Recent reviews by Michael Waters

Great concept with satisfying gameplay and clear love and care that shows through in a surprising amount of attention to detail.

Community for this game is great, and surprisingly the publisher was able to listen to and react positively to feedback on an unwanted change.

one of the best co-op experiences available right now

The best game I've ever played. It's incredible design introduces that felt like home to me, with a soundtrack that's phenomenal outside ofthe context of the game.
Play this game. It will challenge you as a person, and I can't say I've been the same after.

I used to really love this game. I have just short of 500 hours into it now. I recommended it to all of my friends and bought it for a few. I have nearly all of the DLC, and had planned on buying the rest of it during the sale that's happening now. But, I read the notes on the update first.

Overkill has just added microtransactions into the game. It's very similar to CSGO and TF2, where "safes" drop within the game and players are required to buy "drills" to open these safes and unlock "skins" for your guns. Drills cost about $2.49.

This is completely ridiculous, for a game that puts out half-assed character packs for $6 (characters that don't have enough lines and take months to get them), for a game that previously held "free" content behid an amount of money that the community needed to spend on Overkill products before it was given to us, for a game that asked for $20 "donation" DLC packs to show our support of Overkill, for a game that promises us free content and takes over a year actually releasing it (while waiting no time to release another DLC pack).

Your response might be that these microtransactions aren't mandatory, and that we don't have to become involved with them. But, as it would turn out, the skins increase gun stats. Paying for skins makes you better in this game. If that isn't pay to win, I don't know what is.

The worst part is that it's such a slap in the face to those who have stuck with Payday for so long. I've poured so much money into this game and its DLC (which costs around $150 I believe), and now, during an event in which the rewards were promised to be completely free, Overkill has added the microtransactions they promised they never would [www.gamespot.com]. Twice .

The sad part is that this could have been a really cool update. Weapon skins would have been a nice addition. But locking them behind a large pay wall is really just hurtful. And if you follow Overkill and how they've been changing over time, you know this is going to get worse. I really, really used to love this game.

If there's one thing good to come out of Payday, it's the support for Hotline Miami. Please, spend your money on those games. They're a lot of fun, the developers are nice guys, and they deserve your support much, much more.

Edit: Great news. They're deleting negative comments about the game in the community group. Looks like the only ones who are allowed to be part of the community are those who are fine being ripped off. If I'm good at predicting Overkill, we'll get another passive aggressive review about how we should be grateful for being allowed to pay for their game, then something sweet that they think will make us forget that they messed up.