League of Legends

Game Info:

Developer:

-Riot Games

Publisher:

-Riot Games

-Garena

-Tencent Holdings Ltd

Staff:

Producers:

-Steven Snow

-Travis George

Designers:

-Steve Feak “Guinsoo” (The designer of the original DotA Map)

-Rob Garret

-Christina Norman

Artists:

-Edmundo Sanchez

-Troy Adam

-Jay Davies

Age Rating:

-T for Teen

Platforms:

-Microsoft Windows

Genre:

-MOBA or DotA or Action RTS

System Requirements:

http://gamereq.blogspot.ro/2011/11/league-of-legends-system-requirements.html

General:

League of Legends was created around the DotA idea. What the genre offers is usually two teams competing  two destroy one another’s main bases whilst fighting numerous obstacles such as the Champions(The character you control), Minions (Computer Controlled Soldiers) and Turrets (Damaging you if you come close to them). The team that gets to destroy the other team’s Nexus(Main Base) first is the winner. Whilst in the game you can collect gold by killing minions or other enemy Champions.

Multiplayer:

Being an only multiplayer game, I will only cover this part of the game. League of Legends offers matches in the form of sessions and in the different types of game modes, some of the game modes include a standard 5v5 or 3v3 Player versus Player action, which is the classic game mode to be picked out, but you can also choose the Co-Op VS AI game type which, implied by the name is the standard game mode but you will get to train against CPU controlled champions. Also other game modes which are available are Dominion or Custom Mode, and to break those down easily, Dominion is the standard mode but players receive faster leveling up and faster money-earning, on the other hand Dominion involves a basic “Domination” concept, players get to capture the enemies checkpoints which in this game mode are represented by turrets, the ones which hold the points the longest win. Custom though, is what most other games call “Private Match”, a custom game is a session which can be viewed in the custom game list and can be joinable.

Another important game type is Ranked mode ,this game type can only be playable by players with maximum level (lvl 30). Ranked Mode is a classic game type but the teams are arranged, as the Ranked Team Leader gets to choose his own team or group of 5 players (to make it understandable this is what a Guild or a Clan would be in other games of such type). The scores recorded in the Ranked Game Mode directly reflects onto the game’s Ranked Leaderboard.

Maps:

I know such thing as maps should not be involved in the General Description of the Multiplayer part of the game, but in League of Legends maps are not commonly produced and are very important to gameplay.

A map in LoL is called a Field of Justice and is composed of either 3 or 2 lanes (Top-Mid-Bottom) each of these lanes has an amount of turrets serving as obstacles and aid to the players of both teams (this meaning both teams have their own turrets), of course periodically minions, as I explained in the “General” part of the review , spawn on these lanes and attack each other trying to reach one another’s Main Base(Nexus). The Fields of Justice also have 4 Inhibitors (2 on each team) if an Inhibitor is destroyed more powerful super-minions spawn. On top of the lanes the maps also consist of a Jungle area which is filled with Neutral NPC Monsters that both teams can kill in order to farm for gold or EXP, some of these monsters have buffs which are immediately transferred to their killer, these buffs help you in battle for a limited amount of time.

Menus and Perks:

IP and RP:

Influence Points (IP) or Riot Points (RP) are in game currencies which can be used to buy champions, skins or Runes.

Influence Points can be earned according to your Skill, after finishing a Normal match of LoL you will earn an amount of IP which afterwards you will be able to use in the client store, the more you win and play matches, the more you will earn IP and will be able to purchase all of the above.

Riot Points are not earned but bought through micro-transactions (real money through Credit Card or Pay Pal) from the League of Legends Store, being a Free to Play , the game earns part of its income by selling these special points with which you can purchase Skins for your Champions or Champions.

Masteries:

Masteries are points which influence your gameplay in the form of a perk, which means that they improve your gameplay and give you advantages when you start the game. These points are earned once you level up, having 30 levels available you only are capable to hold 30 of them whether they be Defensive, Offensive or Utility.  

Runes:

Runes are similar to Masteries but only on the Perk point of view, they help you in-game but by improving your stats as you start the match. One type of rune could help you by increasing your attack damage while another could help you by reducing your skill’s cooldown and helping you cast them quicker.

There is a limited number of runes you can have, but you may buy more Rune Pages, runes are only purchasable through Influence Points to make it fair for people that do not invest their money into the game.

 Graphics & Sound:

League of Legends’ Graphics are stunning in the way they act and react with user interference.

Graphical design is cel shading which means it is artsy and has a more story-like look than a realistic one, this is not something bad, but on the contrary, it improves the playability and it makes it look more enjoyable. The particles and the textures set to a very high quality are amazing and even if you play this game at lower settings you will still get to enjoy a really wonderful world and environment that League of Legends has to offer. The design of the Champions is also great and each and one of them have their unique look that adds personality and awesomeness to them.

In the same category, the sound  is just as wonderful, from the soundtrack to the simple voices and effects are all amazing. The voices of the characters really suit them and go very well with their look, the jokes are well made and the taunts and battle cries as well. The effects of the skills sound smooth and violent depending on the skill but even so go pretty well with the animations of those skills.

All in all, the sound and graphics are very polished and good quality which is a great plus for this game.

Verdict:

The bottom line and my sincere opinion is that the game is amazing. But the thing is that it is difficult for many people to agree with me because this game is a very rare genre and even though a few million people play it, I unfortunately have to say it is not easy to get used to if you are a beginner because the community is not very welcoming and you can even get banned for the reason that you are unskilled, which most of the time is not very fair as some players can be new to the game.

I personally, have played quite a lot of  LoL and I am in love with the game but I had my fair share of yelling at, getting reported or other stereotypical “kid gamer” treatment.

But with all those community problems aside the game itself is wonderful once you get to understand it better, in my case it did not take very long considering I had played DotA on the original Warcraft 3,and even though I was not as good at that than I am at LoL it was still the same type of experience that I got to live.

Anyways my final opinion and recommendation is that all of you who saw the game before and did not play it, should, and if you did play it and did not enjoy it, then you should give it another try because chances are the more you play it the more you will get to understand the concept.