SAN FRANCISCO – League of Legends: Clash of Fates. No, the title doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but let's not let an overzealous moniker get in the way of an addictive, genre-bending, multi-player experience.
Legends is the brainchild of indie developer Riot Games, and designed to be the successor to Defense of the Ancients, a popular mod for Warcraft III. It's for the PC, and set to arrive sometime in 2009.
The game is best described as a semi-persistent MMORPG, with real-time strategy elements. That will all make more sense in a bit. Before I was dropped in front of a mouse and keyboard in a cramped hotel suite last week, I hadn't heard much about the game, and knew absolutely nothing about its predecessor.
Ignorance didn't make the ensuing chaos any less entertaining.
While some familiarity with Defense of the Ancients might have helped me figure out the basic game mechanics, League of Legends is a pretty easy to learn.
Your first step is to pick a champion. The roster of characters isn't yet complete, but there are currently just over a dozen to choose from. I went with Fiddlesticks, because a magical scythe-wielding scarecrow was just too awesome to pass up. To move, or attack an opponent, just click on it with your mouse cursor. Spells and abilities are mapped to hotkeys on the keyboard.
Two teams of up to six players are tasked with destroying their enemy's base. Computer-controlled minions are spawned at regular intervals, and they'll march alongside your character and attack anything hostile along on the way.
At the start of a session, your character will be incredibly weak, so you'll want to let your troops do the heavy lifting. Kill enemy minions and champions to acquire experience points and gold. Experience points will allow you to level up and improve your special abilities, while gold can be spent to purchase healing potions, or new equipment. You'll also be able to combine pieces of equipment to form new, stronger gear, paving the way for dizzying levels of character customization.
Champions excel at various roles. Fiddlesticks is what is colloquially known as a "glass cannon" – his magic spells are powerful, but enemies can crush him fairly easily. The armchair generals might prefer support characters, whose abilities heal allies, or improve their abilities. Other players might yearn for a more direct approach to combat – champions like the Nunu the Yeti Rider live to pound enemies flat.
A player's ultimate goal is to destroy the well guarded core at the opposing team's base. There are also a number of buildings that improve the strength of minions – destroy these and the enemy's troops will become weaker, making your job that much easier.
The final layer of Legends wasn't very apparent during my hands-on: Matches will see you picking a fresh champion every time, but players will have also have a persistent character, called a Summoner. According to game lore, the Summoner is responsible for bringing champions to the battle, but they're basically a player's avatar.
A Summoner's abilities will improve over time. I only saw two of them: A healing spell that helped allies that were standing near my character, and a handy Resurrection spell that would bring me back to life immediately, instead of forcing me to wait to respawn. These abilities come with a fairly hefty cool-down timer, encouraging players to save them for emergencies.
Advanced Summoners will also be able to use more items, and access more game modes. I had to take Riot Games' word on that, but as it stands the standard skirmish mode I played was more than enough to keep me sated.
Images courtesy Riot Games
See Also:
