First off all: I did not buy this game, but I won it during a giveaway on a stream where people were playing it. I've had it for quite some time, but I only decided to pick it up recently. In hindsight I should've played it right away when the game was still actively being developed, but unfortunately I can't change the past. Or fortunately? I don't know. They tend to mess things up in the movies. Anyway, time for the actual review.

RAID: World War II is one of those games you go in with low expectations: bad overall reviews and a low active player count. But the game actually surprised me. Sure, it's nowhere near perfect, but there is potential. The biggest issue however is this player count. It's designed to be a co-operative game, but you're lucky to find even a single lobby to play in. Your chances are slightly higher when you think the "normal" difficulty is acceptable, but you're usually out of luck despite the recent influx of players. I'm afraid that even if the developers would unexpectedly fix many of the issues the game has, it still wouldn't get the players it so desperately needs. It is very much playable when you're alone, but more on that later.

One of the common complains about this game is that it's "just a reskin of PAYDAY 2". I disagree. Like PAYDAY 2 it's a four player co-op game where you have to do objectives while fighting off hordes of enemies and it even uses the same engine, but RAID has a few new features to bring to the table that make it more enjoyable to some people. Myself included. It's not as much of a "duck and cover" game as PAYDAY: The Heist, but you better be careful in this game as you can get downed pretty fast. Unlike the PAYDAY games, there's no self-regenerating armor to protect you. instead you have to replenish your health by picking up med kits that can be dropped by the enemy or found in the environment. Many of these supplies are in crates and they do run out, so there's some strategy involved on when and where to take them. But be careful: after a certain amount of downs you'll go straight to.. heaven? There's a respawn timer though, but you better hope you're playing with players that can do without you for a few minutes.

Players pick a character (and a class) when they start playing this game and each time they level it up a new skill may be chosen out of three options. This is more limited than PAYDAY 2s system, but it forces you to think about how you want to play the game right off the bat. Some people see this as a good thing, while others see it as a limitation. You can't easily change your class, but you can respect the skills. At a price. For every level you have it becomes more expensive, which brings me to the next topic: the currencies. There's two currencies used in the game, if you can call it that. There's the experience you get for completing (and even failing) raids and this is used to level up, which in turn is used to pick skills and there's gold. Leveling up isn't too much of a grind like it used to be (it averages out to roughly one level per hour now), but to get all the achievements you have to do it four times. You also can't do too much with the gold other than respeccing your skills and buying cosmetics. However, you do get to see the pile in your safe house grow the more gold you get (up to a certain point). It's nice to show off to friends I guess. If you have those...

What I like -- and some others seem to dislike -- about the game is that weapons get better the more you use them. There's no need for spending some currency on buying a new weapon or weapon upgrade either: weapons are either available for your class or get unlocked when you reach a certain level. The downside is that it makes the gold less useful. Weapons improve by doing certain challenges that involve killing enemies in a certain way using that weapon. Level caps keep weapons somewhat balanced, but it can be annoying to play with weapons that aren't as good as they can (or should) be once you reached the higher levels. So the system works great if you're working your way through the difficulties, but not so much when you play on the highest difficulty with weaker weapons. Of course it's not as much of an issue when you play with other players.

This review is getting long and I haven't even mentioned lock picking yet, one of the core mechanics of the game. Many essential things in this game are (or rather can be) locked. These are mostly doors and crates (and loot boxes), but the mechanic is also used for some of the finer work like tuning radios. I should also mention there's a third possible way to open crates and that's with a crowbar, which you have to find somewhere on the map. There's skills to make this reaction based lock picking easier (and some to make it harder by speeding it up), but it may still present a challenge to some players. It's certainly another strategic aspect of the game as there's a few factors to consider when you start the interaction.

There are only 14 maps available (2 of which you have to find intel for), but they all have something unique and fit the WW2 theme. Some are long, others are short and there's maps with lot of bag movement. The maps are slightly different on each play-though and in some situations it can make the game much harder. Cool things are that you can operate machine guns and anti-aircraft machinery and yes, you do get to shoot down planes. You can also drive certain cars and trucks, but don't expect too much from this. It's mostly to help you with the bags. Oh right, there's also challenge cards. Mutators basically, but they are only available if you have the card for it. Games seem to do that these days and something can be said for both variants.

