The entire time I’ve been on YouTube, I’ve been really open and transparent with you
guys about the fact that I’m doing literally all of this for money.
But in a very off-brand move, today I’m friend zoning myself from YouTube’s biggest
sponsor for no reason other than . . . I hate them.
Today’s sponsor: RAID: Shadow Legends.
RAID—RAID—RAID—Thanks so much to RAID: Shadow Legends.
RAID: Shadow Legends.
I know you already know about RAID: Shadow Legends.
Now this video isn’t a commentary on the YouTubers who promote RAID, because everybody’s
gotta eat, plus that would be like attacking my coworkers for doing their job.
Everyone I showed is a really good YouTuber, some of them are almost as good as me, no
I’m just kidding.
Nobody is.
But with the way demonetization is hitting everyone right now, I’ll take every sponsorship
I can get.
Every sponsorship . . . except RAID: Shadow Legends.
And that is because of something I’ve kept secret from all of you.
I am a gamer.
That’s right.
I may not upload Minecraft videos or stream Fortnite 10 times a week on Facebook, but
I am a bona fide gamer.
I have a PS4 controller and an XBOX controller, and yes; my bathwater is for sale.
So when I found out that RAID: Shadow Legends was, in their own words, a revolutionary RPG
with a massive story and graphics rivalling console titles, but you could play it right
here on your underpowered smartphone for free, my first thought was: Wow!
That doesn’t sound possible whatsoever”.
So I’m going to break the infamous RAID: Shadow Legends advertisement, because this
is an anti-sponsorship.
So the first claim: Console-level graphics.
Here it is running on my phone, and um- they’re technically not wrong, if by console graphics
we mean consoles that came out like 13 years ago.
Here’s an actual game with triple A graphics.
And here’s RAID.
But you know what, they’re trying.
There’s no way a phone can compete with giant console or even my laptop, and RAID’s
graphics are pretty impressive for a phone, so I’m going to go ahead and say this claim
is confirmed.
Next up: an amazing storyline.
Okay but like where?
Actually where is this amazing storyline.
I know we’re not talking about the actual storyline, because that—you know what, the
best way I can describe the story of RAID: Shadow Legends is like if Marvel had made
Avengers: Endgame, but they never made the 21 movies that came before it.
So it’s like, there’s a lot going on and it’s seems important, but I don’t know
who these people are or why they’re dressed like this.
Like ooh, an emotional moment.
Am I supposed to be feeling something for this person that I’ve never seen--- who
is this!?
But technically, there is a story and quite technically, it is epic.
So this claim get a: sort of true.
They also claim to have thrilling gameplay.
And at this point, RAID is just lying.
I know they’re lying; they know they’re lying.
And the truth is: there is no gameplay.
One doesn’t play RAID: Shadow Legends so much as one watches RAID: Shadow Legends.
You know what, let’s play through a battle right now and I’ll show you what I mean.
So, like most turn-based games nothing happens if I don’t press anything.
Nothing at all.
So I can tap enemies once, and then I watch them get hit.
Tap, watch.
I can switch between special types of taps down here, but then I have to go back to tap,
watch.
When you get hit, you just have to watch yourself stand there and take it.
The entire battle system feels like fighting somebody with swords made out of napkins.
You can hit them, but it doesn’t really feel like you did anything.
But hey, at least I reached level 7.
I hope that’s thrilling enough for you, because that’s the only gameplay in the
entire game.
You don’t run around, you don’t talk to anybody, you don’t do anything but tap and
watch.
So their claim of thrilling gameplay: false.
I’ve had more thrilling moments in animal crossing.
Next up, we have the auto-play feature.
RAID actually advertises that there is a button on this game that just makes the battles play
automatically.
Meaning instead of tap and watch, you can just watch and watch.
This feature is confirmed because it’s exactly what they say it is, but my question is: if
this game is supposed to be an RPG experience like nothing before, but it gives you the
option to just experience nothing . . . what is the true purpose of this game?
If the gameplay is so inseconsequential that you can just skip it, and the story is so
inconsequential that I don’t remember any of it as I’m talking right now, then where
does RAID want you to devote the majority of your attention?
I don’t know why I’m wording it like a question, the answer is the gacha system they
have with the characters.
Collect and customize 400 champions!
That’s RAID’s biggest claim to fame.
You actually get to choose your first champion out of a list, and uh-- If I had to pick one
of these . . . I wouldn’t.
I like how all the characters are either really pale, or not human beings.
And those are the only options.
That’s-- not today.
I’m just going to go with this guy, because his jawline was crafted by the gods.
Like, all of them.
From every religion.
And maybe even a couple of mortals.
I think he’s spending his raid money on plastic surgery.
It feels so nice to such be a pretty elf man.
