Good
I have issues with competitive-focused games that place critical content behind lock-and-key. And I don't mean stuff like extra difficulty modes, alternate costumes, or other cosmetic items -- I'm talking about things that are central and crucial to the game at hand. Take Street Fighter IV, for example: Why are nine characters locked from the get-go? Why, in a game whose competitive integrity depends on every player stepping up to the joystick with the same selection of options, do I have to carry out the menial chore (and these things are always chores) of unlocking key gameplay elements?
League of Legends -- Riot Games' modern interpretation of the eternally popular Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients mod -- takes this cognitive dissonance to a whole new plane of existence. This, you see, is a competitive game in which two teams of players (three or five per team, depending on the map) choose from an array of 40 vaguely fantasy-inspired champions with unique abilities, and engage in a tense tug-of-war until one team pushes through the opposition's AI cannon-fodder minions and deadly turrets, ultimately destroying their heavily fortified base. Think of it as small-scale real-time strategy mixed with an action role-playing game... or "Warcraft III with just the heroes."
Problem is, the overwhelming majority of those 40 champions -- the lifeblood of what's been very deliberately developed and positioned as a serious competitive game -- are blockaded by a vexing combination of real-money transactions and truly outlandish in-game unlocking conditions. According to my rough math, it'd take a dedicated player anywhere between 80 games on the low end and 375 games on the high end to unlock and fully outfit a single favorite character via in-game currency (and that's assuming they maintain a 50% win/loss ratio). Of course, you can pay actual money to unlock all the champions, but even then you still undergo a hellish grind to procure the all-important runes necessary for customizing a champion's combat stats. The game is free for anyone to download and play, but, if you ask me, it's a bit too much of a grind just to secure a reasonable degree of out-of-the-gate equality on a competitive playing field.
That said, League of Legends is easily one of the most addictive games I've ever played. The champions -- each of whom comes equipped with four abilities, which scale based on player preference as the character climbs through 18 per-session experience levels -- are a colorful and diverse lot, each carefully considered and well-designed in terms of their battlefield contribution. My current favorites include the very clearly Todd McFarlane-inspired behemoth Cho'Gath (who eats people, grows massive, and generally rampages around the map as an unkillable menace) and the speedy swordsman Master Yi (who can single-handedly topple an unmanned enemy turret in about 10 seconds flat). Faves aside, I can safely say (based on some 300-ish total games I've played to date) that every single champion earns their keep.
Of course, team dynamics being so crucial, your enjoyment and success are at the mercy of your teammates. Random pickup groups are (as in most team-based games) crapshoots in terms of cohesion and combat performance, with pre-arranged teams enjoying quite the edge and often stomping them. Sure, you can play with AI bots, but LoL absolutely isn't designed for that (your metagame progression -- that is, your persistent account level and in-game currency accrual -- is profoundly diminished in single-player games). In sum: You'll be a lot happier if you play with friends. Yeah, the matchmaking system works to create pretty even-keeled matches, but that only goes so far, especially in the higher levels of play.
I can't say what effect the infuriating unlock system might have on LoL's competitive longevity -- the cynic in me says it'll stunt the game's long-term growth, creating an unmanageable gulf between the skilled and the wannabes -- but it's still the best game of its kind I've played. If nothing else, it definitely takes careful measures to ease in new players (meaning the non-Defense of the Ancients elite). If the developers can find it in their Grinch hearts to grow a little less miserly with the in-game duckets, League of Legends might just go down in competitive-gaming history right alongside the Street Fighters and the StarCrafts.
