Hands On With Riot Games’ League of Legends: Clash of Fates

Riot Games’ League of Legends might seem at first blush to be another one of those online game revolving around superheroes, but is in fact no less colorful and vivid as a real-time multiplayer online battle arena game. Just call it “MOBA” for short, which the developers do. League of Legends (LoL) is the full-fledged rendition of the Defense of the Ancients All-Stars mod originally created for Warcraft III. In fact, League of Legend development positions are staffed by DotA veterans, specifically Steve “Pendragon” Mescon and Steve “Guinsoo” Feak.
What LoL brings to the table as a standalone game is a dynamic, often frenetic, mix of action and persistent role-playing along with a dollop of real-time-strategy. I had the opportunity to sample each of these aspects of LoL first-hand by test driving it myself.

Seated at a LAN-style station, teams of three on three, red versus blue, pitted their wills against each other in a PvP match-up. As my champion I started with Nunu Yeti Rider, the sluggish but dangerous ice beast tank character. Of course, players at the GDC demo could choose from the fifteen characters with greater magical might like Annie, who cackles with unholy glee and skips about blithely. For those who value speed, Master Yi is a fine choice as a champion. For those who value defensive strength in a tank, Alistar the Minotaur would be the best route to take. While there were enough choices to keep gamers of all stripes content during this demo, it was indicated more characters were being planned for inclusion in the game before launch.

When starting the game, all characters started out above a pool, which is used as a spawn point and for healing. A hop, skip and a jump away are shops for consumable items that can boost your life or give you a “blue pill” warp back the spawning portal and more. There’s also a shop for weapons and defensive upgrades, which allows you to purchase less expensive, more basic items that can be combined into a more powerful item through an item tree. Gold is the coin of the realm, and can be gained from fallen enemies. The map we waged war in was a verdant forested map, which offered three paths for players to take – top, middle and bottom. Logically, the players split up at the start of the match but were able to take shortcuts if a player was under siege in their particular route.

The objective of the game is deceptively simple on the face of it, as are most addictive games. Combat your way through hordes of minions, engage enemy combatants however you can, then take on the defensive towers positioned to impede your progress and take down the main enemy positions at the far corners of the map. One of my favorite attacks to use was the Absolute Zero attack with a large area of effect, but was balanced out by a long cooldown. Spreading ice across the field damaged towers, minions and enemies unlucky enough to be caught within its range. As champions gain experience, they are afforded skill points to assign to a range of offensive and defensive skills in battle – and mine was focused on my favorite attack. As I found out, faster human opponents could evade the attack and circle around behind me and cut me off from an escape route, especially with ranged attacks. To win a match definitely takes both smart strategy and quick reflexes, but that’s part of the game’s appeal
The only death penalty in the game is a respawn timer, but that can definitely increase the teeth-grinding factor a bit if the enemy is closing in on you. Overall the average multiplayer map with any given set of players should take about 30 to 35 minutes for one side to win.

Visually, League of Legends players will feel at home in the lushly colorful, overhead vantage point in which most of the game is played in. Explosions, spell effects and buffs are as pyrotechnic and as colorful as the fireworks at the end a New Year’s display. Players may notice the characters, animations and visual effects deviate from the more somber palettes of traditional Western fantasy RPG games, which was a deliberate artistic choice.

League of Legends aims to appeal to the core audience of ten million strong DotA enthusiasts with what Riot Games feels is an enhanced experience over the original, as well as to new players. The latter is made far more possible because the basic concept of “destroy and conquer” is readily grasped by most gamers, and learning how to control, equip and upgrade your character is relatively easy to understand. Fans of DotA won’t need me to remind them to keep an eye on the progress League of Legends will take as development progresses toward beta, but it is definitely worth it for twitch gamers, strategy gamers and even classic role-players to keep an eye on this promising title as well.