Key features

• Lots of missions (heists),
  
• RNG is not your friend,
  
• Paradise for achievement hunters

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174496323
Hundreds of hours
There's like 80+ missions set in most various places: warehouses, crowded shops and gigs, multiple banks (naturally!), military structures, open streets, trains and even hospitals. Finishing them alone takes many-many hours, now double that amount because you can complete them either stealth (masterpiece music is not included) or painful gun blazing (loud).

PayDay2 offers huuuge selection of weapons. Lots of pistols, rifles, throwable ninja stars, spears, rocket launchers and even bbq forks, flags, electric gloves and so many more. And the best (hilarious) part is - they are quite usable and not just for lulz.

Pair the above with impressive skill tree (classic alike more damage, more ammo, extra speed, health, blah-blah-blah) and sprinkle with perk system - you got yourself extremely flexible and working build (replay value STONKS!)
Now you can run w/o armour, dodge bullet storm and forget about ammo. Or let turrets do all the work for you. Or stun all cops around you and carry on with objectives.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3049363551
Better with friends
Playing PD2 in 2025 might be stressful. Public lobbies aren't cooperative and chaotic. Grab a friend (or three!) and enter dark offices with loud whispers "guaaard!!1".

PD2 might feel unpleasant. Its characters do not have facial animation. Driving feels extremely repelling and that with several missions relying on car escapes. Hostages can clip through walls and then guards spot them afar, alerting everyone and quickly ruining your session. PD2 also punishes you for being greedy - picking up and tossing loot bags isn't fun.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632906617
Let's talk about RNG. It doesn't cooperate either.
Say, you start a mission, need to find a password. You search everywhere, crouch behind cops, find it eventually, on your way to enter... uh, you've been seen and hello mission restart. Now you head straight to the door and enter the password thinking it's the same. Heh, it's not! Because you entered wrong password, security is alerted and the mission is failed again. You start it anew, going to the room where you found the password note earlier... and it's not there. Search again!

RNG in PD2 plays enormous part. Objective items change locations and so do cameras. Passwords vary and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ drill keeps breaking... Happens in those 80+ mission, embrace yourself!

But! Even with all these "tiny" drawbacks PD2 is superb. It is a feast for achievement hunters - difficulty related trophies stack, there are many creative ones, lots based on weapons and solving secrets (serotonin is real), as well as some speedrun completions.
These days PD2 goes on sale so often and so low, it's genuinely worth to play.

1,000 hours… well 1,000.1 hours and i’m still in love with Payday 2, just so much fun, replayability and everything. just perfect top to bottom even with it’s flaws it’s still my favorite game and a classic worth a shot.
btw still better then Payday 3 tho

I'm come back to play this game and I see STUPID pop up unable to connect POZZY epic game IDIOT service
and then I can't play online bcuz this Froking IDIOT unable to connect POZZY epic game IDIOT service
WHY
WHY
WHY
I wanna play with friends on steam why force me to connect IDIOT epic game server
WHY no option for connection
I don't want crossplay IDIOT epic game
my friends they all play on steam