Recent reviews by Maartonius

Reaching close to the 1000 hrs. on record mark, I felt it was time for me to review one of my favorite games of all time; PAYDAY 2.

PAYDAY 2 is an absolutely amazing co-op FPS game, with a lot to offer for new players and older fans.
The change from PAYDAY: The Heist to PAYDAY 2 is absolutely mindblowing in terms of content, gameplay and what you can do in the game.

For a game that was in released in 2013, and still getting a lot of content updates to this day, you can see all of the hard work they have really put into the game and trying to keep the community happy. Some things have gone wrong in the past, like for example including micro-transactions which were said to never be added to PAYDAY 2 (which were removed not too long after all of the negative feedback). I never minded the whole micro-transactions deal, not that I ever bought them.

Here are my pros and cons of PAYDAY 2:

Pros
+ Fun and thrilling gameplay, you can kick back and just enjoy shooting hordes of cops.
+ AMAZING soundtrack composed mainly by Simon Viklund & more, I never get tired of the huge music selection in the game.
+ The graphics in this game still look amazing, and with every new heist and heist they just seem to improve to push the engine to it's limits.
+ Four player co-op play, so you and three heisters can cooperate in planning and executing heists, big or small.
+ The Stealth in this game, although not good to many people, I heavily enjoy. It has it's flaws from time to time, but I absolutely love it in this game.
+ A whole lot of customization options, skill builds, modding weapons, customizing masks, and with the newer updates, even being able to change your heister's outfit
+ The gunplay in the game is very good, most if not all weapons feel unique and very fun to play with, with so many choices to mix and match to your liking.
+ A huge amount of heists to play, and with each playthrough of the heist things will be randomized so that it's not the same mission every time.
+ If you don't own a mission DLC, but you want to play it, as long as one of your friends or the host of the lobby owns the DLC, you are able to play it without having to purchase it!

Cons:
- For a beginning player, the overwhelming amount of DLC can be quite a scare. It is plain to see that this game has a lot of DLC (which I find all of them to be worth it), but it can be very overwhelming for new players.
- In my opinion, some of the highest difficulty settings are not very fun to play. This could just be a case of "git gud", but I have yet to try them out decently. Having to make difficulty specific builds to be able to play them is what turns me off from trying them completely.
- Online lobbies can be quite troublesome, ranging from the people who randomly kick you, or sometimes a hacker or two. (The hacking problem has been HEAVILY fixed since back in the day, but they pop up occasionally.)
- The "bag throwing simulator" jokes become very apparent when playing a heist where you are required to secure a whole lot of loot bags. I never really hated it, but a lot of people I know do.
- The game's engine (Diesel Engine, I believe) is quite outdated, but the game is still perfectly playable.
- The EXP grind can sometimes be very boring, once you go "Infamous" (The game's prestige system), getting up to level 80 or so is not that bothersome, but it's those last 20 or so levels which are really grindy.

Overall, I absolutely love this game, and I am excited for what PAYDAY 3 will bring when that comes to the table.
If you like co-op shooter games, buy yourself and a couple of friends some copies of the game, and get those helmets flying!

My Rating:
9/10 - Excellent.