I have put more hours into this game than any other game than I'd like to admit, and within all that time... I love this game but damn it has some serious problems that I need to address that make me struggle to play this game without friends of mine.

Pros first, cons second, any mixed things third, and my final thoughts last lets go!

Pros:

Builds:
This game has a plethora of builds to offer to players, veterans or newcomers aside. Close range builds, long range builds, single-target melting, crowd control centered, extremely tanky less mobile builds, less tanky speed builds.. you get the idea. If you've ever played a shooter before there is almost guaranteed to be a build in this game that fits you. Which is part of the problem at the same time, which I'll cover more in my cons of the game.

Gameplay:
In terms of FPS games these days, Payday is most certainly one of the more unique ones that certain other games I've played have tried to imitate by trying to do too much at once and not having it work too well. A bank robbery and one-way-ticket capital crime simulator? Without consequence? It's awesome! Mowing down cop after cop and getting out whatever anti-social needs one may require without having to resort to actual violence? All kidding aside, this game is a very intense, engaging and difficult (depending on difficulty of course) FPS that I still mostly love playing years after I started. On top of that, all the specials in this game sans the Cloaker are definitely what a game like this needs to make it not so repetitive. A tanky boss cop who needs major attention in order to die? But wait! There is a medic right next to him so if you focus on the Bulldozer the medic will just heal him right back to full health negating your efforts! Something along those lines.

Tactics:
In conjunction to playing loud, who expected a bank robbery simulator to have a stealth tactic to it? Not having to mow down wave after wave of cops and carefully planning and executing your mission without setting off the alarm is an amazing idea that was grealty improved in this iteration of the franchise. However, as much as love stealth some NEW things have caused me some serious problems that I cannot stand which make me want to rage quit completely when Overkill doesn't fix the game's problems and decides that new content is the best idea.

Stealth:
This was my second biggest issue with the game but easily the longest lasting. Stealth used to have a glitch where enemies could detect a fellow enemy dying from a floor or two about for no real reason, but it seems Overkill has finally fixed that. I'll get more into Overkill later... I could also get into all the problems that specific stealth missions in Payday has, but overall, stealth has been a roller coaster of either amazing experiences or painful desync that causes you fail repeatedly. It's finally on the positive side for me with regards to this game.

That's all for my pros, now to nitty of the gritty.

Cons:

Free Access/Community
Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for games being available for free during certain times of the year. People who don't have the means of income to purchase the massive amount of DLC this game possesses for some variety should have a way to access the game itself without burdening their profit. I however cannot STAND when newer players attempt to join games on the hardest difficulty without even having played on it beforehand. I have 1200 hours in this game, I don't even join Death Sentence games at random because I know I'm gonna get rekt if I'm not in the right mindset. I can't imagine a lvl 50 non-infamy attempting that. I can tell overkill already made some effort into limiting what lower level players can purchase and play because I have reset my progress to get to infamy 25 again and the first few games you play unless you do them alone are nothing but a kick-fest and a ♥♥♥♥ talking-fest about how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ a player you are or how much of a scrub you can be. Give new players a tutorial mode in normal games up until either lvl 75 or something or maybe even infamy lvl 1. That way they KNOW what they need to know in order to succeed and not get kicked or talked down to right away. I'm guilty of the kicking myself but if someone is getting downed immediately after being revived I'd like to complete the heist at some point. Call me selfish or whatever but know your limits. I know mine and I don't join Death Sentence OD every game I can cuz I know I don't have the patience or really skill to handle it.

Gameplay:
Remember when I said that there are a plethora of builds to choose from? There are!... but only about roughly 5-10 of the ones I've used or come up with are viable past Mayhem difficulty where you get some serious money and experience. That may just be my lack of experience in buildmaking, if so, go online and you can find a load of builds to choose from, many of which use probably 5 different perk decks. Unless you play those builds or are a GOD at a decent build for Mayhem, expect a ton of problems on harder difficulties. Also, a shooter game will usually have cover right? Heh... yeah no. I can name several heists in this game with a gross lack of cover or none at all for that matter; Goat Sim, Green Bridge, Henry's Rock, The Bomb: Forest, Big Oil Day 2 specifically. These jobs are INSANE on the highest difficulty and literally the only reasons I haven't attempted to grind for the DS or OD mask in this game.

Overkill/Overall Thoughts
Ironic how the biggest issue I have with the game itself is the developers. Funny how that works. Let's start with my favorite thing of recent days; aesthetic changes! It wouldn't a gaming studio that changes completely unnecessary things while adding a ton of new bugs to it in the vein of Rockstar. To quote a good friend of mine, "one thing is fixed and breaks 10 new things". Why? Why the visual update when there are things that CLEARLY need to be fixed; Also, I could devote an entire review to Scarface Mansion and all the problems it has I'm just gonna say one thing; Remove. Gangster. Enemies. Absurdly tanky and ridiculously hard-hitting these enemies serve no purpose aside from spiking the blood pressure of players when their tanky-as-all-hell build is ripped apart like tinfoil when these bastards pull out a freakin' popgun against them. FIX IT. As well as Cloaker hitboxes being the size of a map itself, adjusting some perk decks to make them more useful in more than just Overkill difficulty, and changing the leveling system to aid and compliment those who are new to the game.

Overall this game is broken as hell. Everything is buggy, the enemies, while well varied and mostly fairly balanced, have some insanely overpowered variants that make playing the game a complete chore, some changes of the game itself for newer players wouldn't be a problem yet it may cause 10 new bugs in the game itself, lovely Overkill themselves, adjusting completely unnecessary things and causing nothing but new problems as a result, and not address long-standing issues that I hear so many players complain about.... I can barely recommend this game today. I can't lie, in my situation the time and money I've invested in it, I almost feel trapped and obligated to play it to get my money's worth. But if you a chance to get it on sale and have a reliable group of friends to play with, definitely check it out, but expect it to broken as can be.

C+ grade.