PCG:The structural changes to Payday 2 are what I’m most excited about. I mostly liked the first game’s adaptation of horde mode-style gameplay, but Payday’s novel theme was underused–too much of it amounted to dumping magazines of ammo into clown car after clown car of police. Payday’s missions were pleasant emulations of movie heists, but many of them either dragged on longer than they should’ve, threw too big a body count at you, or felt too exhausting to restart if you failed halfway through. Stealth was usually impractical, and once the police went into all-out assault mode any semblance of pacing went out the window.
GB: "Of course, Payday 2 has had its fair share of ups and downs as well, in spite of the success that it has enjoyed. For starters, the disparity between the game’s PC and console versions is a major issue that plagued the game for years on end, thanks to the frustrating optimization issues across platforms brought about by the Diesel Engine, which the game was developed on."
Payday 2 launched 10 years ago today, and a constant stream of updates still makes it worth playing ahead of Payday 3.
Starting today, Payday 2 is free at Epic Games Store. The free game offer runs until June 15. Once you claim it, it's yours to keep.
