RAID: Shadow Legends is a freemium mobile and PC game developed and published by Israeli game developer Plarium Games.

Gameplay

RAID: Shadow Legends is a fantasy-themed, turn-based role-playing gacha game.^[2] 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.^[2], and throughout the game, players accumulate Shards, vessels containing the souls of past warriors. Shards come in four types with different properties.

The game consists primarily of a 12-level story-driven single-player (PvE) campaign, each level made up of seven stages with three levels of difficulty.^[2] The PvE campaign is interconnected with a multiplayer (PvP) component to decide player rankings.

The game's narrative was written by Paul C.R. Monk,^[2] and the game adopts a Western art style, with realistic characters, and settings inspired by dark fantasy.

Reception

RAID has been generally well received within press, with 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, with the same Pocket Gamer article also pointing out the game's "layered structure to encourage players to spend and spend big".^[3] 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, again 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".^[4] In its review, Bluestacks also praised the visuals: "the animations are simply spectacular, with the quality the likes you seldom see in these games," 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]

Various Google Play reviews point towards the gameplay being unbalanced, and progress being based largely on microtransactions. Especially the PvP system has been a target of criticism. Furthermore, the ubiquity and widespread nature of the game's aggressive advertisement campaign has created an air of humor and satire around it; advertisements for the game have become an internet joke.