Recent reviews by Leblanc

What was once a lighthearted, fast paced, small scale arena shooter during the two betas I played turned into a power-creeping grindfest upon release thanks to the inclusion of Card/Player Levels, Quests, and Anti-Fun Cards that were not present in Betas, and thus untested until now.

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The card leveling and daily/weekly quests were only included to pad out game content than add to the core arena shooter gameplay that was initially presented. Random card drops and levels take the bad aspects of a physical card game that promotes gambling instead of thoughtful deck construction and shoehorn it into an arena shooting experience without complimenting each other.

Card levels were not present in any of the betas, and thus were not tested in implementation before release.
Card levels increase the effectiveness of that card to a max level, thus punishing new players that play against players that have spent more time grinding cards for statistical advantages.

Character levels gatekeep access to characters and serve as another treadmill to grind for dripfeed rewards.

This XP and Money system encourages players to throw matches for the fastest gains possible and does not encourage people to play the game normally.

My time was mostly spent helping friends with ridiculous daily and weekly goals by intentional suicide to increase the rate of rewards instead of playing full matches. This method also helps clear quests the devs did not spend any time playtesting beforehand. (Win 8 2v2 games with strangers for a daily for the same reward as Play A Card in a match? Really?)

Anti-Fun cards are strictly more powerful than other cards and leave little room for counterplay by the opponent besides drawing a particular card. Examples include Vampire Bullets (Lifesteal on bullet damage), Mirror Card (Copy a played card), Health Down (Permanent max health decrease for the round), and No Jump (No jumping for an average of 40 seconds). These cards can fit into any deck and you will see them in any deck, and you are at a disadvantage if you do not have these cards in your deck. They are boring but effective, which make great cards for a traditional tabletop game but frustrating as arena shooter cards.

I want this game to succeed, but I fear these core issues of padding out content to buy themselves time will eventually bite them back with frustrated new players who can't keep up with people who know how to grind and get gamebreaking cards that will leave newcomers questioning why they should be fighting their friends in the first place.

This game is the epitome of Style over Substance, and I hope they add more substance to the arena shooter core than taking the style of another manipulative card game.

A great game that fills the nicle of a card game you can play with your friends.

Wait for a sale for DLC packs, they might even wait until the middle of the sale period to actually go on sale.

THEY KEEP ADDING MORE ANIMLSSSS

A solid action FPS with rogue-like mechanics to help keep repeat replays fresh, especially with friends. Even as an early access game, it shows great potential at a reasonable price, with enough content to keep you going for dozens of hours to get every extra gun or power-up. The game starts off difficult with the lack of options available, but gradually gets easier as more weapons and abilities unlock to make future runs all the easier. Half of the fun is approaching that point where Nightmare runs are a walk in the park compared to your very first runs. A solid game all around.

EDIT: Still fun after 150+ hours.

Good game, not bad

Saying anything bad about this game will put you into Underjail.

Now that this game is a complete, whole package with tons of content that doesn't involve replaying the same three maps infinite times that can last you and your friends countless hours of playtime, I can safely recommend this game. I'm leaving my old review for rememberace's sake, in hopes a launch like this doesn't happen again.


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DON'T BUY. JUST PLAY THE DEMO A FEW DOZEN TIMES.

That will give you the entirety of the Payday 2 experience without wasting your money.

On the surface, this game looks well enough. The environment, people, and guns look (and sound) realistic enough and playing with friends gives an interesting experience in cooperation that's reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, but beyond that the actual gameplay mechanics, lack of scenarios, and level up/loot treadmill makes this game a repetitive chore after you've played through all the maps the first few times.

The missions themselves and the progression mechanics in this game are only there to waste your time. You will end up playing the same two or three unimaginative maps which involve holding out for 15 minutes until you can grab the McGuffin and beat the stage. Even then, you may randomly encounter an in-between timewaster escape mission which provides no extra reward and is just there to make sure you don't collect your payday too quickly. At each Payday, you also get a chance of a random weapon mod, mask, mask pattern, mask color, or money boost. This means if you want to get a mod for a certain gun, you need to play missions over and over until, BY CHANCE, you get the modification you desire in this completely arbitrary loot system. Even leveling up is set with road blocks, as you can't even place skill points without using your payday money. On top of having to buy expensive guns, with expensive mods with completely inflated prices, it all presents itself as a complete grind for no other reason than to slow your progression and distract you from the fact there is no extra, interesting game content past level 20. The missions play mostly the same, whether you're level 1 or 100, and the journey in between is complete filler.

TL;DR The game itself is incomplete and is just a skinnerbox for levels and gun mods. While the guns look and sound nice and on the surface it seems like a neat concept they only planned out enough maps to be interesting to about level 20 or so then you'll just be repeating the same Rats map ad infinite for MAYBE the chance to get that upgrade for that gun you want.

Also compared to Payday 1, the missions to do are so bland and boring it makes you wonder why the payday gang got together again after airlifting whole safe rooms or releasing the Left4Dead virus to rob a corner grocery eight billion times.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. DO NOT SUPPORT DEVS THAT SHIP INCOMPLETE GAMES.