So my complaint isn’t the fact that it’s “free to play”-I’ve played my fair share of these kinds of games-but how much it wants you to pay.
The ads can’t shut up about the fact that the game is “FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE!!!” I think most people who play games now understand that when a game is “free to play,” it really means “free to get,” meaning you can download it for free, but there are options to spend real money in-game. “Raid” plays exactly like countless other mobile games, but somehow has the most primitive-looking and ugliest user interface. There’s an auto mode which lets the game control the characters for you. You can enhance your characters by leveling them up and equipping gear. Levels consist of three waves of enemies-clear all three waves and you beat the level. The gameplay is extremely mediocre: you control four characters in turn-based combat, and each character has a default attack and two skills, the latter of which go into cooldown once used. At best, they are misleading, at worst they are outright lies. But at least now I know what the game’s really like once you get past the taglines. The money I was manipulated into spending was too much for me to tell you without feeling like an absolute idiot. I ended up getting sucked in and played for a month. “This video is sponsored by…” is now the most feared phrase on Youtube.Īnd I’m ashamed to admit that it got to me, too. They’re awkward in the sense that a money-hungry company is trying to act tongue-and-cheek to sell me their lies.īut just when I thought Adblock would save me, Raid’s marketing team started sponsoring Youtubers to be the game’s mouthpiece, paying dozens of influencers to follow a rigid script and repeat talking points like the ones in their official ads: “Totally free! Awesome 3D graphics! Amazing storyline! Log in and get 50K and a free epic champion as part of the new player program!” The game’s marketing is like the cancer of cyberspace-it corrupts its habitat.
Later, they would push out cringe-worthy skits of in-game characters being interviewed or revealing their inner-thoughts. Starting early 2019, I’ve been seeing their advertisements before every video, which features a cheesy, deep male voice trying to sound as dramatic as possible while touting the game’s features, like that it’s free, it’s got so many characters to collect, that it’s got an epic story, blah, blah, blah. It is guilty of the two most notorious sins: intrusive, deceptive marketing and aggressively monetization-based design.įor those that have (luckily) never heard of it, “Raid” is a mobile turn-based role-playing game and the biggest sponsor on Youtube.
“Raid: Shadow Legends” belongs in the lowest depths of hell that is the industry of mobile gaming. “Forget everything you know about mobile games” is their tagline.
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