Payday 2 H3H3 DLC Hits Overwhelmingly Negative After

A downloadable character pack for Payday 2 featuring popular YouTube personalities H3H3 has collapsed to overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam following personal turmoil within the content creator couple.

Hila Klein announced on October 23 that her husband Ethan had been unfaithful, sharing that the person she had trusted for two decades had become unrecognizable to her. She described feeling as though her partner, co-parent, and business collaborator had vanished overnight, leaving her navigating separation and profound emotional pain. The revelation triggered an immediate wave of negative reviews for the character pack, with over 100 reviews posted the day of the announcement and dozens more following.

The DLC, released in 2017, was originally created to support H3H3's legal defense in a copyright infringement lawsuit. Overkill Software, the developer behind Payday 2, committed all proceeds from the pack to the Kleins as they fought to establish fair use protections for reaction content on YouTube. The couple had positioned themselves as advocates for creator rights, raising funds to defend fair use principles that benefited the broader online community.

Players have flooded the Steam store page with commentary linking the pack's existence to the scandal. One reviewer noted that the DLC serves as a cautionary tale about featuring public figures in video games, as their personal circumstances inevitably affect how players perceive the product. Others joked about potential delisting or expressed concerns about the optics of owning the pack given the circumstances. A handful of players admitted to purchasing it immediately upon hearing the news, anticipating the company might remove it from sale.

The character pack's reputation had already deteriorated significantly before this latest development. Previous review campaigns targeted Hila for her military service in Israel, specifically her role in an administrative position and her participation in operations in the West Bank. Additionally, Ethan's very public conflict with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker in 2023 over commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict damaged his standing within the YouTube community. That dispute ended their collaborative podcast and left Ethan increasingly isolated from fellow creators.

The situation grew more complicated when Ethan, who had once championed fair use protections, filed copyright infringement lawsuits against streamers who reacted to his content. A federal judge dismissed the case in July 2026, citing the very legal precedent Ethan had helped establish in 2017 when he fought the Matt Hoss lawsuit. The irony was not lost on observers: the man who had raised funds to defend fair use was now attempting to restrict it.

Ethan responded to the infidelity revelation by announcing plans to remove himself from shared business ventures, including podcasts and merchandise lines, stating that all future support would flow directly to Hila and their team. However, he did not specifically address the Payday 2 DLC in his statement.

The character pack now stands as a symbol of how quickly public perception can shift. Players have noted that nearly nine years after its release, the DLC continues to accumulate negative reviews as fresh controversies emerge. The current influx represents the largest review-bombing campaign the pack has experienced, suggesting that the infidelity scandal may have been the breaking point for fans who had already grown skeptical of the product's association with the creators.