As of Friday (11/20), almost all of the features of first time Publisher and Developer Riot Games, the original DotA creators, are available and live, and I can finally give you the 4-1-1 on what Riot has been up to. They have taken their concept of playing the pivotal role in a battle to new heights and put their money where their mouth is with League of Legends. Oh, and did I mention – they’re giving it away for free. A risky move to take, when some developers and publishers try to bank off of licensed names to catch the consumer unaware for a quick buck this holiday season.

Riot is sure you’ll like the game, and with good reason. For those of you unaware, there are international competitions for the now legendary Defence of the Ancients, a full Warcraft II conversion mod. If you haven’t played DotA, now there is little reason to bother other than nostalgia. Riot has put together, in my opinion, the best free game to be released in 2009.

I was only recently acquainted with Defence of the Ancients, or DotA (pronounced doh-tuh). Being only moderately skilled in RTS games, they are not often on my list of games that I must buy. Outside of Blizzard’s `Crafts (Star and War) and the relentless Command and Conquer entries that feature a story, the rinse and repeat nature of RTS games don’t really grab and hold me for long periods of time. You build a base and kill the enemy in increasingly difficult situations. While challenging, its not the most refreshing of gameplay.

Apparently Riot was thinking the same thing.

League of Legends, or LoL, has a lot of things going for it. A strong community pre-built in through DotA, as well as an influx of new blood through a very long beta process, as well as seeking input from some of DotA’s top players guaranteed that they were asking the right questions of the right people. They kept the game in development until it was presentable to the masses as a polished gem of balanced gameplay and graphics. Riot is trying to create a new term for this type of gameplay called MOBA, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Its probably better than referring to it as “that game like DotA.” I think that this is a catchy name, and with the industry’s love of acronyms that are phonetically said, it will fit right in.

The game begins with a very accessible tutorial, and for those who can be bothered to read, a new players guide is posted on their website. Riot greatly encourages new players to read it, as without it you can be quickly stomped in comparison. I can personally attest to this.

At its core LoL is a hero-based RTS game. When beginning any game, you pick your hero, which is your representation for that game, who has a unique set of abilities that can be earned through leveling throughout the match. Every champion starts at level 1, and can grow to as high as 18 if the match goes long enough. Most do, especially when you’re just beginning. You also select two global abilities that all players have access to based on their summoner level, which is increased through playing real and training matches (more on this later). After this, you pick a page of runes, which are minor enhancements that can be purchased (with in-game currency) at the store.

At launch there are 40 champions, 10 of which are available to free players. To get more champions there are multiple options depending on how you want to proceed.  You can either purchase the heroes piecemeal that you want to play outside of those 10 with either real money (Riot Points) or in-game currency (Influence Points). On real games, you get around 300 experience for a win and 100+ experience if you lose. Currently new champions cost anywhere from 450 to 6500 influence points, so depending on your skill level and what champions you want, you can purchase them relatively quickly for free.

Riot points are roughly 130 = $1 if you buy in $5 increments. However, the more you buy at one time, the less they cost. Here’s the breakdown as of publication:

$5    = 650 ($1 = 130)
$10 = 1380 ($1 = 138)
$20 = 2800 ($1 = 140)
$35 = 5000 ($1 =142 )

The cost of champions in Riot Points is significantly less than influence point, ranging from 260 (~$2) to 975 (~$7). They have a champion bundle available in the store for 3410 (~$24) Riot Points that unlocks 20 champions permanently, and you can get the other twenty unlocked by buying the LoL Collector’s Pack which comes with the $10 Riot points card as well as some other perks.

I don’t want to spend too much time on the store, but the system is so good that I want to really illustrate how fair the system is to those who want to just play versus those who want to pay for convenience. If it affects how fast you level or the experience that you gain per match, your only option is Riot Points. However, all gameplay mechanics and bonuses such as runes, always have an influence points option.

The way that you really will get to customize your advancement is through the PvP.net’s  persistent summoner level that you increase with experience gained from each round played. You gain experience for every round, even if you lose. Also, your game record doesn’t show a total loss count, but a leave count. This fixes two issues mainly – people have no real need to create account after account to go for that “perfect” record. Also, it discourages people disconnecting from the game if they’re losing. Having a high “game left” count is now much worse than losing a round. The foresight and ability for Riot to work around two of Battle.net’s biggest annoyances is one of the more impressive pieces of LoL.

