I’ve never liked strategy games such as Starcraft, Lord of the Realms, Warcraft 1-3, Civilization, etc… so I never gave much time to Defense of the Ancients and then League of Legends (LoL) when it came out. I don’t like micromanagement in games, and I still don’t.
I was recently on a stream site and found the LoL channel. I began to watch some of the videos and to my surprise, it felt more like an RPG than it did a strategy game. I didn’t understand the entire minion/creep system, but I wanted to find out more. I heard the terms I was used to from MMORPGs such as “gank” and “farm”… I was intrigued. I began to watch videos about this game and discovered that it is in no way a normal strategy game, but a mini PvP RPG! This is what I love. I absolutely love RPG style PvP… I live for it! I got in the game thinking I was going to be seriously awesome as I can normally pick these games up within the first few hours… I was wrong, extremely wrong. I consider myself a very above average MMORPG player. I’ve played them all, and I’ve played every role in high-quality end-game content… and I was getting my butt kicked. If that’s not bad enough, it was by a computer… The computer is now nothing to beat, but it took hours upon hours to get there. This game is no joke, and the learning curve is very, very steep.
Presentation : C
Graphics / Animation / Sound
The graphics are outdated, though not terrible. Considering newer games coming out such as Defense of the Ancients 2, this game is behind the times. That is to be expected though, as it is nearly 3 years old. Also, the art style I cartoony, and as I didn’t mind this with WoW, it’s become troublesome to see so many games with the same art direction.
Single Player : NA
Game mechanics / Length / difficulty
Multiplayer : C-
Game mechanics / features / Online features
This game’s multiplayer PvP mode is fantastic. While the mechanics are incredibly easy, they are also incredibly deep. Learning each character, and there are dozens upon dozens of them to choose from, is staggering. Each of them has different abilities, and most of them aren’t even close to the same. They also have different roles such as support, pusher, jungler, carry, semi-carry, hard-carry, tank, AP Carry, AD Carry… it’s a lot to deal with.
The game’s inventory system is incredibly important, and makes or breaks a player, but it is tough to browse through, get to know, and find things. If I use a specific item, but I can’t search for it by typing, I must find it through the myriad list of items available. Also, the items available list is quite huge, overwhelmingly so. It is terrible to try to find good things, as most things aren’t used anymore but haven’t been removed from the game. The suggested items also don’t fill the roles they should.
As if these two things weren’t enough (and is all you deal with in Defense of the Ancients) you must learn the game’s Rune and Mastery systems. These are incredibly deep, specific to certain roles, and they change based on the Champion you can play. As you can tell, this can be very overwhelming for an average player, even more so to a complete newbie in this type of game.
Runes for the most part are the easier of the two, but they take a long time to get. You must purchase them with IP, a kind of currency you earn from playing games. Each game takes 30 minutes to over an hour, and the games only net you about 30-100 IP a game. Runes cost as low as 10 IP and the price goes drastically up from there the higher you get, but the IP you get doesn’t until much later. On top of all of this, you must purchase new Champions, and Champions cost as low as 450 IP and as much at nearly 7k. You need a ton of IP and the only way to get it is to play.
I have spent hours upon hours playing this game and barely have enough IP for the characters, let alone the runes. Of course you can just out-and-out purchase the Champions for cash by buying their RP currency with real dollars, but for the full set of Champions it is going to cost you over 500 US dollars, less if you buy packages for higher dollar amounts upfront. I spent $50 on about 5 champions that I really wanted. Basically, this “free” game turned into a cash hog. I will be spending more too, as I need runes that I cannot afford, and my son also wants new characters. You must have these things to compete, if you don’t, you are royally in bad shape.
Masteries are a talent point system that key in on specific things like “+minion damage”, “+10 gold pieces per 5 seconds”, or “+4 Physical Damage”. These things take levels to achieve, 1 point for each level, and give a HUGE advantage, especially early game. This is one thing I do not like about PvP in games… giving someone a large advantage for playing the game before or more than me. It’s just not something I find fun. Time spent in-game shouldn’t give you an advantage, well, in a game like this. This is one thing about Defense of the Ancients that I must say is just better, no Masteries or Runes. Just skill vs. skill… the way nature intended!
