I already reviewed this game years ago, but seeing as how much has changed, I might as well give a little bit of an updated review from a veteran that's been playing since the beta. Not only that, but I own it on every platform except the PS4 (yes, even the last gen versions). I've put hundreds of hours into the Switch version alone (currently my most played Switch game) and hundreds, possibly 1000+ hours combined from all the other versions of the game, topped off with my over 1000 hours played on my main account.

It's been a long 6+ years since this game initially released and a lot has changed since then. We went from robbing banks, cooking meth, and transporting coke to jumping out of planes, stealing nukes, and even invading the White House, and I had the pleasure of being along for the whole ride watching this game evolve. Now while it's been an absolute blast, it hasn't been a completely smooth ride. There's been controversies from everything to mediocre DLC being pumped out to milk peoples wallets, microtransactions introduced despite promises not to have them, lies from Overkill, and now even more paid DLC despite more promises to have all future content free after the release of the Ultimate Edition. However, despite all of this, while many players left early on, I always stuck around, choosing to stick through the problems rather than move on and find another game to play. And in the end, I don't regret it at all. From the day it came out back in 2013, PAYDAY 2 has been my absolute favorite game and nothing has ever come close to topping it. From that very first day I masked up in the PAYDAY 2 Beta, I was hooked. Every time new content was announced, I'd get more hyped for it than anything else because I just wanted more. The gameplay is like no other, the customization between both guns and masks is INSANE with the variety of options you have, with all the post-release content making it even more overwhelming with customization options. The characters have grown to be my favorite in gaming, with Hoxton having been my favorite pretty much from the very beginning. Speaking of characters, in the past 6 years, there have been many to join the PAYDAY Gang. I remember back when John Wick was announced I was like "How are they gonna have a 5th character? Is that even possible?" Now we have a massive roster in the double digits to play as. This game has continued to surprise me with the new features that have been added to it, from driveable vehicles to weapon skins to the long awaited current customizable safehouse to the recently introduced outfits, there's been so many features introduced that have renewed my desire to keep playing this game.

Now this game isn't perfect, and there's still the occasional bug or issue that pops up, but there's never been enough to keep me from continuing to play this game, even when I thought I could actually be done. I thought I was done when the story was wrapped up, but here I am still coming back to it, even before I knew Overkill was gonna continue making content for it despite the story being "wrapped up".

So in the end, in the past 6 years, there hasn't been a game that's been able to top PAYDAY 2 as my favorite game. I don't know what the future holds for PAYDAY 2, or PAYDAY as a whole (not even sure if PAYDAY 3 will ever actually come to be), but I'm grateful that PAYDAY 2 came to be a thing and gave me something to play for many years. Hopefully it will continue to be played by many others in the future. Keep those helmets flying!

2022 update: Still my favorite game, now also have on PS4, completing my PAYDAY 2 console edition collection.

I already reviewed this game years ago, but seeing as how much has changed, I might as well give a little bit of an updated review from a veteran that's been playing since the beta. Not only that, but I own it on every platform except the PS4 (yes, even the last gen versions). I've put hundreds of hours into the Switch version alone (currently my most played Switch game) and hundreds, possibly 1000+ hours combined from all the other versions of the game, topped off with my over 1000 hours played on my main account. It's been a long 6+ years since this game initially released and a lot has changed since then. We went from robbing banks, cooking meth, and transporting coke to jumping out of planes, stealing nukes, and even invading the White House, and I had the pleasure of being along for the whole ride watching this game evolve. Now while it's been an absolute blast, it hasn't been a completely smooth ride. There's been controversies from everything to mediocre DLC being pumped out to milk peoples wallets, microtransactions introduced despite promises not to have them, lies from Overkill, and now even more paid DLC despite more promises to have all future content free after the release of the Ultimate Edition. However, despite all of this, while many players left early on, I always stuck around, choosing to stick through the problems rather than move on and find another game to play. And in the end, I don't regret it at all. From the day it came out back in 2013, PAYDAY 2 has been my absolute favorite game and nothing has ever come close to topping it. From that very first day I masked up in the PAYDAY 2 Beta, I was hooked. Every time new content was announced, I'd get more hyped for it than anything else because I just wanted more. The gameplay is like no other, the customization between both guns and masks is INSANE with the variety of options you have, with all the post-release content making it even more overwhelming with customization options. The characters have grown to be my favorite in gaming, with Hoxton having been my favorite pretty much from the very beginning. Speaking of characters, in the past 6 years, there have been many to join the PAYDAY Gang. I remember back when John Wick was announced I was like "How are they gonna have a 5th character? Is that even possible?" Now we have a massive roster in the double digits to play as. This game has continued to surprise me with the new features that have been added to it, from driveable vehicles to weapon skins to the long awaited current customizable safehouse to the recently introduced outfits, there's been so many features introduced that have renewed my desire to keep playing this game. Now this game isn't perfect, and there's still the occasional bug or issue that pops up, but there's never been enough to keep me from continuing to play this game, even when I thought I could actually be done. I thought I was done when the story was wrapped up, but here I am still coming back to it, even before I knew Overkill was gonna continue making content for it despite the story being "wrapped up". So in the end, in the past 6 years, there hasn't been a game that's been able to top PAYDAY 2 as my favorite game. I don't know what the future holds for PAYDAY 2, or PAYDAY as a whole (not even sure if PAYDAY 3 will ever actually come to be), but I'm grateful that PAYDAY 2 came to be a thing and gave me something to play for many years. Hopefully it will continue to be played by many others in the future. Keep those helmets flying! 2022 update: Still my favorite game, now also have on PS4, completing my PAYDAY 2 console edition collection.