On a whole, RAID: World War II feels exactly like what you’d expect from a Payday clone. It takes less of a political approach than other games featuring Nazis such as Wolfenstein or the upcoming Call of Duty: WW2, and instead moves away from the war is hell narrative to opt for a more hyper-violent, stylised approach to the subject matter. While the choice of game engine severely lets itself down, there is still much to appreciate if you enjoy other co-operative shooters of its type.

Raid: World War 2 copies Payday 2, but does little better and a lot of things worse than its role model. But the potential is there.

Building off the success of Payday is a decent premise for Starbreeze to explore. Raid: World War II does not successfully lead a winning campaign, however. The poor A.I., repetitive design, and technical problems had me waving a white flag long before the war should have been over. If Starbreeze plans to turn this into a long-running service game, it has a lot of work to do.

Overall, I really like the theme and setting of RAID: WWII, especially considering its irreverent tone that evokes memories of Inglorious Basterds. But even though I’m a sucker for all things WWII, the bullet-spongy enemies, lackluster unlocks and customization, and poor mission variety don’t excite me enough to want to play beyond a few rounds. And while it’s putting the cart before the horse, without a strong community of users to drop into a raid with, there’s even less reason to stick it to Nazi Germany in this particular instance. Very little in RAID: WWII is absurdly broken or flawed, but its mediocrity makes it a missed opportunity to create a highly replayable co-op game within the WWII shooter genre.

Raid: World War II disappoints on all levels. It’s not that one thing in particular is badly broken; it’s that so many aspects of the game are clumsy or incomplete. It made playing the game a chore, even in its best moments. Sometimes a terrible movie or game will still have things that make it enjoyable — hilariously cheesy dialogue or over-the-top action that I end up liking in spite of the low budget or poor production values. With Raid, there’s just nothing here for me, and I can’t imagine there being much here for anyone else.