Being someone who enjoys casual games, I found Payday 2 to be a little challenging and sometimes, dry even. Despite this, I poured countless hours into it, doing heists with my friends and other players both locally and worldwide, as I enjoy the co-operative system of the game, as well as the coordination and interaction with other players.

With the Death Wish (27 Feb 2014) and infamy (22nd Jan 2014) update, I found the game to be more enjoyable, relishing in the four skulls heists and overcoming extremely challenging hurdles with my pals. The infamy update also gives me more incentives to continue playing the rather stale and limited number of heists. I must say the update was rather pivotal in me spending even more time in the game.

The (free) addition of Election Day (20 Mar 2014) and Shadow Raid (29 May 2014), once again, being a big fan of stealth, I loved this addition, allowing me to enjoy the stealthy approach this game has to offer. I have to point out here that Shadow Raid is one of my favourite heist, being highly challenging as it requires full stealth as a timer will trigger when you alert the guards.

Big Bank (17 June 2014) was a paid update that I had enjoyed and bought, as it was the first contract given by a new contact, The Dentist. It was a really engaging update and fun heist, Once again, the developers have proven themselves to be skillful enough to come up with an update that breathe fresh air into a game that was starting to get a little monotonous. I appreciated the intricate and elaborate setup of this heist, which introduced preplanning, a new feature which greatly impacted most of the heists today and changed the way heisters approached certain heists. An example would be the normal Bank Heists, where now we could place keycards and other items (body bags) to aid us in our taking of the Harvest and Trustee financial institution.

Hotline Miami Heist (30 Sep 2014) is once again, a job well done (might be due to it being a paid DLC), as it introduced the first VIP (The Commissar) whom we had to kill in the midst of the heist. The tasks within the heists were engaging and the soundtrack was definitely one of my favourite. Both challenging and engaging, this heist once again gave the game, at that point of time, a little push to keep it competitive in terms of its sales.

First Crimefest (16 - 27 Aug 2014) was a great moment for us Heisters, as it showed how popular and great the payday community was, in terms of the developers' support for the game as well as the passion we heisters have for the game. It was sort of a celebratory victory for us making it so far as a community.

John Wick (22 Oct 2014) the free character pack was released in promotion of the movie John Wick, which was released in theatres. From this update, I sensed a forboding of Payday 2 possibly being a tool of adverting, and man was I right. Subsequently, Hotline Miami 2 - Jacket (10 Mar 2015) and The Alesso Heists (21 May). both were blatant advertising tools mean to be targeted towards us in hopes of us buying the HM and HM2 game as well as supporting Alesso and his album on iTunes or something. There were also other collaborations with other game studios, resulting in tons of items like the Lucille Baseball Bat, various DLCs in collab with other games like Battlefield and Chivalry, and masks requiring the purchase of the Hotline Miami franchise, Speedrunners, various Humble Bundles. The most insane "collaboration", in my opinion, was the Alienware Alpha mask, requiring the purchase of the Alienware Alpha console. For the record, the console costs close to S$1,000 (USD$ 721) in my country.

The Old Hoxton and Hoxton Breakout (27 Oct) was another free community update that continues the story of the imprisoned Hoxton. It gives us the backstory of the Payday Crew, which I felt was very interesting. it had once again given us an engaging heist and a new character WITH A NEW SKILL TREE. This update changed the way some players played the game with the addition of the Fugitive skill tree. The Fugitive skill tree in conjuction with the Akimbo perk deck, makes for a rather gimmicky (in my opinion) playstyle, befitting that of a player who is tired of the conventional playstyle and wants to try a new way of clearing cop waves and especially cloakers (because HEADSHOT BONUS, ♥♥♥♥♥♥!) with dual-wield pistols.

White Xmas (4 Dec 2014) was a rather plain update to celebrate Christmas. Monotonous and a neverending heist, this was a rather dry period for the Payday community.

The next big change that brought the game back from its half-dead state was the Diamond Heist, Clover character pack (16 Dec 2014) and the Bomb Heists + Dragan Character update (22 Jan 2015). It gave the game two new paid heists which can be completed in both stealth and with guns blazing, and also two new characters (which I feel did not impact the game as much). I like the bomb heists as it reminded me of the Election Day heist, and also the open nature of the map. It gives players more freedom to tackle the heist in whichever way they feel comfortable with. That is a plus point. The Clover and Dragan character were rather refreshing and useful, with Clover being the first female heister and a rather competitive accompanying rifle and Dragan possessing a useful perk deck that isn't half bad in game.

