Payday 3 will likely never become more popular than the good "old" Payday 2. The problem is, despite remaining incredibly fun Payday 2's years already show.
It could do with some improvements. Luckily, Payday 2 has a community dedicated to modernizing the game with quality-of-life fixes and fresh new mods.
Table of contents
Better Bots
Bots are the lifeblood of horde shooters, so it's no surprise that Better Bots is the most popular Payday 2 mod ever. It improves and adds a multitude of functions to the bots that greatly improve the game's overall experience. They become more deadly and dangerous, and not because they'll simply deal more damage.
This mod grants the bots dozens of new mechanics, such as the ability to dominate cops, melee enemies, throw concussion grenades, mark turrets, and even to hit any enemy from any distance, including snipers. And that's just to name a few. This is the mod to get for anyone looking for a much more intricate Payday 2 experience.
Re-Texture Project
Payday 2 looks good for a 12-year-old game, but it doesn't look Battlefield 6 good. That's ok, though, because anyone who doesn't find the improved bots and animations enough to make it feel like a modern game can get the game's best fan-made texture overhaul to date.
Re-Texture Project adds a bunch of visual flair, so much so that this mod is rather demanding, even for modern computers.
Dynamic Weapon Animations
Though this mod doesn't feature any sort of graphical overhaul, it introduces some greatly-improved animations in terms of regular weapon movement, head bob, tilt, jump, sway, ADS, and more. It also reduces the unwelcome camera shake.
When it comes to mods that give Payday 2 a nicer and more modernized look and feel, it's hard to beat the Dynamic Weapon Animations mod.
Silent Assassin: Definitive Edition
Just like the name suggests, this very simple mod gives undetected players the ability to execute enemies without having to worry about their pagers going off and alerting the other bots. This results in a much more fun experience for players who want to go all ninja on their targets.
Silent Assassin is a somewhat divisive mod that some fans of the game call out as a cheat for making the game too easy. Still, it's so popular that we just cannot let it go down silently.
Third Person
This is another case of a very simple mod that scratches an itch that exists for so many players.
Many first-person perspective games could totally work in third person as well, but we'll never see many of them making the perspective shift for one reason or another. The good part is that it's usually easy to make that shift a reality — even when the devs don't want that to happen.
This mod has a few issues, like needing to relearn how to aim because its aiming system had FPP in mind, and some animations that just don't work. Still, it remains one of the most popular amongst the fanbase.
Download here
Extra Heist Info
Whereas some games feature too much information that serves no purpose other than to clutter the screen, many argue (correctly, in my opinion) that Payday 2 lacks in the HUD department.
Extra Heist Info is a very simple mod that displays a bunch of useful tracker indicators to help you with your big score.
Hotline Miami HUD
The Hotline Miami HUD mod bestows upon Payday 2 some of the slickest visuals and creates an unofficial collab of sorts with another fan-favorite crime game.
There are other cosmetic overhauls for Payday 2, but the Hotline Miami HUD mod has been the most popular one ever since its release.
VR Fixes (For Payday 2: VR)
Payday 2 VR is a woefully underrated way of enjoying the full scope of the Payday experience. Sadly, its release version needs some tweaks to ensure stability, so it never got as popular as the original. Still, anyone looking for the most immersive Payday 2 experience yet should try out the VR Fixes mod, as it fixes the most glaring problems in the original version and makes it one of the coolest VR experiences out there.
The Particle Massacre
It's hard to ignore the power of visual flair when it comes to convincing players of a game's modernity. If textures alone aren't enough to sell you on Payday 2, then you should give The Particle Massacre a chance. This mod won't kill any of its users with shrapnel, but instead introduces a wide array of new particle animations that will greatly enhance the wow factor.
The post Best Payday 2 mods appeared first on Destructoid.
