Created by Riot Games, a company that had concealed itself beneath the radar and devoted most of their time into this one video game, have put together one of the most popular online video games out there today even though they had not actually released any other video game before it. Inspiration for League of Legends would most likely sprout from the Warcraft III mod: Defence of the Ancients which set the bar for Riot to hurl themselves over. And they did exactly that.
League of Legends isn't the hardest game to understand and get good at but it does take some time getting used to. Once you have figured out how everything works and what buttons you need to be pressing it can become very enjoyable. The easy hot-keys and controls allow newcomers to the game to dive right in. But what does League of Legends actually involve?
The League was created to settle disputes between the many different cities around the land. Instead of letting war break out, they all agreed to place their most powerful warriors into an arena and whoever won got the final say in the arguments. Although this is only the bare bones of what the story is all about as each champion has a different lore that explains why they joined the league. You can delve into these extra snippets of information or ignore them entirely as it has no real impact on the game.
So two teams of five champions are each controlled by a summoner (that's you) and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing teams main structure called the nexus to win. Along your path are towers that shoot magic but these can all be destroyed with enough hits. To aid you with this are waves of AI controlled soldiers called minions that charge right into battle and grant gold to anybody that can kill them. After many waves of deceased minions and several minutes spent running around trying to avoid or slaughter player controlled enemy champions, players will start destroying the towers to get closer to the nexus. Eventually, the inhibitors become the next target for the team to take out. With these destroyed, minion waves start including the heavily armoured and powerful Super minions that can only be rivalled by other super minions or champions. Once that inhibitor is crushed, the final target is the nexus which is protected by its own pair of towers that are much stronger than the others. If not destroyed fast enough, the inhibitor will respawn at full health and must be destroyed again.
This may seem somewhat straight forward as the main objective is to destroy everything the enemy owns and win. Riot have done a good job in keeping things simple and the traditional style of Defence of the ancients in tact. However there are more things to it than this. Champions level up and gain more abilities that upgrade each time you put another point into it to do more damage and refresh faster. As well as this, each champion has a passive ability that could be anything from healing when out of combat to turning invisible. Finally, each champion has an ultimate ability gained at level six that can turn the tide in any situation. These could be anything from launching a tidal wave at your foes to smash them into the air, summoning a flaming teddy bear demon to do your bidding or something much simpler such as a massive boost in attack and movement speed to bolt around the map and outrun and chase people.
Then you need to figure out what items to spend your hard earned gold on. There are plenty of shiny things in the item shop but you need to think about which ones are more important for your champion than others. Buying spell damage items wont really benefit the hulking knight that doesn’t use magic will it? Some items make you harder to kill and others make your spells even more powerful. There is more to the item shop than just that however, but there are too many to mention in one review. Luckily Riot have a recommended items list for each champion so you don't get overloaded by all the different choices you have.
Just killing minions and champions wont always get you the gold you need especially if you start falling behind. This is where taking down enemy structures are even more important as they all award your entire team a generous sum of gold. If that isn't enough or you can't get anywhere near the turret then the creatures that have camped up in the surrounding jungle also grant gold to their killers. Learning the best ways to play your champions and getting the most out of the gold you make is what separates the newcomers from the advanced players of the game.
One of League of Legends most noticeable features is the method in which players gain access to the many things the game offers before diving into any gameplay. After booting the game up, the player is greeted by an ancient stone-like interface that is used to look for matches and check out news but is also the gateway to the League of Legends in-game store. Every time you finish a match, you earn Influence points that are spent to unlock more champions and purchase runes that you can set to rune pages that increase your champions stats slightly. Several other games of this genre have used this sort of in-game store to do the same thing but Riot has made everything easy to find and you can actually tell what all of the different tabs are.
Riot hasn't left out micro-transactions though. Riot points can be bought with real money through the store and cannot be earned through the game in any way. This is the currency used to purchase new skins and appearances for your favourite champions and are usually worth the money depending on which ones you are going for. Some simple colour changes cost very little like Toxic Mundo that changes his skin from Purple to Green. Other skins that alter a character completely such as the Pulsefire Ezreal skin will kick your wallet in its metaphorical crotch so be prepared to spend a lot on this game if you start to get dragged into the pretty colours and outfits of each champion.
There are already more than a hundred champions to choose from and Riot are consistently patching up the game. These patches are downloaded to everyone’s computers several times over the course of the year and each one fixes bugs, tweaks champion stats and sometimes add new champions to the roster as well as the occasional new item. There have been several champion remodels and visual updates lately to keep the graphical side of the game up to date with modern technology. Not too long ago the old maps were updated too. You never know what Riot plan to change next and that is definitely something that has kept League from falling behind and becoming dated.
League of Legends really stands out from its rivals in the massively online battle arena genre and unless you’ve spent your life playing Heroes of Newerth or the original Dota then LoL would probably settle at the top of your list as most enjoyable or most hated of the lot. This is usually influenced by the people you’re forced to bunk with on the field of justice. You will notice after playing the game for a while that there are people out there who will wipe the floor with your recently butchered body as the learning curve swoops upwards so that it is really easy to notice people who haven't played the game for long. Also one of the biggest issues with the game is one that isn't easy to fix and that is the player base. Most games you walk into will end with someone shouting and wailing at their team for losing.
Overall, League of Legends is getting a nice 8.3/10 from me. The game could certainly use more maps and game modes, but what it does provide is enough to keep you playing over and over again.
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