Recent reviews by Sutekh94

10/10, would let Monica stomp all over me again.

"When PayDay 2 launched, it had a business model I lauded, quite famously. To see it piss customers off with each update is a total letdown." --Jim Sterling, https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/654811257896218624

Having played this for about a year, I can agree with this. Not because Jim F***ing Sterling, Son said it, but because I do remember a time when this game was actually good. Before we had a million heisters (okay, 13, counting the Australian heister OVERKILL was teasing a while back). Before we had tons of weapon pack DLCs ranging from medieval weapons to ninja gear. Before shotguns became useless. And, most importantly, before bloody microtransactions. Because that's what we need in a game like this, right?

Not only are microtransactions a blatant lie and a spit in the combined faces of the entire community, they come in the same style as TF2 or CS:GO - in other words, random case drops that, when unlocked, reveal weapon skins. The big difference: the skins in this game boost certain stats. Essentially, OVERKILL added a bit of a pay-to-win model to the game. The promised weapon rebalance arguably unbalanced weapons even more than they were beforehand. Statistically, pistols are doing exactly the same amount of damage than shotguns, if not a greater amount of damage.

All this coming from a game that already had a bit of hate going towards it due to the crazy amount of DLCs, several of which contained weapons that some might argue are necessary in order to be good. To be honest, I've bought just about every single DLC that this game has (when they were on sale, of course) because I supported the game and the company that made it. And, let's face it, cutting a cloaker in half with a katana is so satisfying. Today, that perception has changed. I'm not so sure if I want to support this company anymore. As I've already mentioned, this company has lied about not including microtransactions in this game. Not only that, but they provided the biggest slap in the face to this game's community.

In the leadup to this year's Crimefest event, the community completed a series of challenges to unlock rewards during Crimefest itself, one of which was getting 30,000 people playing the game at once. The first unlocked reward? Microtransactions and P2W elements, as well as the announcement that the game was going to be F2P for a little while. This has alienated a few people into believing that PAYDAY 2 is going to become F2P forever, much like TF2 became a while back. I seriously hope OVERKILL does not go down this route, because there is going to be Hell spreading in all directions if they do decide to make the game F2P forever, as well as OVERKILL having a reputation worse than Konami.

Instead, I hope OVERKILL backtracks on some of the decisions they made with this update. Remove the stat boosts on the weapon skins. Make keys (drills) a rare drop or a reward for completing side jobs. Maybe even back out of the update entirely. In fact, backing out of the update entirely would be the best option. Somehow, I doubt they'll do this, but who knows? OVERKILL listened when the community complained about the Twitter challenges in the leadup to this year's Crimefest. Again, I do hope they'll listen to the community and make some changes.

In the meantime, however, I can't recommend the game in its current state. It's just not worth it. It actually saddens me a bit to post this. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

EDIT 10/21/2015: So, one of the latest updates (namely, adding PAYDAY: The Heist's First World Bank heist into this game) made drills a rare card drop. While this is a step in the right direction, I still can't recommend this game at least until OVERKILL comes up with a proper response to, well, blatantly lying about not having microtransactions, as well as the ugly weapon rebalance and the other insane things they've done so far this Crimefest. Supposedly, we're going to be getting this after Crimefest ends.

At least I've got other games to focus on whilst waiting for OVERKILL to do something. Speaking of waiting, anybody else hyped for Them's Fightin' Herds?

After finally beating the final floor boss for the first time, I can safely say for sure that this is easily among the best games of the past year. When you're not being decimated by killer carrots, you'll quickly realize that the many weapons this game has are really fun to use and kill things with. Nothing's more satisfying than zapping kobolds with a Tesla coil or killing slimes that look more like Pac-Man ghosts with porcupine bombs. Being a rogue-lite, expect just about everything that is just about everything to be randomized, in the style of games like Binding of Issac. It also caters towards fans of oldschool FPSes like DOOM and Heretic, where the only way to win is kill everything in sight and make sure you're still alive at the end. I'd seriously recommend buying it if you're a fan of killing carrots, rogue-lite FPSes, and a tough but fair challenge. If only there was multiplayer...