Recent reviews by caine

Having owned the game since launch, I've always liked the game. I recognized the problems (and was especially frustrated with being unable to play) but having been a PAYDAY fan since 2016 I knew Starbreeze was capable of turning it around.

Here we are, a year later and I've gotten back into the game, bought the DLC and have been having a lot of fun with it again. The perk system is pretty simple at first, but allows for some fun chaining together of refreshes that can really change the way you play just to keep your buffs going.

The stealth changes are amazing, and it makes stealth actually really fun to play, Not immediately being screwed over if you're somewhere you're not supposed to be is a blessing and it's really fun to try to complete a heist as far as possible without even masking up.

With armor 2.0 coming soon, and new (albeit interim) game directors for the next year, I have complete faith that this game can live up and surpass its prequel, though that might take a little while. After all, PAYDAY 2 got updates for over 10 years.

One of the most fun co-op experiences, with clear communications from the devs who can admit when they're wrong.


This is an edited review, below follows what was the edited review for the sake of preserving
the horrible decision sony did make (but has correctly reversed)
id prefer to not give my information to a company notorious for constant hacking incidents just to play a single game

a lot of reviews talk about how "you should stop looking at the reviews and just buy the game." this is the one time i agree with it

this game is best enjoyed 100% blind. Please do yourself a favour and don't spoil this brilliant game for yourself

It pains me to do this, and I don't really want to write my review based on multiplayer alone, because on paper I really like the game, and the single player is functional

However, for me, multiplayer is absolutely broken, I've gotten kicked several times for no reason, even though my partner (the person I was playing with) lives less than 3 miles away from me and my internet is fine.

Additionally, after some playtime (less than an hour) I can't do anything anymore. Every object I place gets removed, but the money is subtracted from my balance, and foundations that I build can't be removed or have a room assigned to (important to note is I wasn't hosting, my partner was, for them everything worked)

After some point I can see my partner making changes, but only very selectively, I could see them place windows, but not walls for example

The game also doesn't run great, I have a 3060 ti and a Ryzen 7 5700G, but I can't even get 60fps on medium on 1080p.

I also find the selection cursor a little annoying, it feels like it's selecting what's right on top of the cursor, and sometimes it feels like it's a few pixels off

I really hope these issues get patched, the game seems fun and I'm 100% willing to change my review to positive if these issues get fixed.

Reviewing every PAYDAY 2 DLC #05: Gage Sniper Pack

tl;dr: Most of the snipers have other variants in newer DLC, bar one. This is still a worthy purchase

The Gage Sniper Pack adds 3 different snipers as well as a few weapon mods and one of the assets you can buy before heists.

This weapon adds 3 snipers: The Rattlesnake, R93 and the Thanatos. The Rattlesnake and R93 are decent enough weapons, sadly they don't work well in dodge builds. Thankfully, they're in much better shape than a few years ago when they weren't good at most of the higher difficulties.

The Thanatos is a different weapon altogether. There has not been a single weapon that has a similar function to the Thanatos. It deals massive damage, only rivaled by the crossbows and rocket launchers. Its ammo economy leaves something to be desired, and obviously its concealment sucks, but it still sees use every so often.

This pack adds the Angled Sight and the Theia Scope. Both of these are quite nice additions for any sniper, though I personally am not a big fan of the scope. The scope auto-highlights special enemies, meaning it synergizes very well with High Value Target. There is another scope much like it in the Gage Spec-Ops pack

The vantage point is an asset you can buy, which adds a point from which you can snipe very easily. However, cops can reach here and you're separated from the rest of your team.

