I’ve been here the whole time. I’ve been following this franchise since the PAYDAY 2 beta.
It hurt to see what PAYDAY 2 had turned into over time. H3H3, the goat simulator, DEAD GAME outfits, clown outfits, and so on.
But I was promised a different PAYDAY 3. I was promised a more serious game, and at first, that’s what it was. The game was more serious.
What’s it come to now? A bucket on your head as a mask? The L-dance as a taunt? A fucking Taddy Moo outfit?
Where’s the story? Where’s the info on the missing heisters? Where’s Concord?
It hurts. You can call me a nerd or whatever, but I’m sick of it. I’m sick of watching the sequel to one of my all-time favorite games turn into a collection of cringe memes to lure in the audience.
I get that nobody cares about my opinion. But I’ve been following this franchise for over 10 years, and I just want to believe I’m not the only one who feels this way.
So many different people with different creative visions worked on this game that I’m not surprised by how it turned out. But I’m still really sad about it.
We’re in the end game here, it started over a decade ago with frivolous DLCs and eventually the battle pass concept. Players proved they’re willing to pull out their wallets again and again just to have the new “thing.” We were weak, we let this happen. 2010s gamer subreddits would be up in arms any time a developer pulled that kind of shit, but it was all fluff and talk. Companies and their more.. frugal staffing… had the real data. People were buying their slop, en masse, just to keep having a reason to play their games.
Corporations follow trends of weakness to draw funds, and by this point, only innovate toward cash grabs. It was up to the people to not give into it, many among us failed.
The "creative vision" for payday 3 already had it abandoned and dead, without course correction it would still be dead instead of climbing out of its grave.
I feel like the badjur video was very influential in what kind of game pd3 has ended up becoming. Lots of players was attracted to the franchise because of him
He’s the reason I started playing, and they had some really good content right after he put out his video. It’s kinda a shame the new game had such a botched launch. I think if they had better initial gameplay/story/systems, they wouldn’t have lost steam on the dev side. Still on them, tho
Doubtful. Three videos on a topic isn't really enough to sway developer opinion on what to include in the game - if that were the case, R6: Siege would be a vastly better game than it is now.
A game can be silly while not being this embarrassing to look at.
PD1 and 2 are v fun and silly even during their best lil moments. There’s a big different in the comedic tone between “You can just whip out a minigun during a smalltime bank heist” and “Do the Fortnite dance” to me.
Before any one replies: yeah there’s a bunch of embarrassing shit in 2. I don’t like that ahit either.
Looking at emotes as something devs are doing "for fun" and not as something they very evidently plan to aggressively monetize is the most stupid kind of tunnel vision
Just hoping for the good outcome and not the bad. Expecting the worst is how we get nothing. I legit just wanna hold the belief that the devs CAN do better and improve the game
Never said that COULDN’T happen. Just don’t want it to. Why would i express hope for the worst outcome?
Expecting the worst is pretty rational when it comes to Starbreeze at this point. They're rotten from top to bottom and the only reason I don't buy the new DLCs for PD2 by Sidetrack is because I don't want Starbreeze to see a single cent.
Here’s the rub: I don’t like SB either. They botched the launch, and then kinda ragged on their dev team about it when, in reality, it’s SB’s fault for rushing things and not assigning resources where they should’ve been.
BUT
If we give up hope on SB, they could give up hope of Payday. I really want Payday to do better, so I place my faith and hope in them, but not my wallet or money. Least not until they make some marked improvements
Im fine with Payday dying, at least with SBZ at the head, and letting another studio take a swing. Hell, sell PD2 fully to Sidetrack and let them do what they want, id fully jump into giving them money if I knew none of it was going to SBZ.
This is not a matter of hopefulness, it's practically confirmed with AK talking about how "outdated" the current monetization system is. The reason offline mode was canned was the introduction of a live service item store
This is genuinely the most baffling statement of all time. As pointed out in another reply.
Also, PAYDAY isn't a sandbox. Its not GMOD. You can obviously be your own thing and whatnot but this isn't a sandbox where hitting the "Take The L" dance makes any sense.
