I spend a lot of time on YouTube everyday… So much that I’m seriously considering on getting a premium subscription just to get rid of those annoying ads that pop up in the middle of a video. While this approach only removes mid-roll adverts, one loophole that YouTube and content creators do is put the advertisement in the video itself.
So why am I bringing this up? Well for some reason, a certain game is flooding my wrestling and tabletop game-related channels. And that game is called Raid: Shadow Legends, a turn-based, gacha RPG by Plarium.
Built up by YouTubers as an “immersive RPG for mobile”, content makers have been constantly shoving this at my throat for the longest time and after months and months of resistance, I decided to give it a go.
Installation
The game has a hefty download size to it, after getting the 65 MB file, upon launching the game it turns out I needed an additional 600 MB for the actual game and updates. Good thing to note here, shortly after launching the game, you are immediately whisked through the the introductory mission where you select your first champion via a Mystery Shard.
Gameplay
For those who are new to the genre, a gacha RPG typically challenges you to collect hundreds of different heroes, make a party out of your favorite ones, and then battle your way through an endless horde of turn-based battles. Eventually you’ll level your Champions up, equip them with better gear, and ultimately, let them participate in a variety modes like Raids, PvP, and timed-events.
When you get your hero, your first campaign starts where you basically defeat 2 waves of enemies. Gameplay-wise, like mentioned Raid is a turn-based game much like the other mobile games that came before it. You basically have your Champions that have 2-3 skills at a time, each of which can have a cooldown that is usually counted in turns.
Winning a battle here has the chance of dropping some loot or equipment that can be attached to your hero. Usually, in these types of games you would want to combine similar sets to get their grant bonuses. What I find a bit tedious here is that I’m not particularly sure on how exactly you can grind for a particular piece, and this eventually can be frustrating.
Speaking of equipment, these can be upgraded by the use of Silver that can be earned while playing the game. Normally, you would always want to upgrade your gear but in Raid, upgrading an item has a chance for the procedure to fail. What’s even worse is that you really have no idea on the perks you can actually unlock. So really that’s chance upon chance we are risking.
Micro-transactions
As with any popular mobile game nowadays, Raid: Shadow Legends also has micro-transactions. Aside from Silver, there are at least 4 more types of resources in the form of Energy, Tokens, Gems and Clan Boss Keys which, for me, made me really confused as it feels that I’m being thrown with all of this currencies at the same time. And honestly, all this confusion, collectively was a real downer for my overall excitement in Raid.
Verdict
In a nutshell, Raid Shadow Legends is a boring turn based game with daunting micro-transactions. I didn’t even find it to be immersive. Stay Away.