For incorrigible hermits or space explorers who have deserted our good old Earth in recent years, we will briefly return to the sprawling monument that is League of Legends. Since 2009, what is considered by many to be THE Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game has continued to renew itself and conquer new territories. If its competitive scene does not deny its success since its launch, it is through cross-media that the extended universe of Riot Games captures new audiences year after year: cartoonists with numerous publications (official or not) such as Lux presented in association with Marvel, music lovers with groups such as Pentakill and K/DA or even traditional gamers with the very fun Mech VS Minions. But the lion’s share of course goes to the Arcane series, unanimously hailed since the arrival of the first season at the end of 2021 and which has amply democratized the license with the general public.
Oh, the vile copycat!
Today we are interested in one of the hundred and sixty-some heroes of the cast in particular. Sylas “the unleashed”, who has been with the League for about four years, is a mage from the kingdom of Demacia. He is the very image of the rebel, rightly surly against the established order. His heavy chains, remnants of his incarceration, are today the weapons that trace his path to redemption.
- Nice panorama, but it’s not Yennefer
For this episode, the second of a long list to come subtitled A League of Legends Story, the Digital Sun Games studio transposes the license into an Action-RPG with a very 90s graphic style. By bringing our sexy bodybuilder Gandalf to life version of large pixels, it follows the guideline that presided over the creation of its very particular management-tinted roguelite Moonlighter in 2018.
- Memories with Lux
From the introduction, the observation is bitter for fantasy lovers: mages are not free in the kingdom of Demacia. Sylas de Liebourg is one of them; he can detect magic and replicate it at will. As a child, he tried to save a young girl gifted with magic by instinctively releasing her energy, which earned him his imprisonment by the Order of Stalkers to which he belonged. Hindered in his cell by imposing petricite chains, he succeeded fifteen years later in escaping by drawing on the colossal latent power of his friend Lux, a young noble until then above all suspicion. Vengeance or Revolution, this is the choice presented to us at the start of the game.
I am not a number, I am a free man!
Sylas emerges from his jail, the city of Demacia is in flames. A few guards and destructible environments act as a tutorial to test out our various basic attacks and moves: melee quick hit combo and use of chains for heavy hits, ending with the infamous signature X-hit as well as a dash forward allowing both dodging and covering short distances without touching the ground. Arrived at the top of the ramparts, Sylas revels in the burning city. Very quickly, Garen, Lux’s brother and knight emeritus of the kingdom gets in our way and accuses us of the king’s assassination before throwing himself on us. The fight is heavily unbalanced and Sylas owes his salvation only to his former mentor Killan, who rushes at the last second to teleport him away from his inescapable defeat.
- Garen does not go into detail
We then learn to use our chains in a targeted way such as a grappling hook and copy the skills of the enemies. Understanding the different elemental types is very useful for quickly getting rid of the fire and ice mages that have been conveniently placed in our path to show us the interest of the mechanics. A few screens later, under the insults of the terrified “muggles” crossed on the way, we slip out of the city through the sewers.
- Meeting with Leilani, canteen, but not only…
Among the refugees who accompany us in our flight, we meet Leilani, a dissident enchantress with the temperament of a leader and cook in her spare time. She invites us to join a small group of rebels of which she is a part and offers to lead us to their base of operations which is located not far from there in an old abandoned temple.
One link to rule them all
The resistance base looks anything but good at the start of the game. The statues are broken and the place is cluttered with rubble, preventing us from accessing certain promising chests. Our first outing outside the sanctuary walls takes us deep into the Forest and allows us to practice what we have learned so far.
- Tonight on the menu: grilled lizard!
We are then confronted with a mini-boss of ice accompanied by minions of fire who flees mid-fight. It is only natural that we free a first group of rebels imprisoned by the Trackers before sealing the fate of the “candy ice cube” encountered previously with the help of our favorite enchantress who offers us here our first permanent spell (the traditional ball of fire). Our freshly acquired mana bar is of course recharged by performing… melee strikes.