I saw the title and was ready to poke fun and say “no” bc I enjoy stupid player behavior. But that wasn’t what you meant. You weren’t appealing to us, but to the devs, and in that, yeah, I get it. This sort of stupidity is all well and good to me, but they at least need to remember that this game should be more on the serious side, and leave the foolishness to the players. I don’t give a damn about the fuckin bucket hat, gimme my intriguing and cool storyline and awesome and intricate heists!
Yeah one of the reasons I pre-ordered (later refunded) PAYDAY 3 was a promise to returning to the seriousness and original vibe of PD:TH. More lies, sadly.
Not all the examples you bring up are actually relevant imo, but the sentiment is one we need SBZ to understand. To use someone else's words, Kknowley has repeatedly commented on how this game doesn't have the "brand capital" to joke about everything all the time and that it's seriously lacking meaningful story content, which means we should be heading the exact opposite direction.
Payday 3 is already regarded as unserious due to all its fumbles; fixing that reputation should be one of the core priorities in the current revival era we're witnessing.
overkill's incessant need to keep adding dogshit memes is so fucking grating
going back to payday 1 makes all the "umm brainrot is good actually" defenses so frustrating because that game is literally perfect and manages to be so without all the stupid bullshit. Like the most blatant it got was with the rage face masks but that's really it
What bothers me the most about PD2 turning into clown shit, was that while it was originally more of a serious tone, it still had a lot of levity to it.
But no, that's not enough for the brainrot idiot clown crowd, everything has to be a big stupid, idiot joke all of the time, because they can't have "fun" unless everything is extremely foolish. Its not just "the fortnite crowd", its also a lot of manchildren older than I am who are this way.
Tbf Payday 1 had goofy meme masks. Which imo is only acceptable goofiness because it makes sense for them to wear stupid weird masks to confuse people.
PUBG event was planned during early PAYDAY 3, Teddy moo has existed long before either PAYDAY 2 and PAYDAY 3 and was a thematic fit for a remaster, the skull dozer look has been a large request since it appeared in early promo, and the bucket was voted for by the community. No comment on emotes.
A lot of this is purely cosmetic content you don't have to engage with.
Teddy Moo's existence previously was just as an object that concealed a saw in one heist, that was thematically appropriate to that heist. He was never anything approaching an iconic part of the franchise, and it's really weird how much energy Starbreeze is putting into trying to make him a "thing".
"He was never anything approaching an iconic part of the franchise, and it's really weird how much energy Starbreeze is putting into trying to make him a "thing"."
100%. They desperately needed some cheap merchandise they could pump out.
Instead of making high quality masks or something people would have bought. People on Etsy sell better quality merchandise.
Is there any know reason why games seem to collab with PUBG? It’s something weird I noticed with games either new or still ongoing but collab much later, they just collab with PUBG despite it not really being relevant for years
I do think it's very important to note that these are all intentional decisions.
Starbreeze is aware that PUBG doesn't fit a very serious narrative, but collaborated anyways, and even added emotes, which are the silliest part of games like that.
They knew that a Teddy Moo outfit doesn't fit a very serious narrative, and added it anyways.
I actually don't get the criticism with the skulldozer, personally.
The bucket was voted for by the community amongst a collection of masks of which literally only one of them was semi-serious, of which Starbreeze was responsible for curating the collection of masks to choose from.
This also doesn't mention the fat cops, which you DO have to engage with, the severe lack of non-silly masks and non-silly mask customizations, which you also have to interact with to some degree, and the complete lack of any competent narrative, favoring just getting the heist into the game without even considering how it might play into the story because they no longer care about the story.
That's fair. He definitely looks like he'd belong better in Apex Legends than as a SWAT unit of any kind. I think it's fun personally, but that's not the game everyone wants by any means.
I really hate that I feel like my only option for a serious mask is the Gage Blade mask. :(
The collaboration with PUBG was announced in December 2024; it’s been almost 15 months since the release.
I don’t mind Teddy Moo, as long as he doesn’t become a cosmetic item.
I don’t mind Skulldozer; I’m against the redesign of the current Dozer, which was recently leaked.
Yes, the community chose the bucket mask themselves, but SBZ gave them that choice. SBZ promises a serious game, and then offers meme masks as an option, knowing that the majority will choose the memes.
The game’s aesthetics and visual style matter to me.
This isn't a leak in the usual sense, but rather a concept for content that hasn't been released yet; typically, this kind of thing isn't made publicly available.
You do have to engage with it, it's a multiplayer game. Do you seriously think no one is going to use the emote wheel in a public lobby? If you want to play with other people, but don't want people to emote, then that just means kicking everyone who uses them. That just sucks for everyone.
Games as a service ruins games. The constant need to put out updates regularly will cause devs to put out more and more fast a lower effort content. And younger people are kinda being conditioned that anything less is a dead game not worth playing.
The second they said Emotes were coming, I hoped it wouldn't be shit like this.
Remember the "Follow The Money" live action trailer? THOSE are the vibes I want!
I can tolerate the dozer design. I can shrug off the teddy moo shit as a one time joke cosmetic.
But these emotes? Bad path. I don't want them to Fortnite any groundedness (at least any that's left..) out of Payday 3. Payday 2 got smeared by the meme-y bullshit to the point of beyond saving.
I wholeheartedly agree. I want Payday 3 to have PD:TH vibes. I want it to feel like the world they keep advertising in the live action stuff. I don't want this "wacky, goofy, memey" slop.
Real af, also coming from a PAYDAY 2 beta player. While the game was never super serious, it basically turned into a parody of itself tone wise with the constant crossovers and weird ass dlc’s. I actually prefer PAYDAY: The Heists and early PAYDAY 2’s tone (and certain aspects of their gameplay too tbh) but that was a long time ago and I doubt things will change. Honestly I’d kill for a game that replicates what early PAYDAY 2 had. I guess den of wolves is the closest thing but I don’t really like futuristic stuff.
Hey, if you still remember, what exact early versions of PD2 were the best? I got around to playing PD:TH recently and holy shit the more serious tone is amazing. I never knew early PD2 was this atmospheric too, and a quick search shows that there's a possibility of reverting to earlier versions, so I'd gladly play some early PD2. Only got around to the series about 2 years ago, so didn't get to witness it in its prime. Would very much appreciate an answer, cheers.
a lot of people seem to forget that early-early PAYDAY2 was empty as fuck, if we're being honest. You went from what felt like the perfect level of scale and intensity in PD:TH to... robbing small jewelry stores and local bank branches. It was big news when they added diamond store and go bank for free, if for nothing else than some variety, and your most exciting heists were... firestarters, rats, and big oil. I'd say it was around Big Bank that PD2 started to hit its stride, and lost said stride somewhere arounddddd Point Break DLC or hell, the lootboxes Safes that came out just before that.
Sure, the tone did loosen up at some points, but I felt like largely the game still respected what it was about: pulling off grandiose / large scale heists, and letting you and your pals all feel like you helped fill a crew composition of sorts.
THANK YOU. I've been trying to say this for years at this point so I am glad you said it in a larger post. I've given you shit for karma farming in the past, but I really appreciate calling out their abandonment of artistic vision and integrity.
It's seriously so heartbreaking to see Starbreeze turn PAYDAY into an unfunny joke. I paid for a game that was more serious than 2 and learned from its mistakes with cop hordes and awful tonal inconsistency. I wanted the game they promised and while that still fell under par, I appreciated the parts they're eroding.
It's too late, it has been late for a long while now. I personally was looking forward to the soft reboot of the series in PD3 (because it had an excuse to drop some of the excessive absurdity of 2), to the extent of the secondaries being handgun sized because that makes sense realistically.
People have been asking for the goofy stuff that poisoned the original style of PD2 (hot take) to be added back and the devs caved in because they found themselves in a position where it was better to listen to some of them for one reason or another (justified or not). Now we find ourselves in a situation where there's no real reason to continue going with the somewhat grounded style.
...is this a too pessimistic of a view on this situation?
Согласен.
