RAID: World War II

Like most people who know of this game's existence at all, I was playing Payday 2 when RAID: World War II came out, then I continued to play Payday 2 and promptly forgot RAID: World War II had even been a thing. That is, until yesterday, when I checked on the game on a whim and discovered that they had finally released the big update they had been teasing for months. At 4 euros and with some time to burn I figured, why not?
There's a decent amount of missions and they all range from all right to pretty good. It has taken me roughly 6 hours to beat all the missions once, and I still haven't tackled operations mode! With the revamped skill system that is flexible enough to allow for experimentation, the different classes, the solid array of guns (all of which feel unique and viable) and the amount of stuff that can be obtained with gold, the game is certainly not lacking for some replayability. Difficulty is also finely tuned - It is higher than I had expected, but fair, with enemies that don't feel like bullet sponges and spawns that don't feel overwhelming. For the current full price of just 10 bucks with no relevant DLC to speak of, I'd say it's a good deal.
I cannot speak for the state of the game before, but right now? Honestly, it's worth giving a shot. It's every bit as solid as Payday 2 now - in ways, better, even, and I say that as someone who's put 1000 hours into Payday 2.
The real reason I'm leaving this review, however, is the utterly fascinating history of this game. It was released on the coat-tails of a far bigger game, was liked by basically nobody, died out almost immediately and was promptly forgotter. That is, until three modders began to work their asses off, for free, to fix a ton of the issues players had had with the game, with the blessing of the game's owners who had nothing to lose from handing over this completely dead product to them. This situation is unheard of, and the team deserves kudos for the amount of effort they put into this forgotten game with no realistic payoff to look forward to.
I don't know if any of the members of the M.U.G. team will ever see this review, but if they do, all I can say is: You've done a fine job! It may not be much, but seeing the game go from peaking at 5 players to holding a modest player base of 100-150 players off the update is kind of heartwarming, in a way.

This game is living proof of what three people with passion can do with a game. The M.U.G. Team revived the buggy mess, and have been perfecting it ever since. Gameplay is extremely fun, raids are cool and can be played many times, challenge cards provide new challenges (duh), and seeing that sweet gold counter tick up after every raid is definetly worth it. Overall, the game has a few bugs (random crashes once in a lifetime, ai pathfinding on maps like Trainwreck) but is definetly worth it! I am waiting excitedly for the next update (Full Stop), and will definetly keep playing the game!
Huge respect and thanks to the M.U.G. Team, y'all are awesome, and actually interact with the community!
Blammo, my fellow raiders!

Wow, it's finally quite good, wtf ?!
Being a fan of Payday TH and 2, I tried many times to get into Raid WWII, but failed, it was quite boring, the enemy spawn points were pure bullshit, and overall, it was a weak experience.
After that latest update, the progression system was reworked, and the reworked enemy spawning and resistance makes it way more fun and engaging !
Keep those nazis' helmets (and heads) flying !

Update: They did it, they brought back the Halloween update with a discount on top. 10/10
Ever since the M.U.G team took up the decaying husk of this title, this game has become an objectively better game. Comparing this to its shoddy jokes of a competitor (you know which) there's some serious fun and consistency to be found here.
A standing ovation goes to you, M.U.G. I did two Operations in a row and didn't crash once while being a client. The experience was some of the most fun I've had in a co-op game in a while. If I could, I'd genuinely fund the updates because I absolutely want more of this stuff! Here's to a hopeful return of the Halloween event.
Personal addendum; I do not often write reviews and I don't care to put much effort in it, but I think the game deserves a better review rating than it does.

this game is more than a "payday ww2 clone", it is better than vanilla payday 2 and certainly is better than 100% of coop games released in a span of 5 years

It feels weird saying "yeah actually this is good" to a game which was incredibly awful in beta and then extremely dead for years. Just goes to show if you get a few astonishingly dedicated modders and a studio willing to let them take a shot, good things can happen.
Now is it perfect, no. Does it have a lot of sharp edges, yes. But it's really been revitalized so if you ever wanted to like RAID but couldn't, now's a good time to give it a second look.

I used an AA Gun to blow open the doors to a bank.
Then set Nazi Flags on fire to signal a bomber plane, in order to crack the bank vault open.
It was incredibly based.