Writing this at 2k+ hours into the game. I don’t even know where to start lol. This game had many changes and some were good and some were bad. I like to start with the upside and what exactly this game is. Co-op game you play it with 3 other players or solo with bots. You basically rob banks, gangs and whatever you can lay your hands on, even NUKES!. you have a WIDE range of weapons and customizations you can pick from. Skill trees and perks you can pick from to suit your play style unless you play on Deathwish or Death Sentence difficulty, you’ll then be limited to few weapons and skills to complete the heist. Stealth or loud whichever tactic is valid. Though, some maps are restricted to one tactic. And yes! There are many maps. I love this game because you can work with other teammates to complete objectives earn money, XP and other rewards and grind through the levels. You can have skins and stat boost to buy from the market or get them as you play the game. The modding community has many stuff and you can install them should you want your game to look different or whatever the reason might be.

Downsides and some notes (remember these are my opinions and I can be wrong too) :

*This game has god knows how many DLCs I’m not even gonna count. Pay2win? Yeah, can be. That being said, you can still play the game without the need of any DLC and on any difficulty. There are many threads about non-DLC builds in community groups not to mention YouTube. If you, however, like to to have everything then grab Payday 2 GOTY edition on a sale. that’s the best option.

*Some map objectives can be repetitive like drilling doors or bagging money. Yet there are other unique objectives too like jumping from an airplane or driving cars, boats and forklifts. Actually one boat xD

*In-game crashes happens very often and I had my share of mental illnesses because of that. Optimization?

*I’m not gonna list every single bug in the game but there are many. ranging from interacting through walls and getting knocked down by enemy cloaker who charges at you through a wall. The game is built on Diesel engine; not as cutting-edge as other engines out there.

*getting kicked from lobbies is a normal thing for whatever reason. Can be that you’re newborn baby who joined a lobby full of heisting legends, having an opinion contest with the host, making mistakes throughout the game intentionally or unintentionally, or whatever reason. My advice is to play with friends.

*following up with the previous point, playing stealth in public lobbies can be frustrating with high ping players since guards and cameras are host-sided so don’t be surprised if you get spotted behind cover.

This a brief review, hopefully I’ve covered the majority as I don’t want to write a novel of the little details. happy heisting :D