For the price, you get a good amount of content, including one of the highest damaging weapons in the game still. Its other additions are quite insignificant, but still very nice to have

Reviewing every PAYDAY 2 DLC #04: Gage Mod Courier Pack

tl;dr: An absolute necessity

The Gage Mod Courier Pack was the first of several weapon mod packs, focused on just those. As someone who enjoys customizing weapons in video games, these are perfect. Other than that, however, the mods provided here are awesome and some of the best in the game

Have you ever seen packages lying around maps? These are the Gage Mod Courier packages. There's 5 of them in total

• Green Mantis
  
• Yellow Bull
  
• Red Spider
  
• Blue Eagle
  
• Purple Snake

These randomly spawn in heists, and all have an equal chance of spawning. Upon getting enough of a certain type (which is different per package) you receive one of each of the mods that package will give you. Getting all packages in a heist will also give you a slight xp bonus

While I won't go over every single weapon mod, I'll talk about a few highlights per package
Green Snake

• AK Rubber Grip: a grip for AK-type weapons that adds 2 concealment with no downsides, very nice for dodge builds
  
• Compact holosight: A copy of the holographic sight, albeit a bit smaller only a small concealment penalty of -1 instead of -2
  
• Competitor's Compensator: A compensator that provides very decent stat buffs at the cost of 2 concealment

Yellow Snake

• Wide Stock: A stock for CAR-type weapons that adds to concealment and stability, can't go wrong with that

Red Spider

• Battleproven Handguard: Adds 3 concealment and 4 accuracy to your AK weapons, perfect for dodge builds
  
• Compact Laser Module: Adds a laser to your weapon without any hit in concealment

Blue Eagle

• AK Quadstacked Mag: Adds 30 rounds to your AK weapons, at the cost of some accuracy and concealment
  
• Deagle Scope mounts: Allows you to use regular sights and scopes on the deagle
  
• Flash hider: A nice little barrel extension for your pistols

Purple Snake

• Competitor's Foregrip: Adds 2 concealment, 8 accuracy and 1 damage to your CAR-Type weapons, at the cost of 12 stability
  
• Bronco Scope mount: Like the Deagle scope mount but for the Bronco revolver
  
• Pistol red-dot sight: If you can take the hit in concealment, this is the perfect addition for any pistol
  
• CAR Quadstacked Mag: Like the AK Quadstacked, but for CAR weapons

This DLC adds several new crosshairs for you to pick from to use on your sights, as well as some extra colours! I barely use these myself, with a few exceptions. But it's nice that they're there for those who do want to use them

Almost a necessity at this point,. a lot of these mods make your weapons so so much better, and you'll finally be able to get the most out of the packages

Reviewing every PAYDAY 2 DLC #03: Gage Weapon Pack #02

tl;dr: worth it for any loud player, sadly in large part because of OVERKILL's refusal to add more LMGs

Gage Weapon Pack #02 adds the LMG class of weapons, weapons from this pack are still the majority of the LMG roster. It also adds the usual arrangement of masks, patterns and materials

This pack adds 3 LMGs; the RPK (based on the.. RPK), the Brenner (based on the HK21E) and the KSP (based on the M249)
The former two are definitely the highlights of the pack; the RPK is decent, yet outclassed for armor builds, but it absolutely shines in dodge/crit builds of all things. It requires a hefty amount of skill points and a 33 concealment secondary, but it's definitely a super fun way to play, if not always super effective

The Brenner returns from its glory days of PD:TH, but it's sadly not as good. It is definitely my favourite looking of the LMGs, but it performs fairly similarly to the RPK, with a couple differences. It has a slower reload, especially from empty. It also doesn't work in a dodge build at all.

The KSP is completely replaced by the free KSP-58, so I won't be mentioning it since you can use it without buying this DLC.

This is also the first DLC pack to add melee weaponry, but they're.. melee weapons in PAYDAY 2, so they're not great. They look nice though

The masks are decent on their own, but the best thing about them is how well they take to customization. Two out of the four masks seem like they were made as blank slates, while the Alpha Force definitely holds up when customized. The Troubled War Veteran looks good, too, but doesn't take well to customization.

I actually really like the materials and patterns provided in this pack, too. Definitely work well with the masks that already take well to customization

LMGs are a very nice class of weapon, and this arrangement are some of the best in their class. The provided cosmetics are great, too

Reviewing every PAYDAY 2 DLC #2: Gage Weapon Pack #01

tl;dr: Get it with the Legacy Content, it's not worth it standalone

This pack adds 2 weapon mods, a grenade and 3 weapons along with the usual cosmetics.