And now to the important stuff: The single player experience and bugs. It's playable when you're alone, but some maps clearly weren't designed for this. The bots are quite tanky, but their weapons are weak and you have to keep an eye on them if you don't want to lose them. They don't respawn once they died, but they do warp to your location if you get too far away from them. I personally found most of the raids fairly easy to do with the help of the bots, but I'm probably not the average player. The worst example a map that was meant to be done with other players is the Gold Rush raid: You have to carry 16 bags of gold all by yourself over a great distance on the highest difficulty. Sure, this makes the thing harder, but you're also more likely to run into some of the real issues this game has. On the lower difficulties it's still more than you'd like. I haven't run into many crashes, but the game did break a few times after having spend a long time in a single raid (yes, it takes a while to beat the hardest difficulty by yourself). As for performance, the "Optimized for 60 FPS in 1080p / High settings" may be accurate because at 60FPS you don't notice the frame drops that much. On my high end rig, I have to play some maps at 50-60 FPS at times and on the Gold Rush raid it actually dropped to an unplayable 5-10 FPS at the end of an already exhausting 2 hour run at high settings on 1080p(ish). This may've been a one time thing, but 40FPS on that map isn't uncommon.

So, is the game worth your time? If you can see past some bugs and are the player that likes the more raw hardcore games like PAYDAY: The Heist, then yes, you'll probably enjoy it. But you may want to make sure you have a friend to play it with as the singleplayer experience isn't for everyone. Is it worth your money? That depends. I wouldn't recommend you to buy it at 19,99€ unless it either gets a lot of bugfixes or a massive bump in the player count, but it's certainly worth 4,99€ for which it's available now... If your system can run it at at least 30FPS on low settings. Other than some frustrating bugs I certainly enjoyed most of the time I put in the game even if it wasn't as challenging as I expected it to be.

