League of Legends
League of Legends
Mechanics:
The mechanics of league of legends allow for:
- Character movement omni-directional
- Full camera movement
- Use of character abilities
- Buying items
- Use of summoner abilities
- Recalling to base
Real time controls:
The real time controls are well done to say the least. You control your character from the third person and everything feels instantaneous and fluid despite being very fast paced. You move by simply clicking and, assuming you have low ping, your character immediately turns and moves to where you clicked. Pathing has some issues, however they does not interfere with the feel of the game. You can use your champion abilities, which are unique to the character you picked, by pressing the q, w, e, and r, keys. Champion abilities do any number of things and can effect yourself, allies, enemies, or minions which are the non-player characters in the game. You use summoner abilities with d and f right under those which are more general abilities that can be used on any champion. Abilities are all simple to use but can be executed more skillfully to produce differing results for example you can use some terrain to teleport farther ranges. You put points into champion abilities as you level up and assuming you have put at least 1 point into them they can be used any time they are not on cool down. The uniqueness of each individual ability lets the player feel that that are playing a different game each time.
Spatial simulation:
The game takes place on a set map called summoners rift. There are two almost identical sides where two teams of five champions each fight for victory. The jungle is the biggest part of the map where no players start with vision and neutral monster camps spawn where you can gain advantages by being the champion or team to kill them. There are 3 lanes down the entire map where there are entrances to each base and minions from both sides attempt to walk from 1 base to the other. You gain gold and exp by killing enemy minions and players. It doesn’t do much in terms of simulation to fully immerse you in the game. All non-player characters and structures act in a very predictable way, however the game is playing against the other team which is what creates the difficulty and enjoy ability.
Polish:
The polish is really the captured spirit of competition in this game. Millions of people play this game for hours many of them daily because of how much this game can immerse you in competition with foes you have never met and would not recognize if you did. Also there are currently 104 different completely unique champions to learn to play as, with, and against. The constantly growing champion base keeps players from getting complacent with the game as it is at any given time. And the massive player base makes it so there are always people way better than you, so there is always something to strive for, you are never the best.
Summary:
Overall league of legends made the perfect moba game. It has a lot in common with its predecessors but managed to do everything right from balancing, to controls, to new content releases. This game shows how minimal controls and a tiny map can become a super engaging game if you integrate competition into the game.
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