Recent reviews by STUNTNERD

I pre-ordered this against my own instincts after playing the server-crash beta pre-release because i let the hype overwhelm me; which unfortunately after a couple hours really came back to earth.
First off from a feature standpoint the communication, and the community building capabilities of this game are SEVERELY underwhelming, especially when compared to the previous titles... I could voice chat in BOTH prior games, why can't i in this one?!
Other Unreal engine games have this feature but strangely this was turned off when this game was released.
Hell you can't even text chat while in lobby on release to communicate and coordinate what deployables you were going to bring to the heist.
The gameplay formula is also sort of turned back in time as well, since it feels closer to payday the heist instead of payday2, so in some sense it's a step back, but with all the expanded movement techniques as well as the enhanced stealth abilities sort of make the game a mishmash of both prior titles.

Regardless there is a nugget of a potentially great game in here, it was just shipped underbaked

Probably not the best person's opinion to read on this game but while there is a lot within, this game is the one that made me solidify my understanding that i absolutely hate live-service games...

While the gameplay is solid, there's lots of things you can do with your gear but it's all really sort of niche if you want to plumb it's depths.
Story wise it's kind of a take it or leave it sort of affair i feel due to a lot of subtext being just that; actual text that you read through a series of compendium screens, instead of story being outright presented to the player through their actions or activities.

The game seems to have a central theme of nihilism, unless you're really in the skilled setting of whatever activities your engaging in *the sweat modes if you will* death really has no consequence, and the subtext and the vast majority of the setting and story are really of no consequence either because it's all in lore tables, and not only that most of the gear you acquire through said activities if you're really into min/maxing is trash anyways. Isn't nihilism fun kids?!!

Quite honestly the game that payday3 wishes it could be...
While the gameplay loop is rather simple the procedure generated levels will keep you entertained regardless

While the game is unabashedly fun (when it is) it's also frustrating due to its technical issues as well as it's brutally punishing difficulty.

If you use the voice macros it will cause memory leaks to the point that the menus will become unresponsive and ultimately crash the game, certain specific missions will test your sanity with the way that it seems the people that made them didn't bother play testing them since they are borderline unbeatable in certain group compositions or on solo

I'll give Deadspace3 another try soon, but it crashed last i tried to play it like 5 years ago, i'm on completely different hardware now, but THIS title is a must play, whether you played the first game or not... It not only succeeds as a refinement of the first title but also stands on it's own as a brilliant survival horror title.

While it's completely NOT the same game as Doom 2016, it's still pretty good if you can learn to play the game on it's own terms... it wants you to learn to use all the tools that it gives you to really get good at the game... you can't play nearly as freely as you could in the preceding title, so long as you are cognizant of this you might have some enjoyment... don't try to fight it, if so you'll be only able to succeed at the don't hurt me difficulty

While the game is fun, i wouldn't recommend buying keys for the in game loot boxes, since it's basically gambling; instead of buying even one key you can buy a bunch of cosmetic items on the market for less than 5cents each. Most of the non-deluxe emotes are available for less than $1 each.

the achievements amount to just idling this game...

If you loved the first game this one will astound and dazzle you with even BETTER writing and presentation than the first game. I've only played through a couple of the worlds and the subtext in the writing is absolutely amazing.

Mostly dead game. Not as good as 99 or 2004.