Recent reviews by snarleyharley

absolutely fantastic demo, the art and music and general sound design is all fantastic and the microgames scratch my warioware nostalgia in all the right places. endless mode had some very fun tricks and surprises too. loved it, absolutely looking forward to seeing more of the game!

Very good game. Played blind except for looking up one specific instance where I wasn't sure if I was missing a power or just too dumb for a puzzle. I think I missed only one or two collectibles so even on a very thorough first time run it's a pretty short and sweet length that makes me hungry for more.

The incredibly fun movement mechanics keep the typical Metroidvania backtracking between areas from ever getting stale especially as you get more powers, though I personally found a certain dark area really annoying to navigate every time due to its size. I feel like I was discovering more and more tricks with the movement and more ways to quickly, stylishly navigate areas constantly as I played. One of my favorite experiences in the genre is finally getting a power to become able to advance deeper into an area you see early on but can't do much with, and here I feel like you get two big instances of this feeling. You can definitely skip some "essential" upgrades if you get really good with the movement, which is also cool.

Music is excellent, and the game's visual style is very charming and believably nostalgic. The unlockable outfits and their associated time trials are very fun, and the option to switch back to early game appearances without certain visible upgrades is appreciated too. Collectibles and upgrades in general were all pretty fun to seek out, even the obvious ones, and the movement abilities all feel great to use.

My only outstanding point against the game is the combat; it feels like it's kinda just... there. I think there's only 4, maybe 5 rooms all game where you're required to fight something. There aren't very many enemy types either, and only one of them was especially interesting to fight. The one real boss fight in the game is really cool, but I wish it actually used the movement tools that makes the game so fun.

TERRIBLY OUTDATED REVIEW, EDIT 8/24/17 SEE BELOW


----------------------UPDATED AGAIN----------------------

I'm too busy at the moment and also haven't played the game in quite a long while, so I don't think I can really go into much depth here, but Overkill has done a lot of things in the last two years that I can overall say have made up for everything they did. They apologized a whooooole lot, but more importantly they made crates less common but free to open (feeling more like Overwatch's lootboxes rather than TF2's crates). Microtransactions are gone unless you count the option of buying and selling crates, weapon skins, and old keys for the original crates on the Steam Market. While I haven't played the game recently enough to confirm this, I do believe that there are still a number of DLC related balance issues. And yet, the switch to having an Ultimate Edition of the game makes this irrelevant.

I didn't realize my review was still a negative review, so I mostly just came back to fix my recommendation of what is honestly a genuinely fun game. It has its faults and issues and I also don't think they ever went back and optimized many of its fancier heists, but if you and your computer can handle it all then playing Payday 2 is genuinely just a great time, especially since the game's massive collection of former DLC is bundled with the game now for new players.



---HORRIBLY OUTDATED AND ADMITTEDLY SOMEWHAT WHINY ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW---

So let me start this off by saying that I do quite like the game. However, Overkill, the developers, have gone against their past promises (go look up payday 2 microtransactions and you'll find an old article or a few on how they will never add them) and added microtransactions in the style of CSGO and TF2's Gun Mettle update. In other words, you get crates from completing heists, and then you have to buy $2.49 keys to open them. Honestly, I like the concept of weapon skins. I'm a huge sucker for customization. Always have been. However, PAYDAY 2's system has two simple, massive problems:

Some of the skins have stat bonuses.
You can get skins for DLC weapons without owning the appropriate DLC to even use the weapon.

The game already suffered from a massive amount of somewhat pay-to-win DLC items, such as sniper rifles and explosives, and now this update comes along. I could excuse it before from my love of the game, and now... Honestly, I think I'm going to give it until the end of the Crimefest event before I uninstall it permanently. Even if they redeem themselves somehow, I intend on keeping this review as is, as a monument to what they've done, and I don't plan on coming back to the game even if they do redeem themselves either.

Great job, Overkill.

----------------------ALSO OUTDATED EDIT----------------------

So Overkill has tried to redeem themselves by making keys obtainable from the end of heist card drops. While I still don't support the idea of weapon skins with stats, I do appreciate the attempt. I will likely not be supporting the game any further by spending any money on it or future Overkill titles, but I can say that I will at least continue to play it.

I recommend the game only if you don't mind supporting some now rather shady developers. The game is really quite amazing, easily among my favorite shooters of all time, but I strongly advise against picking up the game in any scenario but a massive discount. Give Overkill as little of your money as you can.

You can kill things with a ladle

10/10

I fell about 5 feet and died instantly.

10/10

Rule 1 of Team Fortress 2:

it's not unusual