as mentioned in the GUPT thread, i’m deep in payday 2 now. the game has finally clicked. even back when i was playing it the most previously (around the time it released, and then with the release of the ultimate edition or whatever in 2016) i wasn’t playing it this much. 1/3rd of my total playtime is the past 2 weeks!
what is payday 2?
you shoot cops by the hundreds and perform tasks like “restart drill” and “blowtorch door” while the sickest combat music plays. at the end you get xp for your level and money for spending. you gradually get access to strong skills that complement specific playstyles and a growing variety of heists, including loud (cod zombies) and stealth (metal gear solid)
you search levels for environmental clues to properly finish the heist because otherwise your meth setup may explode in your face or you send away the wrong fusion reactor (how embarrassing)
you come up with extremely broken builds that allow you to effortlessly obliterate everything in front of you. in this case, akimbo automatic pistols which almost never run out of ammo and can shred the highest health enemy in seconds.
you make customized masks based on shape, material, style, and color. they don’t have to be actual masks either
half the cast is crossover characters, including [nausea] ethan klein. a bunch of the levels are inspired by other games or famous heist movies. it’s like the super smash bros of robbing banks.
and of course there’s a completely deranged secret ARG running through the whole thing that, when solved, reveals a secret ending and implies that you live in a mystical universe of crime.
that’s payday 2.
what changed?
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they got rid of the lockbox shit, and fund the game’s development (and payday 3’s apparently) off $10 bundles which gives you 3 things: ~4 new weapons, a new heist, and some cosmetics.
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they introduced new perk decks (basically: selectable subclasses) which are honestly very broken. when someone told me to use anarchist (the deck which lets you shield gate like warframe) it changed my dang life. there’s other good ones too, like leech, stoic, and hacker. this means nothing to you probably
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i stopped caring if stealth heists took me a while and stopped restarting ones where stealth isn’t mandatory
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“crime spree”, where you play heists in a streak until you lose one and get insanely good rewards, and they gradually get more difficult with randomized modifiers, is a lot of fun and an easy way to get quick, snappy variety from a session
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i got some bundle on humble bundle that included all but the latest 2 dlc for like 20 bucks. they should honestly make this widely available so people aren’t so intimidated by the cost. just roll the previous year’s dlc into some “ultimate edition” that updates once a year. also only one person needs the dlc to start heists; anyone else can join off that. i like it when developers do that.
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i finally installed a custom HUD that includes things like cop health bars, completion trackers for various map features (like loot and gage packages), more detailed assault wave breakdown, and achievement progress. it’s honestly wild to me this isn’t in the game by default because it makes it infinitely more comprehensible from the get go while sacrificing none of the difficulty. it’s not 2012 anymore, the facade of payday 2 is long dead, they need to get with the times lol
i think it’ll occupy my attention until darktide comes out at least. working my way through the achievements has been fun! if you played it in the past, consider giving it a shot, especially if you snag one of the bundle sales they do every so often. the legacy collection on steam is a good start and includes all the most important DLC