If budget is the issue, wishlist Payday 2 on Steam and wait for a — happens every few months.

While the game is cracked, the can still be played online with friends through various "Online-Fix" methods that leverage the Steam overlay. PAYDAY 2 - your game needs to sync to Steam. - Steam

There are two "gray area" methods to enable some form of MP, but neither involves true Steam multiplayer:

: You can choose to skip certain languages or optional components to save further space.