Gamers always have room for a great real-time strategy title, and it’s time to make room for League of Legends. Initially released for Windows, Riot Games ported its free-to-play multiplayer online game to the Mac. Identical to its Windows counterpart, League of Legends divides its players into two teams (3x3 or 5x5 with available cooperative and PVP game modes), each team attacking the other’s base to attempt to dismantle their opponent’s tower defenses, destroy their opponent’s Nexus, and win the round.
League of Legends lets you choose from more than 110 Champion templates (characters), and you can customize the character to round out the character’s skill set with points earned from matches and achievements. A well-designed tutorial lets you play through the basics so you can learn how to attack, how to defend, and how to control your section of the map during gameplay. The tutorial also offers beginning and intermediate matches against both live players and computer-controlled bots.
Beyond nifty graphics and sound, there’s a nigh-infinite number of ways to play League of Legends, thanks to its large library of Champions, each with their own abilities. From warriors, mages, robots, demons, pirates, ninjas, and anything else you can imagine, there’s a Champion for everyone. A self-policing online community punishes offenses such as player harassment, while rewarding positive examples like exceptional teamwork.
Just about any character type you'd ever want to play is available, complete with purchasable skins from the League of Legends Store.
If there’s anything to nitpick, it’s the fact that the audio experienced occasional dropouts during gameplay. This occurred only twice and both times accompanied instances of network lag, so this may be the underlying factor.
Bottom line
League of Legends ran well, proved incredibly fun, and kept me interested in both stat building and trying different Champion types that match my style. It’s a welcome addition to Mac gaming.
