Nightmare Fuel / PAYDAY 2

All spoilers below are unmarked, so be warned!

It is obvious that PAYDAY 2 is a heisting simulator. Not only having some pretty amusing content, but it also has plenty of unsettling stuff out there...

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• Cloakers are able to ambush and instantly kick you down by rushing you and pouncing while emitting a whistling, electronic screech. This will certainly catch you off guard if you are not paying attention. Playing on some Christmas-themed levels like White Xmas, Santa's Workshop, and Stealing Xmas makes this even worse by not making their trademark sound, instead giving them an extremely near-silence jingle (although the upshot is that these versions of the Cloaker also have obvious Santa hats over their helmets, which may lessen this effect somewhat when you can see them).
• In the live-action trailer for the Hoxton breakout, as pictured above, Wolf kills a bulldozer by drilling him in the eyes. That in itself would be bad enough, but the whole time Wolf is whooping like an absolute psychopath. Notably, Dallas is caught off guard by this, judging by his reaction. So if there was ever anything that could make you feel sorry for one of the bastards, it's that.
• The PAYDAY Gang themselves to their enemies. It doesn't matter if you're a civilian or a cop. If you see them, you're screwed, as they're well prepared to keep you as a hostage or, even worse, kill you during a heist. Even they mow you down no matter how heavily armed you are.
• Jacket's trailer. This is the Mook Horror Show in its purest form: Jacket strides through a room filled with dead or dying cops and casually kills one with his SMG. The only one left alive, a Cloaker who's been handcuffed (and who, did we mention, is audibly sobbing in terror)? He gets executed with a hammer to the skull.
  • Jacket is a silent protagonist in Hotline Miami. In PAYDAY 2, he compensates this by carrying a tape recorder with various spliced-together clips from educational language tapes with appropriate audible wear and tear. It is a very unnerving effect, and that is also accounting for the threats in the non-English clips.
  • Even then, it's all well and good when you've got things like "We hope you will have a pleasant flight!" or "Stay calm and don't panic." Flight attendant tapes, nothing major. Then you've got "Bulldozer," "Chains," or the various "[Unit] out of service" lines. Construction yard, maybe? And there is humour to be had with his various pager responses, making it sound like a wrong number was called or the line was disconnected. But then what was Gensec doing to get lines like "Exercise caution when aggravating my temper," "We insist that you surrender notions of bravery," "You belong in a cloaca," "Attention. You are fecal matter. Please accept this assertion," or even a near-verbatim "You will be happy to know you are victims of a robbery." speech from Heat?
• Meltdown, if not due to just the cargo itself, due to Hoxton Revenge showing that Vlad is seen as completely harmless by the FBI while he's able to arrange a theft of six nuclear warheads.
  Bain: "Nukes?! ARE YOU CRAZY, VLAD?!"
• The Safehouse Nightmare. Where do we begin?
  • The fact that it is extremely dark.
  • The heist description is simply "Wake Up."
  • The same crying a Witch makes can be heard. Rumors used to say it was a real NPC that could actually kill you if you discovered and startled it.
  • Drilling the safe in the front starts a huge fire, and it simply says "Save your money!" in the objective box. This is done by drilling three safes and escaping. Three issues with that:
  • If you do it before activating the drill, then no money will appear.
  • On higher difficulties, several Cloakers rush the building IN COMPLETE DARKNESS.
  • By far the worst part: When you have taken down one Cloaker, a Bulldozer rushes in… who doesn't have a head. It will never stop attacking. So, now you're against an army of Cloakers, and a nigh invulnerable headless Titandozer. And a fire.
  • A creepy part is that Bain's Plan is simply the Madness Mantra "All work and no play makes Wolf a dull boy". The entire page. And it goes past the page too.
• Cursed Kill Room, a Halloween mission like Safehouse Nightmare which was made playable at any time. Its Bain's Plan is also disturbing;
  KILL. KILL, KILL, SAFE, KILL. KILL, KILL, SAFE, MAAAAAAAAASK!!!!!!
  • Also, the cops in the said level are literally zombified!
