Is PAYDAY 1 worth playing?

[GALANTIS]

Never played the first game, and heared a 3rd installment is planned
Is it worth getting payday 1 for the sake of like continuity of the story and such
What I get is that hox got captured dunno how much i might be missing out

[boba tea enema]

Well I haven't played but the community says yes, people say it's very difficult more balanced and fun, etc.
EDIT: Thinking about buying it too, actually.

[MoustacheMcqueen]

There essentially is no story in Payday but there is some continuity. Payday the Heist's gameplay is drastically different from its sequel as it feels more grounded and realistic making cover much more viable into completing objectives.
If you want to get it for a different experience then check it out, but if you want to get it just for the sake of playing the older heists there's no need as Payday 2 has all of the older heists included with the exception of the No Mercy heist and the Diamond heist which will be added into the game soon enough.

[Sky Flare]

Originally posted by GALANTIS:

Never played the first game, and heared a 3rd installment is planned
Is it worth getting payday 1 for the sake of like continuity of the story and such
What I get is that hox got captured dunno how much i might be missing out

All but two heists got ported over to Payday 2. Also get ready for crappy graphics and animations, relatively confusing progression system and barely anyone even playing the game.
But yeah, it's much better optimized and polished than the second game, I say give it a shot. Bonus points if you have friends to play it with.

About Hoxton, he just got captured because I think Overkill couldn't get a hold of his voice actor prior to payday 2's release IIRC. In fact, Houston was called Hoxton prior to Hoxton Breakout's (and Hoxton) release and you'll see Hox wearing Houston's mask in PDTH. There isn't any more story other than that.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Blueno Mars:

Well I haven't played but the community says yes, people say it's very difficult more balanced and fun, etc.

Yeah, people keep saying that, yet the numbers don't reflect this. Right now, there appear to be 77 people playing that game, with a peak of 170 concurrent over the last 30 days. People are fond of praising Payday: The Heist, but their words don't appear to turn into actions.

[boba tea enema]

Originally posted by Flare:

Originally posted by GALANTIS:

Never played the first game, and heared a 3rd installment is planned
Is it worth getting payday 1 for the sake of like continuity of the story and such
What I get is that hox got captured dunno how much i might be missing out

All but two heists got ported over to Payday 2. Also get ready for crappy graphics and animations, relatively confusing progression system and barely anyone even playing the game.
But yeah, it's much better optimized and polished than the second game, I say give it a shot. Bonus points if you have friends to play it with.

About Hoxton, he just got captured because I think Overkill couldn't get a hold of his voice actor prior to payday 2's release IIRC. In fact, Houston was called Hoxton prior to Hoxton Breakout's (and Hoxton) release and you'll see Hox wearing Houston's mask in PDTH. There isn't any more story other than that.

I know that, I know that. I know about the hoxton and the rest you said.

[Salem]

Originally posted by Flare:

Also get ready for crappy graphics and animations

Besides animations and mask textures that are atrocious, I actually think that PDTH has better graphics than PD2, thanks to the lighting work. It really looks dark and gritty or whatever, while PD2 tries to be more colorful but only does it halfway hence fails at it (though the new Max Saturation filter fixed it for me).
And optimization really helps, all maps run at constant 135fps. In Payday 2 I barely get 60fps with drops on some heists (and Safehouse Raid is impossible to run, I freeze every two seconds).

[Pyro Fennec]

It's a lot rougher around the edges, I've found. Less user-friendly than Payday 2. And, as mentioned, its active player base has somewhat... diminished, which is problematic for a multiplayer-focused game. It *might* be worth checking out to see where the franchise started, but I'd generally suggest waiting for a discount.

[Vaakalintu]

The first one is pretty fun

[VerrucktMedic]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Blueno Mars:

Well I haven't played but the community says yes, people say it's very difficult more balanced and fun, etc.

Yeah, people keep saying that, yet the numbers don't reflect this. Right now, there appear to be 77 people playing that game, with a peak of 170 concurrent over the last 30 days. People are fond of praising Payday: The Heist, but their words don't appear to turn into actions.

PAYDAY: The Heist was a great game by design standpoint and the overall mechanics and maps were much better than what we have in PAYDAY 2. Just not many people play it because there isn't a whole lot of content compared to PAYDAY 2, only a handful of heists also it's a little too hard to get into if you're used to the easier and fast paced sequel so not many new players jump into it. PDTH is worth around 200-500 hours in my opinion but PAYDAY 2 offers more to keep you entertained longer (hence why I have 1K hours).

So while PDTH was a better game by comparision, people play PAYDAY 2 over it because it is still supported and has much more variety in weapons, heists, and characters even though some of the quality and difficulty is lacking (this could very easily change if OVERKILL would just listen to us and make the difficulties harder and fix weapon balances)

So to answer OP's question. Yes. PAYDAY: The Heist is defintely worth playing, it's a challenging and fun experience. Overkill-Overkill 145+ will really make you work for your "PAYDAY". Also nothing quite beats the hardship that was Heat Street on 145.

[Rocknack]

I really enjoyed it.

[Ricken]

PDTH is definitely harder and more skill-based than PD2. The thing is, PD2 is all about minmaxing the perfect skill build and doing the math beforehand; PDTH is more based on player skill. Maybe I'm just bad but I found it difficult to beat heists on Normal at times.

Also, PDTH doesn't have some of the very important things that PD2 now has, like the desync update. If you somehow manage to find more than 1 person online, expect heavy desync.

In terms of story, there really isn't that much. But the crew seems to interact more with each other and the world around them, so that's kinda cool I guess. Hoxton was relatively polite, Bain would actually have small conversations with the group, and everything made a fair amount of sense.

[GALANTIS]

Very Positive Then I guess I'm gonna enjoy it!

[Owl Birb]

YES, It needs more players on the very difficult heists that are unique neat, and very entertaining with alot of replayability

[E3kHatena]

It's a different experience, a bit slower and more methodical, much more difficult than 2, but for what's there it can be a fun experience. Play FWB and Heat Street on easy to grind for level ups in a skill tree, get ahold of the Mark 11 and the Reinbeck shotgun, and then you can get pretty much free reign.

Note that the game has very few active players anymore, and while owning the PDTH Wolfpack DLC unlocked the PD2 version, it does not work in reverse, so you cannot use the AK Rifle, Sentries, the GL40, or play Counterfeit and Undercover until you buy the DLC. Luckily, it usually goes 75-90% off during sales.