Recent reviews by Danny Fluke

I've played Payday 2 for a decent amount of time, and I started about the time when the Hype Train event kicked in. I played without DLCs for a good few months, after which I slowly started getting DLCs whenever sales came about.

At its core, PD2 is a PvE FPS, where a crew of up to 4 people can partake in heisting together. There are a myraid of enemies one can be put up against, which include varying levels of 'basic units' (basic meaning that they do not have any special abilities), and different Specials who have their own unique abilities.

Heists have different objectives, but there are 2 categories : Loud and Stealth.
-Loud is very straightforward, where you go around guns blazing and eliminate enemies as you complete your objectives.
-Stealth requires a lot of patience, and even the slightest mistake can cost the heist, leading to stealth being typically more prolonged than Loud playthroughs.

Even without DLC, you are able to play on DLC locked maps, which is a good thing, since you can piggyback on your friends who have the DLC, or even random pubs who're hosting them.

Then there are the issues, graphics and performance not included.

Some of the veterans and seasoned players are still around, and they know how to work the game. Usually, they have a certain level of expectation from other players when they host pubs, so kicking becomes fairly commonplace. There are certain players who're nice enough to host newb friendly servers, and if you need to, just friend them and learn from them. Otherwise, it can be a rather harsh hunting ground.

Without DLCs, you can still tackle heists quite fine, but the DLCs offer advantages that not only make the game smoother, but gives you more options for more playstyles to try out. DLCs give you Sniper Rifles, which has the ability to penetrate Shields, and potentially one shot them. Grenade Launchers are also DLC locked, and these weapons have splash damage and can damage through Shields too, and even stun Bulldozers. DLCs are not a requirement, but owning DLCs certainly gives you an edge.

Then, after Crimefest 2015, microtransactions reared its ugly head. Granted, the impact that these MTs have on the game is rather minimal in a PvE environment, but the more longtime players felt betrayed after they had been promised no MTs would be added to PD2. In Crimefest 2015, the community was issued challenges to beat, upon which free rewards were promised for the entire community. One of the free rewards was MTs, and even jump animations. This led to many hard feelings, based on a matter of principle. There are certainly more issues plaguing the game and the developers, but I feel that those issues can be... researched on your own time.

If you liked Co-op FPS games like L4D2, then you may very well enjoy PD2. It will be more enjoyable if you can get your friends to play with you, since you'll be able to coordinate better as opposed to playing with pubs. I would recommend getting the game, and DLCs, while they're on sale (DLC wise, a reasonable price would be AT LEAST 50% off, good would be about 75%). DLCs to prioritize would be map and weapon packs.

At its core, PD2 is still an enjoyable game, and I find myself going back to it from time to time. If you don't focus too much on MTs or the stuff like that, you should have a rather enjoyable time in game, asides from the performance issues. I don't think this would cause so much issues with new/er players. If you're not into spending too much money on DLCs (which there are aplenty), I wouldn't recommend getting this game at full price. Get it while on a sale or something. For DLCs, get them while they're on sale, hands down (unless you want to be an ardent supporter of the devs, then feel free to do so).

Happy Heisting!