History VideoGame / Payday2

In addition to the game, Overkill Software created a promotional mini-series, simply called ''PAYDAY: The Web Series'', which consists of six 10-minute episodes based on the game. The series showcases the main characters in action while also showing minor characters that play a role in the overall story arc, or what kind of people they are. The series was produced and directed by Demian Lichtenstein, who also directed ''Film/ThreeThousandMilesToGraceland'', and was co-produced by Overkill Software. It can be found for free on Website/{{Youtube}} and several gaming news-sites.

** The above entry can be viewed as one by some players; the main reason some choose Armored Transport jobs is because they are quick, clean sources of money and experience. The train job being accepted ('accepted' meaning 'picked up the item drop that triggers it') jeopardizes the gained money and XP by making you do a much more difficult bonus mission which takes time and, if failed, can lose you your previous profit.

* LevelGrinding: Discouraged through slower leveling from around level 40 onwards. It possible to acquire a total of 120 upgrade points, but the later XP requirements mean even a flawless multi-day heist on the highest difficulty will '''never''' get you more than 3/4 of a level. Thankfully, upgrades now come with a respec option that refunds all your points and half of your upgrade money.[[note]]The point of a half cash refund means you still have to work and save up cash again for the best abilities, preventing abuse of the respec feature between missions.[[/note]]

** Also the bank heists. There's always a chance the vault is empty, meaning you have to break into the safety deposit boxes. Granted, it's easily done with a saw, but lacking one means [[FakeDifficulty you have to start picking into each and every one until the team can scrape enough together.]]
** The Armored Transport heist has a small chance of spawning military blueprints, which you will need if you wish to play the Train Heist. Another smaller element in these jobs is that, on higher difficulty levels, the game can decide to spawn a massively-armored and highly dangerous Bulldozer enemy in the back of one of the armored trucks, just to keep you on your toes when opening them up.

** GO Bank is so random it's cruel, especially as achievements require a zero alarm run. Even if everything is perfect, stealth runs mean you '''must''' take a call to confirm the vault unlock, and the said caller can randomly ask to speak with "Barney" to confirm, or can be a police chief demanding to speak with an officer; if Bain can't convince them otherwise, either of the callers will send enemies to check out the bank ''and then raise the alarm when they don't report back things are fine.'' In other words, unless you're willing to leave a chunk of loot, you'll being forfeiting stealth acheivements and XP and, since the driver flees at first alarm, you have to do the tedious "Plan B" method.

* HollywoodSilencer: {{Averted}}, as silenced weapons act more like their real life counterparts; silenced guns are less noisy than a non silenced gun, but people will still hear it if you fire too close to them. Then later played stright when Overkill updated all silencers to be completely silent, and balanced around damage reduction and concealment instead of noise reductional value.

* OneHitPointWonder: Again, civilians are fragile as ever as they were in the previous game. Even the weakest gun in the game can kill innocents with a single shot. Accidentally hit one when you meant to shout for them to get down? Yeah, that'll penalize you too.
* PacifistRun: Entirely possible with many heists having stealth as an alternate method instead of running in guns blazing, but it takes a lot of coordination and the right tools at times.
* PaletteSwap: The Bulldozer that uses the automatic shotgun wears a black suit of armor compared to the green colored pump-action counterpart.

** Played straight with the bouncer in the Nightclub job. You can walk up to him decked out in a full suit of body armor, carry highly visible weapons, and he will still think you're a classy gentleman, letting you inside. Also played straight with civilians until you have your weapon drawn.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: The Gage weapons pack [=DLCs=] [[ZigZaggedTrope vary between releases]]:

** Played straight again with the mod pack as, while it requires [[ForcedLevelGrinding level grinding]] to find enough hidden packs, the outcome lands players with free weapon mods, which can lead to some seriously powerful combos normally unavailable to others (save for some alternatives which require specific card unlocks and tons of cash).
** Also played straight with some DLC assets: the sniper pack, for example, grants the unlockable bonuses like two-way ziplines and vantage points which, like grenades, can be a huge advantage but require at least one player to have paid for the DLC.

** The Death Wish update enhanced this further by introducing EXP reduction if you play the same level over and over while giving you an EXP boost if you play different heists each time.

*** If that isn't bad enough, do note that several random factors can sabotage the mission. Not only do passing civilians frequently spawn into the map, but even cops can sometimes walk past and sound the alarm; even one of the portable toilets out back can randomly open, resulting in a bank guard wandering in from the back ''without warning.'' Throw in things like, for example, how a blackmailer can call and demand you throw a cash bag over a fence or he calls the cops, and you've got some unleaded FakeDifficulty.

