A little bit of my Payday 2 gaming:

I love this game. I play it somewhat often and I have to say, it's one of my favorite Steam games. Although I wrote this game's review for PS3, the VGR had no Steam category, so this is based on my EXPERIENCES WITH THE STEAM VERSION. Take that as a disclaimer of sorts before I continue.



Graphics - 8/10

This games graphics are pretty good. As it is, I've never been one to judge a game on its graphics, unless they affect my personal ability to play and enjoy the game. And the way this game looks does not affect gameplay. I did, however, rate the graphics an eight because there are some graphical bugs. These bugs do not directly affect the game. Most of them are actually really funny, involving "corpse spasms" of the guards and what not.



Sound - 9/10

The songs in this game are really great, getting your blood pumping and getting you more involved in the game. There is a lot of futuristic tunes and quick music, but this categories' downfall is its' variety. There is slim to no other types of music, unless you download one of many Payday soundtrack DLCs. This can turn off the easy listener, but I personally enjoy the music myself.

The second component to the sound breakdown is the battle involvedness. The gunshots are fluid and realistic sounding, the voice acting is up to par, and everything sounds realistic until Bain starts shouting "Hey guys, fix the drill!" time after time again. (It kind of ruins the immersion.)



Addictiveness - 10/10

I love to play this game. The variety of heists has you coming back time and time again. You don't even need to play different heists; trying to master the different routes of a stealth heists or trying to map out where all the Gage Courier package spawns are on a heist makes this game addicting by itself. Playing with other people on multiplayer is an enriching experience, and you're guaranteed to discover something new every time you play. In fact, while at first seeming a bit grindy, the PAYDAY rewards at the end of missions are a great incentive. You can win new masks, weapon attachments, or XP and money bonuses, making this a game you come back to over and over again.



Story - 6/10

There is not too much you can say about the games story. Aside from a few story arcs like the Halloween Headless Titandozer and freeing your criminal cohort Hoxton, the story is somewhat lacking. The Payday crew is mostly doing heists and other criminal activities for a variety of contacts that they communicate with through a mysterious figure called Bain's "Shadownet". These heists are done for personal benefit - money.



Depth - 10/10

With 15+ heists and 100s of masks to collect, along with the fun (and sometimes funny) experiences you can share with others over multiplayer, this game has hours of gameplay. Whether you are a "achievement junkie", an aspiring criminal at heart, or an avid gamer, this game has something in store catered to your liking. (I myself have forty hours of gameplay logged.)



Difficulty - 7/10

You can't traditionally rate the difficulty of this game, as there are different 5 different levels of difficulty.

I'd give them individually these difficulties.

Normal: 4/10

Hard: 5/10

Very Hard: 7/10

Overkill: 8/10

Death wish: 10/10

So I picked the "Very Hard" difficulty to rate my opinion on, though Normal is quite easy and Death Wish is unbelievably difficult.



Overall, I suggest picking this game up, especially if it's on sale. Sale price can range from $5-7.50 dollars, and this is one title that is well worth that price.



FINAL SCORE:
8.3