• While the Hardcore Henry Pack Trailer is balls-to-the-wall hilarious, there is a very scary moment in the beginning. Akan is trying to hire Dallas, who flirts with one of the girls serving him. The Elephant, acting as Akan's liaison, mentions seeing him do terrible things. Dallas says he wants to see one. Akan's reaction? Telekinetically killing the woman he was flirting. She even slides along the floor with a massive streak of blood, as Dallas stares horrified.
• Planning to camp on the edges of the table in Lab Rats? Hope you're ready to get eaten by a Giant Spider, because there is one. God help you if you're arachnophobic!
  • At least it's polite enough to emit a table-shaking roar before popping up.
• The Necro-Cloaker himself. He's a gigantic, demonized version of the Cloaker unit, who only appears on Lab Rats. He also returns as the antagonist of the Prison Nightmare heist, where he torments the PAYDAY Gang with his minions and uses the Wheel Of Misfortune to unleash horrifying effects from burning them to crisp with a Flamethrower to using two drills to shred them into tiny pieces. If you're lucky enough, the wheel will end up in the "Keycard" effect, causing the Necro-Cloaker to rage. Also, some of his lines are incredibly harsh:
  The Necro-Cloaker: "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM HERE!"
  The Necro-Cloaker: "I'll make you wish you were DEAD!"
  The Necro-Cloaker: "Getting cats out of trees? More like RIPPING BRAINS AND THE SKULLS!"
  The Necro-Cloaker (When getting the keycard): "WHAT?! NOO, DAMN YOU!!!"/"STOP IT! THAT'S MINE!"
  • The terror of the Halloween missions doesn't end with Necro-Cloaker. Prison Nightmare adds on more fuel with a bit of insight into the heisters, ranging from their deepest fears or their past sins. A collection of said bits for those who are curious.
    • Hoxton's hallucinations are a major Wham Line for the plot: Someone else has betrayed the gang and unlike Hector, has managed to go undetected for many years.
• The Reservoir Dogs Heist Trailer features a recreation of the infamous ear-cutting scene featuring the Cloaker as the hostage. Don't forget the poor bastard's screaming as he gets his face sliced by Wolf.
  • The heist itself features one, but not in the manner you'd expect from a movie-inspired heist. An unidentified party has managed an act that was up until now thought to be impossible: They MANAGED to get Bain!
  Bain: Guys, shit! *static* Trouble! *static* Location is compromised! *static and muffled gunfire* Gotta get you guys out of there- BZZZZT! ...it's what was I afraid of, they're coming- *Static* I'm so close to find- BZZZZT! ...no much time! *static* Can you hear me? *static* This is crazy, but- *static* ...you need to trust Locke! *static* He- *static* ...our side! And whatever you do can- *static and door breaching noises* You need to get to Brooklyn! Locke knows wh- *static and gunshots* FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! Locke- *static* ...help you find- *static* BE CAREFUL G- *Static and transmission ends*.
• The cryptic messages that have started appearing in Garrett's memos folder in the FBI files can come off as creepy, especially since they clash against the standard text typically found there. The first one◊ isn't so bad, more just a mild Surprisingly Creepy Moment than anything else, but the more recent of the two◊ is downright disturbing and almost demonic in nature^note Both of these are best viewed from the FBI Files for best effect.. It makes one wonder just who - or what - is sending them...
  • The sender has been revealed - a mysterious syndicate named "Kataru". They claim to be the syndicate that captured Bain and are conspiring with Garrett to sabotage the PAYDAY gang. While it certainly gives the gang a new enemy, what's more terrifying is the possibility that they and the second traitor are connected to them.
  • Kataru is strong enough to believe that they could take on The Elephant with the FBI's help. Just so you know how powerful they seem to be.
  • There's also the fact that Garrett's alliance with the syndicate is legally seedy and could put his values and his occupation on the line (if The Elephant ever got arrested, he'd look corrupt in the eyes of the public thanks to his good PR.) He really wants the PAYDAY Gang crippled.
  • Wordsmith, a new employee at OVERKILL, announced his arrival with a harrowing message related to the ARG: "There were three. One is dead." There's absolutely no indication as to what this means, but it has some disturbing implications.
  • The PAYDAY Task Force eventually arrested the Elephant as part of Kataru's deal. In doing so, they found a note written by August Lindenhurst (Duke) addressed to someone named Desmond. Seems innocent enough until you notice that the date on the letter is 1905, and that Baldwin's Lament, a device Bain was looking for, quite possibly has the ability to erase time. As Baldwin's Lament is in the present day, and there's no indication that the Lindenhurst from 1905 is someone else, something is definitely amiss here...