Infamy 2.0 (5 Mar 2015) was (in my opinion, again) the start of the decline of the game's popularity. It gave me the impression that the game had run out of juice and in order to keep a community of players intact, the developers decided to implement a short term "grind and grind" strategy to keep players around for a little longer. With the addition of infamy levels all the way up to Level XXV (25), and a ton of new infamy masks, which I felt looked pretty amazing. However, like I mentioned, this was a short term strategy to "keep players around before 'I' attempt to come up with more idead to spice up the game and hopefully make some profit!".

Spring Break 2015 (Cook Off, Train Heist, Side Jobs feature, Bonnie Character, SWAT Turret, Hoxton Revenge and Car Shop) (13 - 21 Mar 2015) In all honesty, I felt that this update was pretty good. It gave us 3 new heists (Cook Off, Hoxton's Revenge, Car Shop) and a new 2nd female character (Bonnie), plus improvements to the game in terms of mechanics (SWAT Turret), as well as additional features to make the game more appealing, with incentives to make you replay the game (Side Jobs and individual Train Heist option). These were all done and released for free from Overkill.

With the new XP system and free Meltdown Heist (7 May 2015), it made significant changes to the heists' XP system, which allows you to level rush to infamy 25 real quick. It beefed up the XP gains for many heists and the payouts were also more generous. As a sweetener, the Meltdown Heist was also added to sweeten the long grind towards infamy. Well, by this point, anyone with a clear mind would be quitting the game by now. Me and my friends did during this period too. We did not feel like grinding all the way up. I am sure most of the community would agree with us.

The Golden Grin Casino Heist and Sokol Character (25 June) paid update introduced a new heist and a character called Sokol, which I felt was rather useful in terms of gameplay. His skill set complimented the other 4 skill trees and provided a good boost in terms of team work cop clearing potential. The Golden Grin Casino was at best, mediocre. A washed up and overused comcept in an attempt to bring back a game from the clutches of the deceased. This period was where I decided to check out the new stuff released and well, was I disappointed.

Yakuza - Jiro Character (27 Aug) was, what I felt, a buffer between the Golden Grin and the upcoming FBI files update. It did not seem very engaging or refreshing. Another overused concept of releasing a character with no great advantages.

