Review This! League of Legends

League of legends is one of the best games I have ever played in a long time and this review will help you decide if it’s worth your time. It is ‘free to play’ (more on that later) so anyone can check it out with no risk to see if they’ll like it.  It’s a 5v5 team game based on a Warcraft 3 custom game: DotA (Defense of the Ancients), the objective of the game is to destroy the enemy’s main base.  But in your way will be enemy towers, waves of minions and the enemy team itself.  You will need to kill other enemy players and their minions, as you kill minions and players you will earn gold to purchase items and experience to level up your hero’s skills, you will need good teamwork to win.  Anyone can play it for free but you will have limited access to the heroes, only a handful of heroes are randomly chosen out of the 72 possible heroes.  Each hero has a unique set of abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  There are some balance issues between heroes and they are listed and ranked in different league of legends tier list.


Graphics

Graphics of the Game

Each ‘hero’ has a small back story but they are only there for flavor and there is no major single player option.  Multiplayer is where the game shines, because it is free you can get any of your friends to play with you, as you win games you will earn points that you can spend to purchase upgrades, access
to new heroes and cosmetic skins to customize the look of your heroes.  You can purchase points to spend on ‘bundles’ to access more heroes and upgrades quickly if you really love the game.

The graphics are very well done and are satisfying for the nature of the game and its gameplay, they are nothing ground breaking but they are crisp and clear enough to keep you hooked onto the action.  The sound and music are good but I hate the announcer’s voice, it doesn’t suit the game to hear an ‘elderly grandma’ say: ‘double kill’…  You can replace sound files but I’d prefer to have the option at the start.


Character Selection
With a near infinite variety of possible games there are dozens of free guides on the internet that will teach you how to play a hero and what items and skills to get for that hero, these are called ‘builds’.  One example of these league of legends builds, there is a melee hero called ‘Master Yi’ he is strongest with physical attacks so its best to get items increase his damage or attack speed.  This requires you to learn (even study) a lot about the game, it’s heroes, strategies, league of legends items and even the enemy heroes you are facing against!!  This fact makes it pretty daunting for new players but league of legends has a Co-Op vs AI option so that you can learn the game easier then move on to matches against other players.

One note about the game that is ambiguous; league of legends has a system of ‘masteries’ and ‘runes’, these are Skill or Talent Trees that will improve whatever hero you play, these are irrelevant because they only give minor enhancements to your hero and you do not need to invest a lot of time into it until you are level 30, and by then you’ll learn what you need in these systems.

The League of legends requirements are not too trying and nearly any system with a dual core processor and a decent video card can handle it easily.

3 GHz Processor
1 GB RAM
GeForce 8800 or better
(After you’ve installed and started the game, you may need to increase some settings like the resolution.)

Summary; the game gives you free access to a random group of heroes each week, if you have a free afternoon try it out.

Multiplayer   9/10 (Takes time to learn)
Gameplay       9/10
Graphics         8/10
Sound              7/10 (WTB Alternate Announcer Voice)
Fun                   9/10 (Get some friends to download it for free and have a party!)
I highly recommend playing this game, the link below goes to the league of legends download, its free and worth a try, even if you and your friends have never played it before you can match up against Computer Bots and practice.