** The Armored Transport heist has a small chance of spawning military blueprints, which you will need if you wish to play the Train Heist.

* ConspicuousGloves: The four playable characters always wear blue latex surgical gloves with their two-piece suits regardless of the mission. They're obviously to prevent leaving fingerprints, but it can be somewhat disconcerting when you notice you always wear them, even while covertly casing a robbery target. This coupled with the aversion of Informed Equipment can lead to players who, although geared for stealth, always seem to A) be wearing surgical gloves and B) carrying gear like first aid kits slung over their shoulder. It can start to seem like an Unusually Uninteresting Sight when four men resembling extremely fashion-conscious paramedics in varying degrees of military-grade body armor walk through a bank mumbling about guards and cameras.

Overkill Software created a web series, simply called ''PAYDAY: The Web Series'', which is an online short film (usually around 10 to 20 minutes) based on the game. The series showcases the main characters in action while also showing minor characters that play a role in the overall story arc or what kind of people they are. The series is produced and directed by Demian Lichtenstein, who also directed ''3000 Miles to Graceland''. The web series is also co-produced by Overkill Software.

The crew from the first game return except for Hoxton and Chains, who are [[TakeUpMySword new characters using the old aliases/masks]] and are based on the actors from the web series; WordOfGod says that the old Hoxton and Chains were [[PutOnABus either arrested or have retired from their criminal careers.]] The game had five [=DLCs=] planned until Overkill's publisher 505 Games gave several million dollars in funding to ensure content and support for the game for the next 20 months. The successful beta test from the community had the developers release the first DLC, Armored Transport Heist, for free towards anyone who pre-ordered the game. Notably, ''pre-order sales alone were enough for the game to break even on development.''

** GO Bank is so random it's cruel, especially so as an achievement requires doing it with zero alarms. Even if everything is perfect, you '''must''' make a call from [=GenSec=] to confirm the vault unlock; since the [=GenSec=] caller can randomly ask to speak with "Barney" to confirm and, if Bain can't convince her, she will send cops to check out the bank ''and then raise the alarm when they don't report back.''

** Enforcer's [[BottomlessMagazines "Bullet Storm"]] is an early unlock that grants 5 seconds of infinite ammo (without reload needs) after deploying an ammo bag. Upon reaching later levels, however, it becomes borderline ridiculous, as Acing the skill makes the boost last 10 seconds and can be used twice by carrying an extra ammo bag; considering the Mosconi shotgun has high damage and is only restricted by having two shots between reloads, using both can allow a player to level assault teams and Bulldozers as fast as they can mash the trigger.

** Also the C4. Granted, it eats into your mine ammo and can't really be used offensively, but it can detonate most locks and obstacles. The "Ukrainian Job" heist even comes with an achievement for abusing C4 -- the heist can even be beat in under a minute by charging to the safe, blowing it, and charging to the escape vehicle.

** Played straight again with the mod pack as, while it requires [[ForcedLevelGrinding level grinding]] to find enough hidden packs, the outcome lands players with free weapon mods, which can lead to some seriously powerful combos normally unavailable to others (save for some alternatives which require specific card unlocks and tons of cash).

* BribingYourWayToVictory: Averted with the Gage weapons pack [=DLCs=]. Each weapon pack has nifty guns that are awesome, but they have some major drawbacks that make sure that the guns don't overpower the vanilla guns. Frag grenades have a big blast radius, but they are usually not strong enough to kill cops instantly and have just enough force to stun them while the explosions can kill civilians easily. Knives are powerful, but require a wind up time to maximize their power. Light machine guns have a massive ammo pool and high rate of fire, but they have poor accuracy and have lengthy reload times. Sniper rifles can pierce Shield SWAT units, can hit multiple foes at once, and have high zoom levels when using the default scope, but the ammo capacity is low and the reload times are lengthy.

-->-- '''Bane'''

Following the success of the first game, Starbreeze (makers of the [[VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay Riddick]] [[VideoGame/AssaultOnDarkAthena games]]) decided to buy the OVERKILL outright and fund a sequel. Dubbed ''PAYDAY 2'', the game was released worldwide on August 13th on Steam and August 16th on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2013. A playable beta was released on July 24th on the same year for players that pre ordered the Steam version of the game.

Rather than having swappable classes, the game uses a more refined character class system; you spend skill points to level up different class trees that contain different abilities, allowing you to mix-and-match abilities. The game also contains weapon mods that allow players to tweak and customize weapons as they wish for optimal performance, as well as customizable masks that have different materials, patterns, and colors.

[[folder:PAYDAY 2]]

[[redirect:VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist]]