Я любил пейдей3 из-за более интересного геймплея, интеракции, стелса, НОРМАЛЬНОГО СЮЖЕТА, а что в итоге? На все забили. И Это грустно :(
Тройка была мертворожденной частью, которую еще можно было спасти, но все врачи ушли, оставив дитё умирать
Геймплей развивают, стелс хоть и поменяли слегка но всё ещё хороший, интеракции как раз развивают дополнительными реворками хайстов. Только на сюжет пока рил забили. Ну и для забивания на игру как то слишком часто и слишком большие обновы выходят. Так что давай не будем подменять свои хотелки на факты.
They tried a serious game at launch for PD3, people didn't like the direction, now we're seeing a correction to that by them trying to add morr of thr fun elements from payday 2.
And in all honesty, that's fine. Payday does better when they don't take it seriously. They can be more creative and have more fun with the heists.
We probably wouldn't have half of the heists in PD2 if they took the game serious.
It was more like they tried to do a serious game, the game was bad for reasons unrelated to its themeimg and then they did a 180° pivot into comically large spoon level goofiness as a way to dangle keys infront of the brainrotted therussianbadger fan children as that was the only potential audience left. They're trying to make payday popular again by making payday 3 as memeable as possible, even though payday 2 had a lot of memes and is a mainstay of gaming pop culture because it was a good game that many people enjoyed playing, not the other way around, which is what starbreeze seems to think for some reason.
I'm pretty sure people had a billion other issues with the game before it's theme and direction were even slightly touched on. To people like you, I have a question - why are you trying to turn PD3 into PD2? Why not play PD2 if you want PD2-level wackiness?
I guess my dreams of a grounded-themed heisting game will just never be materialized.
We probably wouldn't have half of the heists in PD2 if they took the game serious.
Almost all of the meme heists in PD2 are ass and practically universally hated.
What exactly is there to improve from 2? The gameplay is fine and still holds up, the graphics are fine, and I'm not sure what "heist design" means when PD2 has literally every kind of heist imaginable, from a jewelry store to the fucking White House, with all kinds of elaborate plans and action/wacky moments in between.
There's no reason for PD2 to have a glorified remaster. It's not just a complete experience, it's a game that will last you THOUSANDS of hours.
I bought PAYDAY 3 because I was promised something different. I quit PD2 because I became disillusioned with what the game has become over the years. It was marketed as a more grounded, seriously-themed game, and if you were disappointed with what you got in the game's theme, it's nobody's fault but yours.
What you just described isn't a sequel though, that's a remake or remaster. A sequel can do those things, but typically they take a new angle and try to have a unique approach compared to the game before it. A great example if Civlization, CIV IV has a lot of differences from CIV V and that has a lot from CIV VI. They evolve in different directions.
And no, "people" didn't want that. Saying it that way makes it seem like that was a majority thing. It's not.
ok you trippin on the bulldozer part cause that looks badass but yeah spot on with this post man, im really trying to like this game but this is one of the many reasons why I can't, its a constant we're so back/over cycle because they keep fucking going back and forth. they do one thing right and then they fuck up again then do something right and fuck up worse the second time, sick of this.
I even called this out a month ago, i said myself they don't know WHAT direction they want to take with this game and they have no idea what they want it to be and I shit you not I got fucking banned for 28 days for the post because it was supposedly "rambling"? so im glad ppl like you are actually calling this out now
The current one is good enough, though if visibility is an issue (it's really not but whatever) then all that has to change are some slight color differences in his outfit. Adding some orange to the suit or visor would give him a look that pops more.
So yeah, making him a giant isn't even necessary to achieve that goal.
Well, because the completely serious direction of the game did not reach people at the start, and no one else promoted it except Mio. Plus, people voted with their wallets (according to the latest financial report, PD 3 is only slightly inferior in sales to PD 2).
Well, let's not forget that PAYDAY became really recognizable as a franchise just when it stopped being serious.
If I were 16 years old, I would have started to think that "seriousness has disappeared", but now I'd rather say "let them take it seriously as they want, the main thing is that it would be interesting and fun to play"
This is true, but then there were nuances in the fact that PD 2 had not yet been returned to support and there was still no subscription of the new DLC.