  • In the Breakin' Feds update, Duke explains the origin of the Kataru. To sum it up, thousands of years ago, three kings gathered and made a pact. According to legend, they acquired a magical artifact, which even Duke shows some skepticism at for obvious reasons. Since the letter in the Elephant's office heavily implies that PAYDAY's version of our timeline has been tampered with or will be in the near future, it's likely Duke is bluffing and the legends are to be taken at face value. Bain really kicked the hornet's nest looking for Baldwin's Lament.
• The Henry's Rock heist is relatively inconspicuous, breaching a Murkywater facility to find the two boxes that the gang were after. At the end of the heist the player will come across a bulletproof window room. A Murkywater mercenary stands guard, and behind him is a monitor broadcasting a sinister figure interrogating or torturing an individual with a concealed face. There are three things disturbing about this:
  • Many players speculate the man in the chair to be Bain. Fitting, since the Kataru and Garrett know his health's circling the drain.
  • The figure, from their suit and face, is unmistakably the Dentist. Either way, it's bizarre and very creepy.
  • Someone noclipped into the head of the mercenary and found a dog tag inside. Its name? Kento, Jiro's long-lost son, now working for Murkywater and supporting the sabotage of the gang his father works for.
• The Shacklethorne Heist. This isn't just you nabbing a relic, but a key that reveals a horrific series of secrets including:
  • The fact that R'lyeh might exist.
    • Hell, the sole fact that ancient people somehow knew about the Cthulhu Mythos is the concrete proof that something is very wrong.
  • The tablet's inscription: "Some things are best forgotten, lest the secrets they hold undo the world. Offer your flesh, your heart, to stave the darkness. Stare into the abyss long enough, and you will welcome the end. For in the cracks and hollows, the Earth is Good."
  • And most notably, the existence of the Nephilim, giants that were said to be the descendants of angels. They are also responsible for crashing the expedition that the heist takes its name from and killing the real August Lindenhurst by ripping out his heart. Not to mention, if you remember that giant statue frozen in a block of ice from one of the Diamond heist's pictures? That wasn't a statue. It's even implied they burnt down the White House, or at least were involved in it◊. Worst of all? If you head outside the mansion to the front steps, a flash of lightning reveals the sillhouette of a Nephilim.◊ THEY'RE REAL. And where they show up, ruin follows.
  • Take another look at the painting of the White House burning and you'll see the shining glasses of the Dentist.
• A minor detail, but one that's worth mentioning, nonetheless: most of the heists are covered in the FBI Files, with additional notes from Commissioner Garrett. But when it comes to the notes in Breakin' Feds... there's nothing listed. Just N/A. With a break-in at Garrett's quarters, you'd think he'd have some opinions on the matter. Something's screwy here, and we're not talking about the drills...
• Setting cops or civilians on fire will have them scream loudly as they burn to death. It's not a cheesy scream, but a rather terrifying scream that sounds almost how like a real person on fire would sound like. The fact that the characters writhe around in pain before collapsing doesn't help either.
• It has been implied in Henry's Rock and several FBI memos that since being captured, Bain's health has been going down the drain. In Hell's Island, we finally get to see just how bad his condition is.
• Bain is infected with a manmade virus that may or may not gives him super strength. Given that the next heist is No Mercy, the implication is unpleasant.
• The previously non-canon No Mercy heist from the first game is now retconned into the game's canon. The reason why the apocalypse doesn't happen in the Payday universe is because the Murkywater successfully destroyed the hospital. However, the Green Flu samples that the gang stole were given to none other than the Kataru, making it all but confirmed that Bain is infected with the Flu or at least a version of it.
• If you fail most heists in the game, you'll just receive Bain or Locke apologising for the sour outcome and promising the crew that they'll be released soon. If you fail the White House Heist, however, all you will get in the Heist Failed screen is a bunch of static from Locke, giving off the impression that it is pretty much game over for him and the crew now that the PAYDAY Gang are at the mercy of the Kataru, Murkywater and The Dentist. When Locke said in the heist's storyline flavour text that it is an All or Nothing mission, he wasn't kidding.

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