Damn, I knew the series was popular, but I wasn't expecting 9 million+ sales. Congrats to Overkill/Starbreeze. I'm curious if the upcoming Crimewave Edition will make a large contribution to sales, or if the majority of the game's popularity will remain on PC.
It depends on how committed they are to keeping it up to date. The stuff announced for the PS4/XBO version is already out of date and missing significant DLC.
Amazing success for an indie studio!
This game was way hard - I hope when they do a Payday 3, they take a good long look at some gameplay and Stealth mechanics. Maybe even offer a 3rd person view for a stealthy approach.
I think me and a few friends never managed to finish a longer mission on a harder difficulty without being seen - and most of the time I had the feeling it was the mechanics working against me and not false planning or execution.
What DLC is actually worth playing and what does it mix up?
Most of the DLC are weapon packs and generally have at least one worthwhile thing in them. I'd really recommend all of it, but wait for a sale. The heists can be played without actually owning it, you just need to join someone's lobby who owns the heist DLC. Characters packs are kinda meh, the skills are a novelty so again I'd wait for a sale.
And yea your problem with the stealth might be lag related. Even a little bit can cause the guards to path weirdly, sometimes walking through walls. It's still pretty limited in what you can do to affect the situation, so it does amount to a lot of waiting.
Seriously? The game just introduced its next DLC pack two weeks after its last one shipped. At one point they gated future updates to the game behind a certain amount of people preordering their new DLC, including a $20 that only contained four masks in case you wanted to "donate" to Overkill. They also just introduced a new enemy to the game whose weaknesses (HE rounds, sniper rifles, grenades, and rocket launchers) are all only available as DLC.
If EA or Ubisoft were doing the things Overkill does with their DLC, they'd be absolutely CRUCIFIED for it. But Overkill somehow gets a pass because they're "indie." But they're not indie, and they haven't been for a long time now. Certainly not when they signed a deal with a publisher for Payday 2, not when they announced a game based off of one of the biggest television IPs of all time, and not when they introduced an advertisement for a major motion picture in their game.
The rapid release and decline in quality of the DLC is troubling (ie. Armoured Transport vs The Diamond) but you're also overstating it. The Hype Train event was unlocking content so it would be free for everyone. You didn't need to buy anything to get that, I didn't buy the Completely Overkill pack because it was a shitty deal. The new enemy is not made for the explosive weapons, those are only good for the initial low health shield, after that standard rifles are by the best weapon for taking out the bulk of its health. It just needs a better indicator of how much damage you're doing to it outside of relying on something like HoxHUD.
Trust me, they are beginning to get flak for it. Look at any of the Steam news announcements and the subreddit when new DLC comes out.
They still haven't fixed core issues with the game that have existed since the beta. I love the game, but they are holding themselves back with their super dated Diesel engine.
I wouldn't count on them fixing what is most likely deeply nested problems with them making them game with that engine. I mean the game lies to you in the stat screen because the way the game calculates those values is completely borked.
