League of Pheasants - League of Legends Review

   League of Legends (shortened to LoL...), is an RTS (real-time strategy) game developed and hosted by Riot Games. It is often referred to as a "DotA clone", "DotA" standing for "Defense of the Ancients", but there are multiple games that use this same format of gameplay. You control one champion and have to fight the enemy champions with your teammates to overtake whatever. In LoL, the main objective is to demolish the towers and champions standing in your way, and then destroy the enemy nexus, thereby resulting in victory...

Hahaha! Yes! VICTORY! OMG YES!

   I've tried other games like this, including full RTS games like Starcraft and Supreme Commander, and I just couldn't get into them. What made me like LoL was it's ease of access and simplicity. The colors of the game are vibrant and it's easy to tell what everything is. The HUD (heads up display) is also very easy to understand and doesn't bog you down with too many numbers. And, if you do need to see those numbers, all you have to do is click on your champion's picture.

Finally! Looking at something I can actually understand! For once.

    The game starts you off playing with others of your skill level with a nice matchmaking system. If you're too much a sissy to fight real players, you can even fight bots in a cooperative mode, so you always win. There is no reason not to play the game unless you just simply don't like strategy games. Or you play a match and rage because someone is "overpowered".

   See, there are two things to watch out for while playing that can ruin your gameplay experience here. The first is yourself. This game has around 90 champions at the time I'm writing this. I am here to tell you, for a fact, that none of them are particularly overpowered. Some are stronger than others, but not to the point where the better player doesn't always win. This is especially true for anyone you're fighting before level 30 (the maximum level for your account), because you WILL get owned by someone and you WILL immediately want to call them overpowered. They aren't. Chances are, they got buffed off of killing your teammates. Or they're just better than you.

   The second thing to watch out for is the community. If you aren't the one raging during and after a loss, you're probably getting raged at. Don't get discouraged, check what you did wrong that match, and correct it during the next. Not every player is a moron. Check out the chatrooms for help.

Okay, bad example.

   The point is, don't take everything personally. Even amidst rage, people can give out some useful advice and you should follow it. Of course, I'm taking all this time to attempt to glorify the community because it isn't that good. But it's also not anywhere near the worst I've seen.

   It's a polished game with smooth and repeatable gameplay. Just, don't be too discouraged that there are only 3 maps and 2 gameplay modes. Also, to be able to use a champion permanently, you must purchase them in-game money or cash. However, Riot sets out 10 champions to use for free and rotates the ones available every week.

  If you're into strategy...don't play this, play a real RTS, or a card game. If you're into strategy but not THAT into strategy, then play League of Legends, or any other similar game such as Heroes of Newerth. Have "fun"!

   3.9 out of 5

   It's very nice, but not quite nice enough to warrant a 4. Your eyes get opened to a lot of bullcrap once you hit level 30, and it's not pretty.