Being someone who enjoys casual games, I found Payday 2 to be a little challenging and sometimes, dry even. Despite this, I poured countless hours into it, doing heists with my friends and other players both locally and worldwide, as I enjoy the co-operative system of the game, as well as the coordination and interaction with other players. With the Death Wish (27 Feb 2014) and infamy (22nd Jan 2014) update, I found the game to be more enjoyable, relishing in the four skulls heists and overcoming extremely challenging hurdles with my pals. The infamy update also gives me more incentives to continue playing the rather stale and limited number of heists. I must say the update was rather pivotal in me spending even more time in the game. The (free) addition of Election Day (20 Mar 2014) and Shadow Raid (29 May 2014), once again, being a big fan of stealth, I loved this addition, allowing me to enjoy the stealthy approach this game has to offer. I have to point out here that Shadow Raid is one of my favourite heist, being highly challenging as it requires full stealth as a timer will trigger when you alert the guards. Big Bank (17 June 2014) was a paid update that I had enjoyed and bought, as it was the first contract given by a new contact, The Dentist. It was a really engaging update and fun heist, Once again, the developers have proven themselves to be skillful enough to come up with an update that breathe fresh air into a game that was starting to get a little monotonous. I appreciated the intricate and elaborate setup of this heist, which introduced preplanning, a new feature which greatly impacted most of the heists today and changed the way heisters approached certain heists. An example would be the normal Bank Heists, where now we could place keycards and other items (body bags) to aid us in our taking of the Harvest and Trustee financial institution. Hotline Miami Heist (30 Sep 2014) is once again, a job well done (might be due to it being a paid DLC), as it introduced the first VIP (The Commissar) whom we had to kill in the midst of the heist. The tasks within the heists were engaging and the soundtrack was definitely one of my favourite. Both challenging and engaging, this heist once again gave the game, at that point of time, a little push to keep it competitive in terms of its sales. First Crimefest (16 - 27 Aug 2014) was a great moment for us Heisters, as it showed how popular and great the payday community was, in terms of the developers' support for the game as well as the passion we heisters have for the game. It was sort of a celebratory victory for us making it so far as a community. John Wick (22 Oct 2014) the free character pack was released in promotion of the movie John Wick, which was released in theatres. From this update, I sensed a forboding of Payday 2 possibly being a tool of adverting, and man was I right. Subsequently, Hotline Miami 2 - Jacket (10 Mar 2015) and The Alesso Heists (21 May). both were blatant advertising tools mean to be targeted towards us in hopes of us buying the HM and HM2 game as well as supporting Alesso and his album on iTunes or something. There were also other collaborations with other game studios, resulting in tons of items like the Lucille Baseball Bat, various DLCs in collab with other games like Battlefield and Chivalry, and masks requiring the purchase of the Hotline Miami franchise, Speedrunners, various Humble Bundles. The most insane "collaboration", in my opinion, was the Alienware Alpha mask, requiring the purchase of the Alienware Alpha console. For the record, the console costs close to S$1,000 (USD$ 721) in my country. The Old Hoxton and Hoxton Breakout (27 Oct) was another free community update that continues the story of the imprisoned Hoxton. It gives us the backstory of the Payday Crew, which I felt was very interesting. it had once again given us an engaging heist and a new character WITH A NEW SKILL TREE. This update changed the way some players played the game with the addition of the Fugitive skill tree. The Fugitive skill tree in conjuction with the Akimbo perk deck, makes for a rather gimmicky (in my opinion) playstyle, befitting that of a player who is tired of the conventional playstyle and wants to try a new way of clearing cop waves and especially cloakers (because HEADSHOT BONUS, biatch!) with dual-wield pistols. White Xmas (4 Dec 2014) was a rather plain update to celebrate Christmas. Monotonous and a neverending heist, this was a rather dry period for the Payday community. The next big change that brought the game back from its half-dead state was the Diamond Heist, Clover character pack (16 Dec 2014) and the Bomb Heists + Dragan Character update (22 Jan 2015). It gave the game two new paid heists which can be completed in both stealth and with guns blazing, and also two new characters (which I feel did not impact the game as much). I like the bomb heists as it reminded me of the Election Day heist, and also the open nature of the map. It gives players more freedom to tackle the heist in whichever way they feel comfortable with. That is a plus point. The Clover and Dragan character were rather refreshing and useful, with Clover being the first female heister and a rather competitive accompanying rifle and Dragan possessing a useful perk deck that isn't half bad in game. Infamy 2.0 (5 Mar 2015) was (in my opinion, again) the start of the decline of the game's popularity. It gave me the impression that the game had run out of juice and in order to keep a community of players intact, the developers decided to implement a short term "grind and grind" strategy to keep players around for a little longer. With the addition of infamy levels all the way up to Level XXV (25), and a ton of new infamy masks, which I felt looked pretty amazing. However, like I mentioned, this was a short term strategy to "keep players around before 'I' attempt to come up with more idead to spice up the game and hopefully make some profit!". Spring Break 2015 (Cook Off, Train Heist, Side Jobs feature, Bonnie Character, SWAT Turret, Hoxton Revenge and Car Shop) (13 - 21 Mar 2015) In all honesty, I felt that this update was pretty good. It gave us 3 new heists (Cook Off, Hoxton's Revenge, Car Shop) and a new 2nd female character (Bonnie), plus improvements to the game in terms of mechanics (SWAT Turret), as well as additional features to make the game more appealing, with incentives to make you replay the game (Side Jobs and individual Train Heist option). These were all done and released for free from Overkill. With the new XP system and free Meltdown Heist (7 May 2015), it made significant changes to the heists' XP system, which allows you to level rush to infamy 25 real quick. It beefed up the XP gains for many heists and the payouts were also more generous. As a sweetener, the Meltdown Heist was also added to sweeten the long grind towards infamy. Well, by this point, anyone with a clear mind would be quitting the game by now. Me and my friends did during this period too. We did not feel like grinding all the way up. I am sure most of the community would agree with us. The Golden Grin Casino Heist and Sokol Character (25 June) paid update introduced a new heist and a character called Sokol, which I felt was rather useful in terms of gameplay. His skill set complimented the other 4 skill trees and provided a good boost in terms of team work cop clearing potential. The Golden Grin Casino was at best, mediocre. A washed up and overused comcept in an attempt to bring back a game from the clutches of the deceased. This period was where I decided to check out the new stuff released and well, was I disappointed. Yakuza - Jiro Character (27 Aug) was, what I felt, a buffer between the Golden Grin and the upcoming FBI files update. It did not seem very engaging or refreshing. Another overused concept of releasing a character with no great advantages.