Raid: Shadow Legends
Raid: Shadow Legends is a freemium mobile game developed and published by Israeli game developer Plarium Games. A port to PC was released on January 21, 2020. Gameplay. "Raid: Shadow Legends" is a fantasy-themed, turn-based role-playing gacha game. The game's story takes place in the fictional realm of Teleria, which has been subjugated by the Dark Lord Siroth. Players take the role of an ancient Telerian warrior resurrected to defeat the Dark Lord and restore peace and harmony to the territory. Players must assemble an army for battles in settings such as castles , dungeons, deserts and temples defended by enemies and possible allies. Throughout the game, players accumulate "Shards", vessels containing the souls of past warriors. Shards come in four types with different properties. The game has two forms of currency: "Silver", which is relatively easy to come by, and "Gems", which are a lot more difficult to acquire. There is also a cost in "Energy" for running any of the campaign and dungeon stages. Without Energy you can't progress in the campaign. It runs out quickly, and after the first day players will have to be very careful not to waste  it. The game consists primarily of story-driven single-player campaign with twelve levels, each level made up of seven stages with three levels of difficulty. The single-player campaign is interconnected with a multiplayer component, the "Arena", to decide player rankings. Players can also join "Clans", through which members fight a "Clan Boss" together, which brings advanced rewards. The game's narrative was written by Paul C. R. Monk, and the game adopts a Western art style, and settings inspired by dark fantasy. Reception. "Raid: Shadow Legends" has been praised for its graphics but criticized for its aggressive monetization  in the form of microtransactions. Pocket Gamer commended the "sheer graphic quality", for its "beautifully rendered and animated" characters and a "generous experience for new players". "TheGamer" heavily criticized the game, citing its lack of depth and freemium structure, describing it as "the epitome of pay to win". Gamezebo praised the game for trading "the typical anime-style visuals for a more realistic, dark fantasy look", going on to write about "the truly stunning experience, with some of the finest attack animations and environmental effects we’ve seen in the genre so far." However, the article also criticises the game 's underlying monetization, pointing out that progress is difficult, "particularly if you don’t plan on spending any actual money on the various upgrades". In its review, BlueStacks also praised the visuals, saying, "The animations are simply spectacular, with the quality the likes you seldom see in these games," and concluding that "players that enjoy fantasy combat with a more realistic approach—similar to "Lord of the Rings"—will likely have a very good time with "Raid: Shadow Legends"." South African technology website "htxt.africa" praised the graphics, but overall found it boring with too many microtransactions. Droid Gamers said it brings  nothing new to the gacha RPG genre. Internet meme. The game has received substantial negative attention for its aggressive advertising campaign, most notably its sponsorships of a number of YouTube, Twitch and Vimeo content creators, leading it to become an internet meme. Sponsorships and advertising. In February 2020, two tweets from a Plarium customer support agent on "Raid"s Twitter feed, claiming that "Raid" does not sponsor but rather "cooperates" with YouTube creators, gained attention online for its violation of FTC rules requiring payments for endorsements to be disclosed to the public. Various creators contradicted this tweet, openly stating that either  they are sponsored by "Raid" or have received various offers from Plarium involving "Raid"-related sponsorship deals. Plarium later posted a tweet stating the tweets were referring to tutorials and "Raid"-focused videos and not its marketing campaign.