It’s kind of cool in the game too.
But there are only a couple of champions you can actually earn.
All the rest of them are randomly distributed to you through this gacha system.
Gacha games are basically a model where you insert cash and out comes a random prize,
ranging from completely worthless, to being worth much much more than you put in.
Your chances of getting the good stuff are pretty low, so your best bet is just to keep
rolling again and again and again, spending more and more money, getting so close to getting
a grand prize, watching everyone around you win and knowing that if you could just spend
one more—oh but it’s not gambling.
Because that would be crazy.
It’s just, on paper, identical to gambling.
Now is RAID the only gacha game on the app store?
Of course not.
In fact, I play Mario Kart Tour all the time and that is definitely a gacha game.
But I don’t mind it, because it’s very up front.
RAID on the other hand is trying so hard to seem like a real RPG that’s about the story
and the gameplay and the graphics, but it was clearly all developed around the gacha
system and it shows.
Yes, you can collect 400 champions, no you’re not going to get them unless you spend absurd
amounts of money.
This claim gets a: sort of true.
Now I’m going to look at the very last claim: the game is highly-rated and award nominated.
As for the latter, it’s great that they were nominated for a Play Store award, but
hosting awards for mobile game apps is kind of like hosting the Streamys for YouTubers.
Sure, a lot of people were nominated, and some of them may have even won, but at the
end of the day, we’re all doing YouTube for a living, so in the grand scheme of things,
I’m pretty sure we all lost.
As for the high reviews, between the amount of the times the game has crashed, the amount
of pop-up ads in the game begging me to spend money, and the amount of actual negative reviews
on the play store . . . I’m pretty sure they allegedly definitely paid for the majority
of their positive reviews.
Let’s read some of the negative ones.
My camera died in the middle of me looking for reviews.
Truly praying on my downfall.
Anyway.
It seems fun at the first two three months, but then you realize that the events they
promote inside the game are just impossible to achieve the rewards without spending money.
I liked this game so much that I gave it a 5 star review.
But as time went on you realize how greedy and in your face with how much they want your
money.
If you download this game you’ll have fun for a month.
Then you start to get tired of clicking out of about 10 pop ups with what they call “deals”
which are ridiculously overpriced.
They suck you in, milk you for what you have, and that is it.
You will quit after you realize this.
All the reviews are quitting, this is so sad.
Could have been the best game of its kind.
Don’t waste your time unless you have hundreds of dollars to throw away on crappy Random
Chance mechanisms.
Go feed a slot machine instead…
At least that might pay out.
This guy—Michael Borque—he should have written my review for me.
This guy is savage.
So I think we get the point.
The game is fun to play at first but then it’s not . . . free.
The game is highly rated but it somehow has thousands upon thousands of terrible reviews.
So this claim: is false.
Now, you know what: even though playing RAID: Shadow Legends for this video felt like me
being robbed at gunpoint by a random number generator.
. . I’m still feeling pretty generous.
So I’m going to make a free ad read for RAID: Shadow Legends right now, and this one
is going to be accurate.
Today’s video is brought to you by RAID: Shadow Legends.
RAID is one of the top RPGs on the Google Play Store, even though it’s barely an RPG
and the top reviews are fake.
15 million people downloaded this game in the last 6 months, but we’re guessing 14
million of them never actually made an account because the game is pretty dry.
There are 400 champions in this game but your probability of getting a useful one is 0.6%,
so you can play RAID for free, but just know that if you do: you’re not getting any of
them.
RAID has amazing combat, it’s so fluid, it’s almost like it moves without you.
RAID has graphics on the level of a console, rivalling the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii.
And, it has an extremely convoluted story with no cutscenes.
I played RAID for hours and I still want to know: who are these people and what’s happening---
oh my gosh it’s a dragon.
Clink the link in my description, and Install RAID today to get 50,000 free silver, also
known as . . . less than a dollar.
And who knows, you might even find me in the game but I definitely won’t be playing.
RAID: Shut the hell up.
[SMPTE] Anyway, that was my first anti-sponsorship.
I probably won’t be doing too many of these, for a couple reasons.
I think most sponsors on YouTube are good products, and I don’t have a problem with
doing sponsorships.
I would even promote RAID: Shadow Legends if the company was upfront about what it was.
But the most important reason I won’t be doing too many more of these is because . . .
I just threw away a lot of money.
Like . . . so much money-- You know what, if this video mysteriously disappeared and
you see me do a real sponsorship for RAID in my next video, you know what happened.
Anyway, looks like I’ve gotten ten minutes of content out of this, so leave a like, tell
me what you think, and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thank you for watching, and a big thank you to my 244,000 subscribers.
Okay bye.
By the way, I did put special links in my description so make sure you click them for
a little surprise.