Gamer--freakz

Gamespot score:6.0(Fair)

My score:8.5

(+)Pros:-Tons of heroes to play,-frequently updated via patches (addition of heroes and gameplay changes),- addictive competitive gameplay,-3 gameplay modes,-interesting character designs,-does not force players to use real money to purchase stuff in game,-COMPLETELY FREE!

(-)Cons:-Stupidly imbalanced,-no way to penalize leavers of afkers in game other than to report them afterwards.

Gameplay time:Infinite

No posts in the previous 5 days, my bad. Been playing games like a boss lately, especially a new MMO I picked up, Battle of the Immortals. Enough about me though, on to today's game review! I'm sure I don't need to introduce much about League of Legends, its so stupidly popular that the playerbase is so insanely huge. I'm playing the asian server, under Garena. With millions of views with their patch previews on youtube, LoL is a game that is played by many around the world. Somewhat like a spinoff of DoTa, LoL is a moba styled game that features a huge cast of heroes to pick from and choose. The game obviously has its flaws (look up the complaints of some fans), but for now, lets get to it! Welcome to the summoner's rift!

League of Legends has a story, but I'm not too knowledgeable about it. Basically it talks about this place called Valaron, and its two major opposing factions, the Demacians, and the Noxians. The two factions are currently at war, and the league is claiming champions to their side so the two factions can battle it out the "easy way", by using champion representatives. Of course that doesn't mean that only champions from Demacia or Noxus are allowed, champions hailing from different parts around the world are soon taken and sent to the league to be representatives. Each character has his/her own lore, which is too much depth to go into. Look them up yourselves.

If you are familiar with DoTa, you will immediately be familiar with LoL. Basically 10 players form 2 teams of 5, and start at 2 opposing sides of the map. The map is spread into 3 lanes, and each team will split their team of  5 and send them separately. Most of the time its 2 to the top lane , 2 to the bottom lane and 1 to the mid. There are exceptions though, when the team has a jungler, its 1 top, 2 bottom, 1 mid and  1 to the jungle. All players' objectives are simple, push the entire lane via creeps, down towers, and make it to the enemy's base. There, you down their nexus, which is sort of like their "HQ". Doing that will claim victory for the team.

Of course its not as easy as it sounds, since each lane will have opposing heroes hampering your progress. Winning a game requires not only skill, but teamwork. Most teams have different roles, and these are most of the time filled out. A DPS carry (your regular right-clicking champ) , an AP carry (your aoe spellcaster), a tank (someone to tank, duh), a support (someone to heal and buff up the team) and an off-tank (someone who can take a good deal of damage and still dish out some decent hits themselves). Knowing your role is vital to a team composition, and its always a good team that wins, not a random group of solo kings.

Its extremely fun to play and try out different roles once in awhile, and its always tempting to just play another game to try out another hero. Speaking of heroes, there are currently 96 champions in the game...and that is obviously a huge number. Plus, most of them have awesome designs, both gameplay and look wise! Its completely impossible to try all of them at once, because you have to unlock these champions to use them permanently. You can pay real money, or keep playing games and earn IP, to slowly unlock them one by one. Of course there are free champion rotations every week, letting you try out some new guys if you haven't before. This is cool, as it doesn't force you to use real money to unlock the champions.

Not to mention, there are 2 other modes in the game, other than the more popular summoner's rift. There's the twisted treeline, a 3 v 3 map that applies the same rules as the summoner's rift, and dominion. Dominion is like a capture the flag mode, where both teams fight for 5 capture points. In dominion, both teams start with the same score, and if a team is leading in capture points, the opposing team's score will go down. Do this until a team's score reaches 0 to attain victory. This is a more fast paced mode, with players frantically running around trying to defend or attain capture points, but its a good change of pace from the summoner's rift.

The game has its flaws, and I have to agree with some of the fans that have been complaining...The game's balance. Yes I know its lame for me to say this but....come on. The game is pretty imbalanced, like it or not. Most new champions are pretty overpowered, and many of the right click champs are dominating the scene right now. Look at noct, the hell is with that stupid ghost?! Or fiora, going invulnerable and shit. Also, when a player leaves your game, you're pretty much screwed. There's no way to punish them other than to report them, because there is no way you're going to win a 4 v 5. If only we could use the leaver's gold or something.

League of Legends, as it is now, is a solid free to play Moba styled game. The great variety of heroes, frequent updates and many more make it a fun experience. The gamespot score is pretty low, because it used to be P2P, and there were much lesser heroes/content. Like it or not, League of Legends is great and it continues to show that with its huge playerbase. Not to mention I have been playing this since last year July, and am STILL playing it now.