First off all: I did not buy this game, but I won it during a giveaway on a stream where people were playing it. I've had it for quite some time, but I only decided to pick it up recently. In hindsight I should've played it right away when the game was still actively being developed, but unfortunately I can't change the past. Or fortunately? I don't know. They tend to mess things up in the movies. Anyway, time for the actual review. RAID: World War II is one of those games you go in with low expectations: bad overall reviews and a low active player count. But the game actually surprised me. Sure, it's nowhere near perfect, but there is potential. The biggest issue however is this player count. It's designed to be a co-operative game, but you're lucky to find even a single lobby to play in. Your chances are slightly higher when you think the "normal" difficulty is acceptable, but you're usually out of luck despite the recent influx of players. I'm afraid that even if the developers would unexpectedly fix many of the issues the game has, it still wouldn't get the players it so desperately needs. It is very much playable when you're alone, but more on that later. One of the common complains about this game is that it's "just a reskin of PAYDAY 2". I disagree. Like PAYDAY 2 it's a four player co-op game where you have to do objectives while fighting off hordes of enemies and it even uses the same engine, but RAID has a few new features to bring to the table that make it more enjoyable to some people. Myself included. It's not as much of a "duck and cover" game as PAYDAY: The Heist, but you better be careful in this game as you can get downed pretty fast. Unlike the PAYDAY games, there's no self-regenerating armor to protect you. instead you have to replenish your health by picking up med kits that can be dropped by the enemy or found in the environment. Many of these supplies are in crates and they do run out, so there's some strategy involved on when and where to take them. But be careful: after a certain amount of downs you'll go straight to.. heaven? There's a respawn timer though, but you better hope you're playing with players that can do without you for a few minutes. Players pick a character (and a class) when they start playing this game and each time they level it up a new skill may be chosen out of three options. This is more limited than PAYDAY 2s system, but it forces you to think about how you want to play the game right off the bat. Some people see this as a good thing, while others see it as a limitation. You can't easily change your class, but you can respect the skills. At a price. For every level you have it becomes more expensive, which brings me to the next topic: the currencies. There's two currencies used in the game, if you can call it that. There's the experience you get for completing (and even failing) raids and this is used to level up, which in turn is used to pick skills and there's gold. Leveling up isn't too much of a grind like it used to be (it averages out to roughly one level per hour now), but to get all the achievements you have to do it four times. You also can't do too much with the gold other than respeccing your skills and buying cosmetics. However, you do get to see the pile in your safe house grow the more gold you get (up to a certain point). It's nice to show off to friends I guess. If you have those... What I like -- and some others seem to dislike -- about the game is that weapons get better the more you use them. There's no need for spending some currency on buying a new weapon or weapon upgrade either: weapons are either available for your class or get unlocked when you reach a certain level. The downside is that it makes the gold less useful. Weapons improve by doing certain challenges that involve killing enemies in a certain way using that weapon. Level caps keep weapons somewhat balanced, but it can be annoying to play with weapons that aren't as good as they can (or should) be once you reached the higher levels. So the system works great if you're working your way through the difficulties, but not so much when you play on the highest difficulty with weaker weapons. Of course it's not as much of an issue when you play with other players. This review is getting long and I haven't even mentioned lock picking yet, one of the core mechanics of the game. Many essential things in this game are (or rather can be) locked. These are mostly doors and crates (and loot boxes), but the mechanic is also used for some of the finer work like tuning radios. I should also mention there's a third possible way to open crates and that's with a crowbar, which you have to find somewhere on the map. There's skills to make this reaction based lock picking easier (and some to make it harder by speeding it up), but it may still present a challenge to some players. It's certainly another strategic aspect of the game as there's a few factors to consider when you start the interaction. There are only 14 maps available (2 of which you have to find intel for), but they all have something unique and fit the WW2 theme. Some are long, others are short and there's maps with lot of bag movement. The maps are slightly different on each play-though and in some situations it can make the game much harder. Cool things are that you can operate machine guns and anti-aircraft machinery and yes, you do get to shoot down planes. You can also drive certain cars and trucks, but don't expect too much from this. It's mostly to help you with the bags. Oh right, there's also challenge cards. Mutators basically, but they are only available if you have the card for it. Games seem to do that these days and something can be said for both variants. And now to the important stuff: The single player experience and bugs. It's playable when you're alone, but some maps clearly weren't designed for this. The bots are quite tanky, but their weapons are weak and you have to keep an eye on them if you don't want to lose them. They don't respawn once they died, but they do warp to your location if you get too far away from them. I personally found most of the raids fairly easy to do with the help of the bots, but I'm probably not the average player. The worst example a map that was meant to be done with other players is the Gold Rush raid: You have to carry 16 bags of gold all by yourself over a great distance on the highest difficulty. Sure, this makes the thing harder, but you're also more likely to run into some of the real issues this game has. On the lower difficulties it's still more than you'd like. I haven't run into many crashes, but the game did break a few times after having spend a long time in a single raid (yes, it takes a while to beat the hardest difficulty by yourself). As for performance, the "Optimized for 60 FPS in 1080p / High settings" may be accurate because at 60FPS you don't notice the frame drops that much. On my high end rig, I have to play some maps at 50-60 FPS at times and on the Gold Rush raid it actually dropped to an unplayable 5-10 FPS at the end of an already exhausting 2 hour run at high settings on 1080p(ish). This may've been a one time thing, but 40FPS on that map isn't uncommon. So, is the game worth your time? If you can see past some bugs and are the player that likes the more raw hardcore games like PAYDAY: The Heist, then yes, you'll probably enjoy it. But you may want to make sure you have a friend to play it with as the singleplayer experience isn't for everyone. Is it worth your money? That depends. I wouldn't recommend you to buy it at 19,99€ unless it either gets a lot of bugfixes or a massive bump in the player count, but it's certainly worth 4,99€ for which it's available now... If your system can run it at at least 30FPS on low settings. Other than some frustrating bugs I certainly enjoyed most of the time I put in the game even if it wasn't as challenging as I expected it to be.