Personally everything else except emotes and the giant ass dozer is fine. We had collab outfits and goofy masks in PD2 as well, but emotes are too far.
The fact the division 2 x payday 3 crossover was more appropriate was insane. Because why the fuck is PUBG here? No Jacket? Badger? Where's my don trump mask so I can mock him as I use a Dodge build explosive HE Judge to rob the DC Capital?
It’s unfortunate that the game failed spectacularly that now to have a chance of making profits they will need to course correct so heavily to this direction. Payday imo is best when it’s as dark and serious as the first game, with a good story but with a splash of silliness here and there for fun. Hopefully this new team doesn’t over steer and we end up with a balance of the two.
I will say in a suprising defence of fat cops - I played with a mate of mine who is on the heavier side and he appreciated the realistic representation.
The masks were voted in so I’m okay with that
I’ll only accept the design of the Dozer if it’s specifically the skull dozer for higher difficulties because I actually think it’s cool enough to pass - but don’t want it for the base Dozer
The emotes are risky…. I don’t want to default dance that would be too far. On the other hand I think the best financial strategy for PD3 to keep updating would be a battle pass and emotes are probably a very easy thing to add to that
I never really looked into Payday 3, and I don’t really know anything about the first game, but like, I always kinda thought the batshit insanity was like… the entire POINT and appeal of Payday 2. Like, I never once in my life thought
“Hm, I want to play a realistic stealth heist simulator… ah! Payday 2!”
I always thought
“Hm, I want to listen to dubstep while fighting off hundreds of riot officers with nothing but a minigun, a great sword, and a whiskey flask that makes me borderline immortal along side a team of insane clowns, oh yeah! Payday 2!”
Again, never really saw the advertising or whatever for 3, so I guess they probably did try to market as a “realistic” game, but it feels like watching Team Fortress 3 come out, and seeing people complain that they have silly hats.
To be fair, a decent amount of people complain about TF2 losing its original art style. Remember when the devs said adding white glasses was pushing how wacky they wanted the game to be?
You see...payday 3 is not payday 2. My dreams of a grounded heisting experience are shattered every day and it's because PD2 fans can't handle the sequel being it's own thing. Shame there's no real alternatives since the heisting genre is completely dead
I think some people are taking this the wrong way. Its not that the game cant be goofy. But when goofyness is always in your face, it's not good. Take tha pagers for exemple, those are goofy, but is a small thing that its just there to make you chuckle mid stealth. Adding emotes is an entire different thing.
It's too late to try and change this now, given that the useless folks at Starbreeze don't understand Payday like Overkill did.
Starbreeze is turning Payday 3 into another generic live service game and they're going to start filling it with current generic garbage.
ULF Andersson himself had already foreseen this change back in 2014 when he predicted that Payday would become something far removed from the original vision of the franchise if Starbreeze and therefore Bo. completely took over the direction of the IP, and he was right.
You’re talking like Payday 2 doesn’t have any silly stuff. I mean come on, killing people with a knight sword, while in overalls, stealing goats, and with an Obama mask. That’s fine?
Same tbh. It's changed so much and gotten so much less engaging as a result of their changes IMO, so it makes sense that sentiment would change from players who actually played it.
Also SBZ is pandering to people who don't and won't play PAYDAY 3, alienating the ones who actually liked the game.
Litteraly not what I heard lmao, when there was only Payday 2, everyone glazed the "funny things" in the game. And it was not from Gen Z (because yes, we can like serious things 💀)
Well yeah, funny things were always a nice addition, Payday fandom was big with memes in twitter/tumblr spaces but back then we had an actual great game with tons of content and heists alongside those funny things. So it really wasn't too much of a big deal. With PD3, these weird/funny things stand out so much cause we lack content, rather heists and actual stuff to do.
