League of Legends review

All screens and graphics provided by Riot Games

Now that League of Legends is formally out of beta, we revisited it to make sure that it still rocks. Sure enough, it does.

If you're unfamiliar with League of Legends, it's essentially a whole new game based upon a popular Warcraft III mod called Defense of the Ancients (DoTA). League of Legends builds upon the basic Warcraft III formula by introducing dozens of heroes, items, and an RPG-like meta game, all of which is bolstered (and financially supported) by a micro-transaction system.

Gameplay

Although League of Legends offers some single-player tutorials and content, it is designed first and foremost as a multiplayer game. Not surprisingly, the basic game mechanics for League of Legends are virtually identical to Warcraft III, albeit it much more focused. Any RTS gamer should be able to learn the ropes quickly. 

You are called a 'Summoner'. In addition to commanding a small array of spells of your own, you also control a single, powerful, unique champion with their own special abilities. Working with a team of other Summoners (human players) and their chosen champions, your goal is simple: support your continually spawning minions, destroy enemy defensive turrets that litter a path to the enemy base, and then destroy the enemy's base.

Minions spawn in pre-determined numbers and on timed intervals, after which they immediately and single-mindedly move towards the enemy base, attacking any enemies or enemy structures that they encounter. Sway the battle in your favor and you'll whittle down the enemy's defenses until you reach their base and (if all goes well) destroy it.

Gold -- which you use to buy equipment upgrades for your hero—also trickles in continuously at a pre-determined rate, although killing enemy champions earns a bonus, and some in-game inventory items and other things can enhance your team's gold production.

RPG elements

After starting a game you can choose one of ten available champions (from a current roster of 40). The roster of available champions continually rotates so that ten are always available for free, but you can permanently unlock more by spending either Influence Points or Riot Points.

In addition, as you gain experience points and level up as a Summoner, you gain Mastery Points, which can be spent on a tech tree to improve your summoner's spells or improve the overall effectiveness of your champion. Masteries are divided into  offensive, defensive, and utility functions. 

Champions have their own unique powers as well as the ability to carry five inventory items like health potions, mana potions, and various arms and armor to improve their abilities and characteristics. Equipment upgrades are purchased with gold during the course of a game, but they are not retained once the game is over.

Like Warcraft III, champions earn experience points and rise in level when you're playing. Level advancement is rapid, and your champion can go from level 1 to level 18 in about thirty minutes, depending on how you play. Each level gained improves the hero and lets you spend a point on improving one of their special abilities. Killing enemy minions as well as NPC monsters strewn about the map earns XP, and killing enemy champions earns even more. 

When your hero is killed, you merely have to wait 15-30 seconds to re-spawn back at your base and rejoin the battle. During the waiting period you can still access the store (which is right next to where you'll spawn), so it's usually the perfect time to buy some upgrades before rejoining the battle.

The League of Legends community is vibrant and active with tons of content, forums for discussing tactics, and plenty of help for 'Noobs' to get started. That said, there is also still no shortage of snickering  jackasses playing the game too, so wear a little Internet Kevlar when you join a game for the first time just in case.

The currency of war

Simply playing League of Legends earns you two types of in-game currency: Influence Points and Experience Points. Experience points count towards leveling up your Summoner. Influence points are spent to unlock more Champions. You can also use Influence Points to buy Summoner-bolstering runes that grant additional bonuses to your Summoner and champion abilities.

A third currency called Riot Points must be purchased with real money. Riot Points cost $5 per 650 points, although if you buying larger allotments grants bonus points. For $35 you get 5000 total Riot Points. Skins generally cost 520 Riot Points, unlocking a champion can cost anywhere from 250-1380 Riot Points, and increasing the rate at which you gain Influence Points by 200% for 3 days costs 520 Riot Points, to name just a few examples.

Fast, furious, focused action

What makes League of Legends so fun is that it offers a highly distilled RTS experience for folks that just want to jump into a game, skip the base-building and micromanagement,  and get straight to the combat.

This might sound shallow, but League of Legends has near limitless tactical options, given the dizzying array of champions, Summoner abilities, runes, magic items, and the infinite combinations thereof.

It's an interesting mix, because League of Legends offers a 'core gamer' game experience in relatively 'casual gamer' sized chunks of time. The average game runs about 30-90 minutes, depending on how good the teams are and how evenly matched they are. Fortunately, League of Legends matchmaking and ranking system is pretty sophisticated—it involves actual math-n-stuff—and it's designed to streamline the process so Noobs don't get utterly crushed by an experienced team. In addition, it is also designed to ensure those that spend lots of (real) money on the game don't necessarily get severe advantages over players that only play for free.

Overall

League of Legends is an absolute gem. Whether you play for free or sell your soul for boosts, skins, and champions, you're bound to enjoy it for a long, long time. And because the game is essentially built on the bones of Warcraft III, it even has modest enough system requirements that older computers should have little trouble playing it.

The fact that League of Legends provides virtually limitless hours of multiplayer goodness for a price of ZERO makes it an easy recommendation for anyone that likes competitive RTS games. And if you're willing to drop $30, you can buy the League of Legends Collector's Pack and get 20 unlocked champions, 4 bonus runes, and $10 worth of Riot Points to spend in the online store. However you decide to play it, League of Legends is well worth your investment.

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