Moving on, the basic gameplay style is that of an RTS. You move and/or attack by right-clicking, and the Q, W, E and R are your four champion-specific powers. T and G are your spells, and B is a return spell that takes you back to your own base. You can also click them if you wish, but I found that learning the keyboard shortcuts made for much faster killing. The map has a number of “lanes” in which minions are automatically sent to fight over. The exact same number of minions are created for each lane for each side. If you just created a game by yourself and watched the minions go at it, there is slight variation in how far each side gets, but its largely even. You, as a champion, are the wild card in this mix. However, the other side has champions, too. Your goals are to defend your minions, destroy the enemy turrets, champions, and eventually their home base.

This is easier said than done, however, as the other side’s champions are unknown to you until the match actually begins. Sometimes your team just picks a mix that is perfectly countered by the other team’s choices. Most of the time the teams end up fairly spread among defensive and offensive champions and it really comes down to how you play. Your skill level affects the outcome of the round more than your champion selection most of the time. However you want to play, there is likely a champion to fit your needs. Each champion (and I played with almost all 40 at one point or another) is truly unique – there are no two alike with just a different character model. They vary in many different ways from their attack type to even if they use mana or not for their powers.Some of the champions use their own health to fuel their skills, allowing you to forsake mana but at times have to decide if that uber skill you’re about to deploy is going to leave you too weak to get away from the inevitable ambush that comes after.

No two rounds I have played are the same, and with the exception of bot games, there is currently a lack of satisfying non-pvp gameplay. Riot plans to add a single player campaign that includes a story to allow newer players a more gradual advancement in skill towards playing with the already affluent pool of “sharks” as they are referred to in the LoL community. However, in essence, LoL is all about PvP play and if you’re coming to the game without an enjoyment of that style of gameplay you may find yourself losing interest quickly. At the time of publication, you cannot create a bot game with opponents that are above Easy difficulty nor pick any champions to play with or against outside of 6 beginner champions. The only way to increase the difficulty is to either shorthand yourself against bots, or to play against other people.

There is a large gap between the bots and other players – the matchmaking system seems to be fair, however at times I did get matched up against people that were WELL above my skill level and summarily got handed my ass with a bow on top. There is a learning curve, and a bit of patience that is needed if you want to really get into LoL for the long haul. You still have the d-bags that are going to harass you about your play style, especially if your team is losing. On more than one occasion I played with people that had choice words about my distinct lack of skill and recommended quite fervently that I never play the game again. I, of course, told them that I would take it under advisement.

The question of graphics and sound design were not left to lesser hands, either – LoL runs on just about anything and still looks great. I never once saw frame-rate take a hit even with all 10 champions on screen plus minions with particle effects and everything. I played it on a mid-high end desktop, decent laptop and even an older laptop with some of the specs lowered. The internet requirement isn’t even that heavy. Obviously high-speed is a must, but you don’t have to be pushing fiber speeds to have a good game.  Sound and music are good, if a little repetitive. I sometimes had my own music playing during matches but that is how I play most RTS style games these days. Or, I guess I should say MOBA’s too.

To wrap things up, I really enjoy League of Legends. It is a game that I can pick up and drop an hour and feel like I did something. The learning curve is tough, and ignoring the jerks and crass people sometimes is tough. But if you can push through to learn a few champions and start to get some wins under your belt, you really do feel accomplished. The tide of battle can turn at any moment and no round is completely lost until your base is destroyed. The excitement you feel in those last minutes before winning or losing is a rush that I have not felt in many games lately. To add in that the game is being given away for FREE… well that gives you absolutely no excuse but to give it a try. I said it earlier and I’ll say it again now – League of Legends is the best free game of 2009. Its also one of the best and addictive games of the year as well. It doesn’t have the epic scale of some of the blockbuster titles coming out now, but LoL will be played for a long time yet. And rightly so.

League of Legends Review: 9.00 out of 10

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