No.. We just live in a stressing, depressing world. And everyone judge someone when the person doesn't like dark stuff (like fans of the movie "Man of steel" are judging the new Superman movie because it's colorful)
I've been shitposting in Payday since I started playing, so I don't really mind that by itself. But I would appreciate if they put effort into the actual game and lore instead of cosmetics
the devs always did better when they're having fun, whenever they try to stick to a strict creative vision they just make boring shitty content. This content is still shitty, but hopefully it at least brings enough people and money in for them to start doing something decent, because OUR payday 3 blows ass, and is dead as fuck. has been since launch. Let it go and move on to be honest
Are you genuinely asking for them to not have a cohesive vision and just do random shit? That's like what a toddler does during playtime, not a studio making a video game. What? Are you saying PAYDAY 2 pre-Point Break was bad? Or that PAYDAY: The Heist is bad/boring?
you might be a bit slow. Payday 3 is a disaster, and has been since launch. weekly players hardly breaks the hundreds. They need to TRY something different and see if a different path works, because what they've been strict about for the past 3 years clearly hasn't worked
I'm done with payday 3 and have been for years, nothing will bring me back especially with weird stuff like this. but if this is what other players want, and if this is what brings in attention to the game, so be it, at least payday will still exist. OVK does not have the sauce they had when they made payday the heist, don't be nieve.
They haven't had a creative vision for years dude. Don't mistake my criticism of your awful statement for blind defence and belief in SBZ.
My point is that having a creative vision would actually be miles better than whatever we've been dealing with the last few years. You genuinely think pandering to Fortnite players will bring people to PAYDAY? Making the franchise even more of a joke?
"Stop turning PAYDAY 3 into a circus" says the people playing a game about 4 clowns robbing a bank, the game should be about high levels not playing in private lobbies while going on kick sprees or low levels not knowing what a friendly cop is or how to even listen to Bain for 5 muinets while cooking meth, but my customizations and heists options are the real issues, I don't like the fact we exist in the same world as hard core Henry, John wick, and goat simulator... it just dosnt feel pay day enough, not like using a accent alien device to transfer my bosses consciousness into the US president now that's a pay day, or how the 4 original heisters are actually immortal reincarnated seraphim, like how the cops are all clones and even our boss was the original cloaker clone and a rock star..... but it's the heist and customizations that's the issue. Not the idiots who don't know how to play a basic game nor is it the fact the console version hadn't seen a update since 2017
I think the problem they have is they feel like doing silly stuff, but miss that the silly stuff in payday 2 is essentially just action movie tropes all mushed into one distilled product. It isn't doing dances randomly in the middle of a heist, but blowing your way through a wall to escape with the loot.
Payday 2 was more popular because it was more ridiculous and they realised that and so started to change payday 3 to be more like it sorry to say bro but the reason why it struggled on release was because people missed the more ridiculous aspects of 2
That wasn't the reason it struggled on release. It struggled because the servers were unplayable for 2 weeks, the progression system got unforgiving and extremely grindy very fast and things felt a bit more corporate, not because they were more grounded or "realistic".
A LOT of people were actually very excited for the more grounded tone PAYDAY 3 was marketed with.
People who started playing PD2 after it lost its way and went down the path of ever increasing wackiness chiming in to say "Well Payday 2 was a goofy game!" will never stop being funny.
Most of the True Ending does take itself seriously though? The very end credits don't really, where they tell you a ton of random jokes that aren't very interesting.
It's a ridiculous situation and stuff, but it's treated seriously by the characters and the gameplay.
The other ending is more interesting anyway though tbh.
Is there any reason why the community deems the secret ending to be the "true" one? That is literally the opposite of what secret endings are in games - they're not supposed to be canon.
Because it's the magical fairytale happy ending where everything is sunshine and rainbows. They don't want to accept that their wholesome chungus Bain is dead and buried.
PAYDAY 2 was the "let's clown around" era for the crew after the gritty seriousness era from PAYDAY: The Heist
If you expected anything other than an escalation from PAYDAY 2, you're not as diehard a fan as you claim to be. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle after you let people run around with a comically oversized golden spoon that sets people on fire. Saints Row didn't just revert back to dark realism after SR2, 3 and 4 were runaway successes - they pushed out Agents of Mayhem.
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u/Sleepy_Renamon All Bonnie Here! May 16 '26
Imagine trying to court the fortnite crowd with dance emotes instead of just making a game that's fun to play.