Raid: Shadow Legends

Raid: Shadow Legends is an Israeli Developed fantasy-themed, turn-based role-playing gacha game.[3] 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.[3] Throughout the game, players accumulate Shards, vessels containing the souls of past warriors. Shards come in four types with different properties. Another currency in the game is Silver, which the player uses to do almost anything in the game, from leveling up champions, to playing a stage.

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.[3] The single-player campaign is interconnected with a multiplayer component to decide player rankings.

The game's narrative was written by Paul C.R. Monk,[3] and the game adopts a Western art style, with realistic characters, and settings inspired by dark fantasy.

Raid has been praised for its graphics, but criticized for its microtransactions. Pocket Gamer welcoming the "sheer graphic quality", "beautifully rendered and animated" characters as well as a "generous experience for new players". However, the game's aggressive monetization has also garnered attention.[4][5] 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".[6] 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."[1] South African technology website htxt.africa praised the graphics, but overall found it boring with too many microtransactions.[7] Droid Gamers said it brings nothing new to the gacha RPG genre.[8]

The game has also achieved notoriety for its extensive advertising campaign, most notably its sponsorships with a number of YouTube personalities.[9]

• Official website