Now I do not have as much experience in this game as a lot of other players have, but I would still like to make a review for this game as well, as it's pretty fun.
First off, I got this game for free when they were giving away copies on Steam, but I could see myself buying this game if I knew how fun it is.
Now the game itself is very varying, since there are a lot of so called heists (which are sort of the missions of this game) that you can do. The heists can be done loud and clear with big guns, or sneaky beaky like with silencers and little to no armor on you. Usually you can choose which way you want to do a certain heist, but sometimes they can be, for example, stealth only.
The heists are usually bank jobs, burglary, jewelry store hits or something along those lines.
Being stealth means you can't have a damn minigun on you, but rather using easily consealable weapons, such as pistols etc. and no armor, or some really lightweight armor if necessary.
There are also skills/perks which both can be done in multiple different ways. You would usually have a class with certain kind of perks/skills for your loud and clear setup and your stealth setup, so you can seamlessly pick between the two with a click of a button once made first.
I'm not too familiar with perks and skills myself yet, but they all say what they do in-game, and there are many guides around Steam, and Youtube tutorials are widely available too.
I recall Payday's crew saying that they would never do what other games have done with their micro-transaction stuff, but they eventually did. Frankly I'm actually quite pleased with the fact that there are skins for weapons (and for armor as well) that you can open from cases or buy from the Steam community market. The Payday market though, is relatively dead, at least compared to some Steam games, like CS:GO and actually, even TF2.
However, those are only cosmetic changes, but in my opinion, they bring their own kind of fresh breath to the game every once in a while.
Now into the heists.
You can join other players heists in-game with the matchmaker called Crimenet, or you can create your own lobby. Some people like to grind level and/or money etc. on their own, but for me this game is best played with a friend or friends. The maximum size of a lobby is 4, so if you don't want bots on your gang, get some friends with you!
I myself enjoy stealth missions, or doind mission stealthly, as they bring another kind of challenge compared to a lot of fps-games nowadays and it is just a satisfying feeling when you get off the hook.
In a heist, there's usually extra loot for you to take, so even once you have all the loot you have to take in order to complete the mission, you can risk it by taking more loot.
After a heist, you see how much money and XP you've got, and you choose one from three cards, which each contain something, for example a money- or xp-boost, a weapon attachment etc. etc.
As many of you might know, masks are an important part in Payday, and they are fully customisable with patterns, materials and colors.
Overall, I think the game is pretty cool. Sometimes it feels like you're stuck, but with enough effort, you can still make it happen. (Recalling a mission we spent like 2 hours retrying before finally finishing it.)
I will give this game a 8/10 because there are some AI bugs, but it's a nice game overall.