Review: League of Legends
League of Legends is like going out on a blind date with a boring guy to a restaurant that has free breadsticks and lots of alcohol. You don’t have to pay for anything, and there’s enough there to keep you entertained, but it’s a little boring and the company isn’t great.
League of Legends is from the creator of DOTA, the Warcraft III custom map that inspired a Basshunter song. I never played DOTA, but it was quite popular. In a nutshell, you control a hero with a variety of heroes and fight against other heroes. Wave of little minions back both sides up. Killing the minions levels you up, which in turn buys you new abilities. The ultimate goal is to destroy the turrets in your way, break into the enemy base, and destroy their giant crystal-thing. You get bonuses for killing heroes and turrets in the form of lots of gold. Exchange the gold for items, which makes you even more powerful, and so on. There are tanks, support heroes, and heroes who focus on damage. In this way, League of Legends is pretty straight forward; nothing groundbreaking here.
League of Legends is a popular game, and no doubt it will become even more popular in the future. It’s free, and you can buy extras with either paid points or an in-game point system. New content, such as champions and maps, are released, and word of mouth about this game is everywhere. So, as a poor student, I decided to check it out. After a few hours of League of Legends, I was prepared to condemn it for the following reasons.
- The community. A video game having a poor community is nothing new, of course, but games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, World of Warcraft has enough depth and fun of gameplay that you’re willing to stick it out. The hordes of bad teammates you get in League of Legends might be enough to put you off the entire game until you figure out what you’re doing.
- The initial lack of gameplay. You start off with about 10 or so heroes, but the heroes you get may not be to your tastes. As time goes on, you get talent trees, runes, and so on. The game is completely different when you’re a level 30 than a level 5. Games go from about an hour to half an hour, and there’s a lot more strategy.
- Playing alone. Combine playing alone with point one, and you have the recipe for a frustrating forty five minutes. Never has a game been so aggressively unfun. However, when I teamed up with a few level 30 friends and got on Vent and we all played, I ended up having a really good time. And even later on, when I knew some of the tricks of the trade and had a few wins under my belt, I could play alone and tip the balance from lose to win by myself.
Ultimately, League of Legends is a game you have to sink some time into – time to get the points to earn new heroes you may enjoy more, time to learn the strategies, time to get over the frustratingly game. Luckily, the game is free, and while you can pay real money to get heroes and skins faster, you can get them with in-game points as well.
Ultimately, League of Legends is a labour of love. While it may be initially frustrating, the gameplay when you get over these hurdles or play with friends is rewarding and fun. League of Legends borrows heavily from the Warcraft franchise heavily, but not to the point where it feels derirative, and there are sure worse franchises to be inspired by. It is a free game, so it’s perfect for a long summer if you’re on a budget, and killing sprees are legitimately fun. Give it a whirl, and brace yourself for an initially bumpy game, but you may find yourself surprised.
7/10
Categories: Gaming
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