‘Payday 2’ Sets Us Up The Bomb

We sort of missed the last Payday 2 update, which brought us the long spoken-of female heister Clover, as well as the Diamond heist, tasking us with stealing an ancient and apparently cursed jewel.

Now that OVERKILL has brought in Lion Studios to help produce more DLC for the game, we’re already being prepared to receive the latest expansion to the game, and it has some surprises in store:

We’d heard about the Butcher before, our favorite four-gone-sixsome’s latest source of work, but the trailer apparently surprised many by making it a woman. I don’t blame them, when you hear a name like “The Butcher” and see that it’s some sort of European mafioso setup, it does conjure up images of well-suited tattooed men with gruff voices, not unassuming butcher shop/arms dealers.

Still, the trailer, in traditional Payday fashion, manages to evoke a lot of tension without a lot of action, very much like the old Dentist trailer did. The crucial bits to know, though: we have a new contractor (the Butcher), a new heist (the Bomb), and—rather shockingly—a new hesiter (Dragan).

And, as all things OVERKILL seems to do, the community is strangely divided on the issue. Many were surprised to hear about the new crew member, with some looking forward to the additional diversity while others feel as though this is another half-baked reason for OVERKILL to charge us money for something.

After all, the Clover DLC, in conjunction with the Diamond Heist, was in some ways the weakest offering of the DLC bunch. People didn’t mind Clover, and she came with a few additional weapons, but the heist was weak and the cost was deemed by many to be too steep for what it was worth—a single one-day heist that had (for a few days) a rubbish payout.

After the John Wick inclusion, people have been less and less impressed with the character offerings. The old crew felt like they were tightly knit, but now they’ve had several loosely affiliated characters introduced, and now one that doesn’t belong there at all. Truly, considering all the free content OVERKILL has provided over the lifespan of the game, I’m not sure I mind paying a little to be able to play as another heister just to have new lines. I do wish the characters would have unique interactions between specific characters, but many that are complaining are forgetting one crucial piece of the puzzle: Dragan is going to come with his own Perk Deck, much like Clover did, allowing for more on-the-fly customization of playstyles.

My other bother with the most recent pairing was that the weapon came with the character, not the heist. It feels more as though the contractors should be providing the weapons, not that the new guy is bringing a few toys with him. Similarly, it feels odd to be introducing more contractors when it almost feels like we haven’t spent much time with the Dentist at all yet (only three heists so far).

Absent so far are further details about the heist itself—but if recent models are any indication, we’ll be fed additional details over the next few days.

Even better: we won’t have to wait long for this. The trailer dropped yesterday, but the character and heist will be out in a week, on January 22nd. It’s no Golden Grin Casino (which I am beyond stoked for, for whatever reason), but I eagerly await more information. Stay tuned for more details next week.