing.

Exhibit E)
It's repetitive. By god is it repetitive. You can read about this in any number of reviews, so I won't go that far into it.

TL;DR
All in all, this game is really, really bad whether you consider how god-awful the DLC and business practices are or not. Stay away from it. If you want a team-based co-op shooter to play with your friends that isn't god-awful, try Borderlands 1 or 2 instead. Just don't expect any amazing writing from either.

In spite of all this, Payday 2 has a bangin' soundtrack. I mean that. Credit's due where credit's due.

EDIT: Well, seems microtransactions have for the morepart been rolled back! Because the rest of my review still applies, I'll keep it to negative. If I could, I'd change it to a "so-and-so" score, but Steam hasn't added that.

This is certainly a great thing. It's always nice to see the good guys win, and Overkill really seem to be promising some improvements. Nice job Overkill, with the free patches in mind my score may change in time!

I'm going to preface this by saying this game has insanely anti-consumer business practices and you should not buy it under any circumstances if that's something you care about. The developers have done little to nothing to alleviate the concerns ever since the game first introduced their horrible microtransaction systems, alienating their entire fanbase in the process (EDIT: This has more or less been been improved by Overkill as of May 30th. See bottom of the review). Beyond that a considerable chunk of the game (15gb or so) is locked behind a paywall of 150€, making playing this game without buying ludicrous amounts of stuff crazy repetitive. Not that it isn't repetitive anyway. Just something to consider. With that out of the way you might wonder if you should buy it if you don't give a damn about dubious companies and their shitty attitudes, you just want to play a co-op shooter with your friends. The answer to that question is still "probably not". These devs can not handle an original IP to save their lives. Here's my reasoning behind that. [b]Exhibit A)[/b] The game relies heavily on being a grindfest for its replayability, with all of the positive reinforcement coming from unlocking new masks, ranks, achievements and weapons. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing because any meaningful sense of progress a player might've felt before has been removed on account of Overkill not caring enough to ban hackers who unlock everything at the press of a button - after all, hackers still pay Overkill. You might think that it isn't so bad, as hackers can't possibly be all that plentiful. You'd be wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. [b]Exhibit B)[/b] The game features a metric ton of original and good-looking weapons. All around, about five of these are viable alternatives if you don't want to be terrible. Making them assymetrically balanced is just too much work for too little payoff, innit Overkill? [b]Exhibit C)[/b] The enemy AI is god-awful. I mean that. Instead of improving it to add challenge on the higher difficulties, Payday 2 chooses to stack damage and HP on them like it's christmas, making Death Wish heists a boring drudge instead of a fun challenge if you - god forbid - consider going loud to switch things up. [b]Exhibit D)[/b] The matchmaking and netcode is terrible. The host has an advantage but the rest of the players are going to get shot when they are technically in cover and other such shenanigans. The matchmaking is unintuitive and slow, making sure that you'll be bored of the game before you've even started playing. [b]Exhibit E)[/b] It's repetitive. By god is it repetitive. You can read about this in any number of reviews, so I won't go that far into it. [b]TL;DR[/b] All in all, this game is really, really bad whether you consider how god-awful the DLC and business practices are or not. Stay away from it. If you want a team-based co-op shooter to play with your friends that isn't god-awful, try Borderlands 1 or 2 instead. Just don't expect any amazing writing from either. In spite of all this, Payday 2 has a bangin' soundtrack. I mean that. Credit's due where credit's due. EDIT: Well, seems microtransactions have for the morepart been rolled back! Because the rest of my review still applies, I'll keep it to negative. If I could, I'd change it to a "so-and-so" score, but Steam hasn't added that. This is certainly a great thing. It's always nice to see the good guys win, and Overkill really seem to be promising some improvements. Nice job Overkill, with the free patches in mind my score may change in time!