I’ve never hidden the fact that as much as I love League of Legends, I’m not like most players, given that Summoner’s Rift still doesn’t quite convince me and I certainly have no desire to set foot in the mode again. main of the MOBA from Riot Games.
Maybe that’s why, as an ARAM player, I appreciate it so much when events trigger temporary game modes, including some really fun ones like URF or ARURF, One For All, or Nexus Blitz. Even so, as was probably happening to many players, it was missing that the company surprise us with something totally new.
It has taken a few years of waiting, although at least it has been worth it, because in the last days it is possible to play Arena, a new mode that has conquered me instantly and is the only thing that I can’t stop playing every time I start League of Legends. A tremendously interesting novelty, addictive, fun and different from what we are used to seeing, although certain details need a good polish.
A battle between four teams
Until now, in any MOBA mode, all players were divided into a maximum of two teams. On the other hand, in Arena the number increases to four groups, since this mode is characterized by allowing a 2vs2vs2vs2 matchup, that is to say, that each side will fight in pairs against all the others. Not all at the same time, but in rounds.
Going step by step, on the champion select screen each player can lock down a character and then choose any character to play as. Until the last moment it will not be known that the opponents have selected, giving rise to the possibility of repeating characters or even the same couples. However, here runes and most spells have been dispensed withleaving only Flash and Run, similar to Ghostly.
From there, direct action takes place on a stage divided into four zones, one for each team. They all wait until the countdown reaches its end, at which point two teams meet on another miniature stage and the remaining two are fighting elsewhere, so it takes some massive teamwork to claim victory.
Some of the qualities of these scenarios is that they contain plants to regenerate hit points and mana, as well as explosive bulbs to send all those who touch them into the air. In addition, when a certain time elapses, it activates a ring of fire like that of the Battle Royale that devastates everything until it reaches the center so that the battle does not drag on forever.
So constantly as the rounds progress, with a scoring system similar to that of the TFT games, since everyone starts with 20 points that they gradually lose in the event that the couple is eliminated in combat. All this to guarantee a very fast rhythm that makes each game very entertaining and in which the rhythm is constant throughout the 10-15 minutes that usually last.
On the other hand, in between each round the players earn money, all the same amount, to acquire objects, and there are also others in which all kinds of powers are activated that grant permanent benefits called Raises. Likewise, the money can be exchanged in juices with benefits that only last one round and whose price is of course lower.
Some fights in pairs that leave you wanting to play one after the other, despite their unfair moments
Riot Games seems to have been excited about players fighting with a friend against other people. This is how it will be in the future Project L and this is also the case in this mode, so a team whose coordination is lousy will have absolutely nothing to do to win the battle. For this it is important to agree on the fact of who to attack first, where to go, how to deal with the situation, etc.
The fact that there can be hundreds of different combinations of champions causes that in the end all items are unique and different from the others. However, after playing dozens of them I have noticed that there are very broken characters and others totally useless, so there are some that it is rare to see at some point and many others with which the opposite occurs and they are always present.
Even so, a problem that I see is its high randomness factor for absolutely all aspects of this game mode. Beyond the team combinations, which are also influenced by the hands of each one, the problem is that the Raises that they give you every few rounds appear randomly. Thus, the game gives you a choice between three and sometimes one of them may be brutal or ideal for your character, but it may also happen that the upgrade is bland.
Randomness also affects the scenarios themselves, whose designs are completely different from each other. As soon as you are in a frozen area with a few walls in the center, as you pass into an ancient forest with a kind of square located in the center, a desert with some small oases and also a magma chamber with bushes and pillars that get in the way. the movement.
This also influences the fact that some champions are more suitable or are more sold in certain fields. And there is not everything, because after several rounds they begin to appear on the screen some champions controlled by artificial intelligence corresponding to the current Tournament of Souls event, with some attacks and abilities that it is vital to pay attention to.
And here is undoubtedly the most unfair moment that I have come across, because for example one of the characters is pyke, who can move from one end of the stage to the other, briefly paralyzing anyone he catches on the way. This causes that, since its movement is random, in the end it ends up focusing on the same team instead of alternating between one and the other with its attacks. The same goes for samira when he performs his ultimate attack on top of someone if he sees that the players are breaking their faces too much.
This is how it has happened to me that in many games there have been confrontations that I have been about to win and because of the performance of these champions, in principle impartial, they have bitten the dust. Of course, it has been promised that more characters of this type will be added in the next patchso I’m looking forward to seeing how they will alter the fights.
I know that all this may sound like I didn’t like the experience in Arena, but in reality it is quite the opposite. I admit that these moments when the AI characters give up have unnerved me, or when the Augments offered by the game are rubbish. Even so, it is precisely the fast pace of the games and how varied they can be that makes As soon as I finish one, it only takes me a few seconds to start looking for another.
But above all what I like is that Arena has absolutely nothing to do with any other game mode in League of Legends that has existed to date. That’s why it supposes a breath of fresh air so necessary and demanded to deliver new experiences that work great. Perhaps not perfectly because of those certain little details, but just the fact that it hooks you from the first moment is a most positive sign.
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