After playing for the first 20-30 hours, I quickly realized that Payday 2 would become one of my favourite games. After playing for +730 hours I now have a clear picture of what this game is all about. Payday 2 is much more than just robbing banks or doing random heist (although it can be if you wish), there is lots of strategy and skill involved. It's not your everyday FPS title. The game goes really deep, especially if you choose to, and are willing to, sink a good amount of hours into it.

There is a good progression system that grants you EXP after completing a heist. Gain enough and you get a skill point, which you can use to level up in one or more skill trees. There too many combinations of skills to even be able to figure them all out, but that's what gives it replayability. Furthermore, something very important to any FPS game, the weapons. Tons of weapons, most of which are bought through a DLC. Each weapon feels unique, with different reload speed, damage, accuracy, stability, recoil, etc. Lots of modifications that you can do to your weapons, provided you get DLCs though. Another great thing is that you have the option to figure out how to go about doing a heist. Most of them you can do by being stealthy or, if you so desire, to go loud with guns blazing. There are also many different ways that you can go about to succeed in the heists with either stealth or loud. There are also random events during the heists that keep the game fresh and can sometimes leave you to scrap your plan and improvise a new one alltogether. A difficulty option for the heists is also present, with 'Normal' being the easiest difficulty, followed by 'Hard', then 'Very Hard', 'Overkill', and last but deffiniteley not least, 'Deathwish', for the craziest of players. There is also character customization in the form of masks. Meaning you can unlock and customize a mask to your liking.

All of that being said though, the game does have it's not so good sides. For one, Payday 2 is pretty DLC intensive. Meaning that if you want to keep the game fresh, then buying a few DLCs is almost a neccessity. As many other games, Payday 2 has its fair share of bugs and glitches, although the support for the game is fantastic. Something else to note is that the game does have a really big learning curve, evidently making it hard to get into the game initally (it's recommended that a friend helps you out with finding out how everything works and how it affects the game). To fully get a grasp of how to do things right you need at least a good 30-40 hours (if not more) of free time to sink into Payday 2.

All things considered though, Payday 2 is a wonderful game with more then enough replayability, provided that you get a few DLCs to go along with the game (It's also worth mentioning that all DLCs have had a permanent reduction in cost, making it much easier to contiue playing and keeping things fresh). The developers at Overkill Studios have also been paying lots of attention to the community and have regularly been releasing patches to the game, as well as listening to feedback from the community, to ensure each next thing that they come up with is not just some gimmick but something that is truely worth spending time on.

Payday 2 is a game that I would strongly recommend to anybody, as long as said person is willing to sink in a good amount of playtime into the game. If I had to give a score, I would give it an 8.5 or 9/10. It's an amazing game, however it still struggles from its apparent flaws. If you are on the fence of whether or not to get this game, I'd say go for it.

After playing for the first 20-30 hours, I quickly realized that Payday 2 would become one of my favourite games. After playing for +730 hours I now have a clear picture of what this game is all about. Payday 2 is much more than just robbing banks or doing random heist (although it can be if you wish), there is lots of strategy and skill involved. It's not your everyday FPS title. The game goes really deep, especially if you choose to, and are willing to, sink a good amount of hours into it. There is a good progression system that grants you EXP after completing a heist. Gain enough and you get a skill point, which you can use to level up in one or more skill trees. There too many combinations of skills to even be able to figure them all out, but that's what gives it replayability. Furthermore, something very important to any FPS game, the weapons. Tons of weapons, most of which are bought through a DLC. Each weapon feels unique, with different reload speed, damage, accuracy, stability, recoil, etc. Lots of modifications that you can do to your weapons, provided you get DLCs though. Another great thing is that you have the option to figure out how to go about doing a heist. Most of them you can do by being stealthy or, if you so desire, to go loud with guns blazing. There are also many different ways that you can go about to succeed in the heists with either stealth or loud. There are also random events during the heists that keep the game fresh and can sometimes leave you to scrap your plan and improvise a new one alltogether. A difficulty option for the heists is also present, with 'Normal' being the easiest difficulty, followed by 'Hard', then 'Very Hard', 'Overkill', and last but deffiniteley not least, 'Deathwish', for the craziest of players. There is also character customization in the form of masks. Meaning you can unlock and customize a mask to your liking. All of that being said though, the game does have it's not so good sides. For one, Payday 2 is pretty DLC intensive. Meaning that if you want to keep the game fresh, then buying a few DLCs is almost a neccessity. As many other games, Payday 2 has its fair share of bugs and glitches, although the support for the game is fantastic. Something else to note is that the game does have a really big learning curve, evidently making it hard to get into the game initally (it's recommended that a friend helps you out with finding out how everything works and how it affects the game). To fully get a grasp of how to do things right you need at least a good 30-40 hours (if not more) of free time to sink into Payday 2. All things considered though, Payday 2 is a wonderful game with more then enough replayability, provided that you get a few DLCs to go along with the game (It's also worth mentioning that all DLCs have had a permanent reduction in cost, making it much easier to contiue playing and keeping things fresh). The developers at Overkill Studios have also been paying lots of attention to the community and have regularly been releasing patches to the game, as well as listening to feedback from the community, to ensure each next thing that they come up with is not just some gimmick but something that is truely worth spending time on. Payday 2 is a game that I would strongly recommend to anybody, as long as said person is willing to sink in a good amount of playtime into the game. If I had to give a score, I would give it an 8.5 or 9/10. It's an amazing game, however it still struggles from its apparent flaws. If you are on the fence of whether or not to get this game, I'd say go for it.