Back at the base we unlock the first “store” held by Leilani, allowing us to crystallize the spells copied from the enemies encountered in a permanent version, classified by type of element. Sylas wants to focus on his quest for vengeance against the leader of the Stalkers, Eldred. For her part, Leilani would like to free her mentor, a certain Kara, and our unbridled handsome kid finally agrees with her idea.
- The two “sidekicks” chosen for the current mission
This is an opportunity to show us the map of Demacia, right in the center of our lair, on which the different missions available appear. For this first serious excursion in the town of Tumulépine, we are accompanied by a freshly freed mage, the first of our army in the making. Two allies can be designated to accompany us on each mission and bring us passive bonuses as well as additional sequences corresponding to their element.
Certain death. Low chance of success. But what are we waiting for?
The levels follow each other and the different mechanics are refined as we progress. From a handful of adversaries with contradictory elements allowing them to be easily defeated, we quickly arrive at several waves of enemies per tableau with patterns as varied as they are complicated to manage simultaneously, especially when certain attacks are triggered out of our sight. . The vast majority of confrontations take place in well-defined and partitioned areas with no other alternative than to blithely mistreat everything that comes our way. Patience, technique and tact are essential to triumph, while having eyes in the back of your head. It goes without saying that the challenge becomes very solid once the game deems that we have correctly assimilated all the basics. Any attempt at gluttony being ruthlessly punished, it is therefore necessary to play judiciously with dodge and grapple.
- Swipe magic from red to tap on blue and vice versa
At the same time, our intensive recruiting campaign needs very few arguments to convince yesterday’s pariahs to join us in our crusade. Thus, after our enchantress, a blacksmith joins us as well as others thereafter, essential assets for the success of an army. They propose to improve our different characteristics for cold hard cash, the only resource recoverable here and there in the different levels. Each of them shares a bond with one of the allied mages who accompany us on a mission, and it is by increasing the ranks of our army that we improve the skills of the latter.
- The full council of rebels
Much like chests and other collectibles, we occasionally come across, often turning away from the main road, characters we can invite to join the cause. The larger the rebel army, the more powerful the bonuses granted and the greater the possibilities of evolution for Sylas. It is also strongly advised to carry out the side missions as soon as they arise, because they allow you to recruit many new followers.
Get involved, they said, you will see the country, they said…
The pixel-art bias worked very well for an original license like Moonlighter, but here is clearly a bone of contention that risks dividing players who know the League of Legends universe from near or far.
- We scared the farmer
Sylas is adapted very faithfully in this old-school iteration and is instantly recognizable. Rather well animated in combat, we nevertheless regret its relative heaviness controller in hand. Similarly, the additional and secondary characters benefit from rather nice portraits and animations denoting a great attention to detail during certain scenes of the story.
Our adventures take us to settings that are always made with care, but suffer from a certain redundancy, especially during the first hours of the game. In addition to the various villages and towns, we mainly fight in the middle of sylvan environments as well as in the heart even the gaudyly opulent prison barracks of the Order of Trackers. This is particularly true for side missions that do not shine with their originality and leave an aftertaste of copy-paste. The observation is the same concerning the bestiary which reaches its limits a little too quickly. The boss fights are particularly epic, but we nevertheless regret the perhaps excessive reuse of some of them, again during the secondary levels. On the other hand, the sound effects and the soundtrack stick perfectly to the atmosphere and the universe of the title, with particularly epic moments.
- This hand has something to tell us…
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is, moreover, very generous in the presentation of our companions and the kingdom of Demacia in general and the history of Sylas in particular. The dialogues between the different protagonists are numerous and make it possible to understand the complex relationships that have been woven. The notes and other books to pick up everywhere all offer a little piece of lore cleverly presented, all of which can be consulted at any time within the encyclopedic tab of the menu. He of course offers us the bestiary of the game to fill in as well as the various tutorials. The level of challenge offered can also be changed at any time with traditional presets as well as with the help of more precise adjustments to the damage and resistance of Sylas and enemies. Tested on Xbox Series X