The game’s flow is ever-changing, and is very difficult to get down. It takes some time to get used to how everything plays out, the timing of monster spawning, the maps hiding places, etc. I don’t mind learning maps, so this doesn’t bother me, but the mechanics take 3 to 6 months to learn. I found that out on a strategy guide for LoL. This isn’t a game for the faint of heart, you must really want it.
A special note about this game’s community. I will not give this game a negative score because the community is bad, but let this be a fair warning. For the most part, especially in the competitive arena, the community is unrelenting and vicious. They attack you, and will keep attacking you until you fold. An example is a couple of days ago I played a game where I died, along with my partner, 6 times in the early game. I was terrible. We “fed” this enemy Champion levels and money so he was ungodly powerful. It frankly made the game incredibly difficult. I kept getting bad mouthed over and over for it, being called all sorts of names, and it didn’t stop. I ignored it, and at the end, a player on my team told everyone in the game, including the enemy, to report me for “feeding”, basically, calling me a cheater for the other team. I took exception to this and argued back, but they didn’t stop. I understand, people have bad games, but the things they called me, and not even knowing me, was just appalling. Many people won’t even go to PvP for the simple reason that the community is so bad. You can ignore people, and I make ample use of this now that I found it. This is a fair warning. You can also Google search “league of legends community” and find many, many threads on message boards about this subject. This community is unforgiving and relentless.
Replay Value : A+
Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC
This is a PvP game that is every changing, ever evolving, and ever-present. New Champions come out all of the time, and tournaments happen every day.
In Closing
Due to the outdated graphics, terribly organized inventory system, and steep learning curve, I have to this game a C+ overall. While it is a good game, it’s not accessible for most people, and can get expensive to be competitive. All that said, it is still a solid game, with a large player base, and very rewarding… just expect to not have a lot of that reward and fun for the first couple months…
Overall : C+
Maybe you should have played this game with a friend who knows LOL a lot better to teach you the basics. Just adding a friend on your side to play this game adds a completely new dimension to the experience as you will continuously communicate to each other and end up with pricesless high five after successful battle. After all, it’s teamplay game where playing it by yourself mostly ends up in frustration. Seeing current popularity, it won’t be hard to find one.
i concurr; i played this game for a year now and the most ive been called is a noob; now if u were slayed time after time and have a learning disorder u will try to go head to head over and over again and lose everytime; its not complicated and your review scares people away; i AGREE THAT WE COULD USE SOME NEW MAPS!! but play for a year and then bi ch about maps; and the characters are allot to deal with if u worry about having a specific character; 2 types main char range and melee; each has its subcatagories but its not that bad. jeez…
i meant complain im sorry
I disagree 100% with your view that it can “get expensive to be competitive”. Thats complete BS. What can you buy with RP? Champions and skins – yes, Runes – NO. You have to buy the runes with *IP*, that way you actually have to play the game, you cant buy your way to strength with real life money.
450 and 1350 IP champs are bad? No. Just no. Ashe is 450 IP and still remains an extremely strong AD Carry, Ryze is an incredibly strong, tanky, sustained damage and bursty AP carry, Garen is seriously strong right now, Nunu has always been strong, and all of these are 450 IP. Also pretty much most of the 1350 champs are good enough to be used in competitve play. Especially champs like Morgana, Twisted Fate, Jax, Taric, Alistar, Singed, Mundo, Cho Gath, Nasus, Malphite and Amumu.
This works inversely too, there are some weak, expensive champions. Sejuani is barely ever played, despite costing 6300 IP.
League is, for the most part, a balanced game. Stick with any one character, and learn how to play them well and it doesn’t matter if they were 450 IP or 6300 at all.
Thanks for the opinions. We always appreciate different views on the games we review. It is always inevitable to have varying opinions on every game and disagreements with any review. Keep the opinions coming and by all means feel free to comment on our other reviews.