I recently got into the League of Legends beta and am trying it out.
League of Legends is a game loosely based on a Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients. In DotA players and developers alike were frustrated with the limitations of the Warcraft III engine. A few of the developers of DOTA Allstars went on to create League of Legends into something they’d have done with DotA if they were able.
First, a disclaimer: I have never played DotA so this is pretty new to me. Any comments I have on this game is coming from someone new to the genre.
LoL (love the abbreviation by the way) seems to be a pretty fun game if you can get the hang of it, though kind of a one trick pony. Defend your towers while simultaneously attacking your opposing teams towers. That said, there is tons of customization possible in your heroes, their equipment and their progression.
Interface-wise the game leaves a lot to be desired to a new player. The camera is zoomed in so far that you don’t get much of an overview of the action around you except for the WarIII-esque minimap. Unlocking the camera from your hero helps so you can look ahead, but then it’s easier to lose your hero. Searching the forums I found the “attack ground” hotkey which helped a bit as right clicking every minion you are attacking in order was getting pretty old.
Though the graphics look different enough that I’m sure they are safe from copyright claims, anyone who played WarIII or DotA will have no trouble seeing the similar visual style.
As for difficulty, at this point I can barely beat a practice, me and medium level bots vs. medium level bots only. I’m not sure if that shows that this game is difficult or that I’m just not even average at this game.
Overall this game seems pretty addicting. As difficult as most games played exclusively against other players are (ie, get used to getting your *ss kicked by 10 year olds all day long), we’ll see how the “match players based on skill” feature works out to make it better. It leaves me frustrated and hearing of the phrase “0WNED!” played over and over in the background of my dreams. I look forward to seeing how well it translates into a full title once it reaches that point.