This pack adds 3 weapons; The Eagle Heavy Rifle (based on the FN SCAR-H), the SpecOps SMG (based on the HK MP7) and the Signature .40 pistol (based on the SIG Sauer P226) These weapons are.. Decent. I only use the SpecOps SMG if I ever need a decently concealable SMG that still manage to do some damage. The Eagle Heavy is best used as a DMR in single fire mode, but sadly doesn't come with a DMR Kit , meaning it's stuck in AR/DMR wasteland, not really excelling at either. The Sig .40 is a decent pistol whose akimbo variant makes it into my pistol builds fairly often. A pistol that packs a punch, as well as a bunch of ammo. However, the Sig .40 really does feel like a diamond in the rough

This pack adds 2 weapon mods which lock your weapons in single fire or auto fire mode. These also add some minor stat buffs which might be useful to hit important breakpoints, but I stray away from these myself

Back in the day, this DLC was the only way to get an explosive weapon. However, other DLC and even free updates have added grenades that not only replace, but wholly outclass this grenade.

This pack adds 4 animal masks; a ram, an eagle, a panda and a bulldog. These are all named after action movie heroes. These are some decent masks that still hold up fairly well. However, I personally think there are better masks that have been added since.

Most of the materials and patterns aren't great, either. The Hunter pattern works decently well on masks that take well to customization.

This pack sadly just doesn't hold much water anymore. It pains me to give a negative review for a DLC that, at the time, was definitely required. However, most weapons and the grenade have since been outclassed

Reviewing every PAYDAY 2 DLC #1: Armored Transport

tl;dr: if I could, I'd give this a mixed review

This pack adds 6 heists. 5 of which are variants of the same premise: An old fashioned American armored car robbery. These are very simple; break into the car using either a drill or C4 before looting its contents. This can either be gold, money or jewelry. These are simple enough and pay alright, especially if you're new to the game. Experienced players might only play these for the difficulty achievements, though. I also wish there was somewhat of a variety in objectives between variants, as right now the only difference is really your cover.

The sixth heist added is the Train heist. While not on an actual moving train (that comes in a later DLC) this heist is super fun and the actual shock I got when I saw the sentry is something you can only really experience once. Both in stealth and loud the objectives are pretty similar, but the payout is great. Definitely a good time all round

Simon Viklund does it again, though. The OST for these missions is very well done. They remind me of soundtracks from PD:TH, which are still some of my favourites works of Simon.

This pack adds 3 weapons: The Commando 553 (based on the SG 552), the Swedish K (based on the Kulsprutepistol m/45) and the Gruber Kurz (based on the Walther PPK) All of these are concealable weapons that work fairly well on lower difficulties like Mayhem. They're also all unlocked at level 0, making them perfect for that first stealth heist when you just went infamous.

The Swedish K isn't great though. Much like the later added MP40, it's locked in full auto mode and has a pretty poor ammo economy. The Commando and Kurz are still decently usable. The Kurz is also one of the most stylish pistols in the game

The presidents masks from PD:TH make a return and they're some of my favourites. They even spawned a ritual with OVERKILL in which every president since Obama has been made into a mask, which hold up super well compared to the originals. Robbing a bank dressed as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is ironic.

The materials and patterns aren't anything to write home about, sadly. Although it's quite funny to cover your favourite mask in dollar bills.

Overall, the Armored Transport DLC adds a variety of content, but not all of it is great. The masks are some of my favourites and most of the weapons are still very decent, a lot of the content just doesn't hold up compared to later DLCs

Overall, it has its issues, some of the characters feel extremely one-dimensional, where others are extremely well worked out. You/Your character has to point out extremely obvious things and often you'll figure out "whodunnit" before Makoto even has, there's one twist in a case that hasn't especially aged well nor is it handled brilliantly, and mechanics get added until halfway into the game, which definitely could have just been added in the first or second case.

That said, the writing of Danganronpa is absolutely brilliant. I don't specifically mean the cases, though those have also been written well, I'm talking about the dialogue and characters. The interactions between characters is absolutely brilliant. The soundtrack is really good and helps carry the mood of the situation you're currently in and the plot is extremely addictive.