Payday 2 H3H3 Character Pack Drops To Overwhelmingly Negative Reviews

H3H3 Payday 2 DLC Flooded With Negative Reviews After Cheating Scandal Source: Starbreeze Published Oct 24, 2026, 6:02 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com In 2017, Overkill added the popular YouTube duo H3H3 as playable heisters to Payday 2 to help fund their defense in the Matt Hoss copyright infringement lawsuit, which threatened to set a damning legal precedent for reaction content on the platform. As a staunch advocate for fair use, Overkill promised that all proceeds would go directly to Ethan and Hila Klein. It has aged worse than Bain's meth recipe. Hila Klein posted a statement on October 23, revealing that Ethan "has been having an affair." She explained, "The person I loved and trusted for 20 years evaporated overnight. He was my safe place, my partner in marriage, parenting, and business. My only family on this side of the world [...] I don't know what comes next; I've never been here before. I am in survival mode, trying to navigate separation, co-parenting, and unthinkable heartbreak." Shortly after, negative reviews for the Payday 2 character pack started pouring in, with 104 dropping that very day, and a further 28 just this morning. It now holds an "Overwhelmingly Negative" recent reviews score on Steam, with players musing that "the optics of this DLC's existence gets progressively worse over time." What Players Are Saying Source: Starbreeze "This DLC is a great example of why it's not a great idea to put public figures into your games," Blazzer223 wrote. "When that news broke out I knew I have to buy this ASAP lol, because I’m sure its gonna get removed soon," reads a review from digimaster7. "My biggest concern wasn't 'oh my god, he cheated on his wife' my biggest concern was 'oh my god, they're probably gonna delist the DLC, I gotta go get the tag team perk deck'," said elicity. "So is 50% of the DLC going to get removed after the divorce update and become its own thing?," joked Lupine_Reaper007. "Tried to play a public game as Ethan and it tagged me as a cheater," Suparockr said. Ethan didn't specifically name the Payday 2 DLC in his follow-up statement, but he announced that he was working to remove himself from their shared businesses: "I am working with Hila to urgently remove my ownership and financial stakes in any podcasts, Teddy Fresh, Teddy Glow, or any joint venture that I would profit from. All of your support will go directly to Hila and the crew." The H3H3 Payday 2 DLC Is No Stranger To Negative Reviews Even before the cheating scandal, the DLC had been taking hits for years. Previous review-bombing campaigns targeted Hila for openly discussing her mandatory term in an administrative role in the IDF, where she requested a transfer to become an assistant to a brigade commander in the West Bank. There, she accompanied soldiers on a "night raid" into the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Meanwhile, Ethan and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker had a very public falling out in 2023 over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marking the end of the Leftovers podcast. Ethan pushed back on what he described as antisemitic rhetoric online, while Hasan maintained that criticism of Israel's policies and what a United Nations commission officially ruled as genocide in Gaza are not antisemitic, arguing instead that weaponizing accusations of antisemitism is often used to shut down Palestinian human rights advocacy. Ethan has insisted that he is critical of the Israeli government, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. However, after ostracizing himself from the wider YouTube community and even becoming the subject of an iDubbbz "Content Cop" video, he released a "Content Nuke" on Hasan, partly as "a trap" to catch out other creators. In his own words, "it worked even better" than he imagined, and he quickly filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Twitch streamers Denims, Frogan, and Kaceytron for reacting to his video, despite once championing fair use and raising $170,000 to defend the rights of his fellow creators. A judge ruled against Ethan in July 2026 and dismissed the lawsuit, citing his own 2017 legal precedent. So, when players say that the character pack designed solely to raise funds for H3H3 to fight for fair use has aged like milk, they aren't kidding. Ethan and Hila Klein have buried a lot of goodwill over the last few years — and each time, the Payday 2 DLC is used as a barometer for how fans are feeling. Judging by that metric alone, the cheating scandal was the last straw, because this is the largest influx of negative reviews the character pack has ever seen. "Somehow, almost 9 years later this DLC manages to age even more terribly," NotCaptainObvious.TTV said. Released August 13, 2013 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Overkill Software Publisher(s) 505 Games Engine Diesel Engine Multiplayer Online Co-Op Franchise Payday Number of Players 1-4