The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story Review (ARLiD!)
This is the second game I try from the League of Legends spin-offs after the disappointing Hextech Mayhem. This time we go all the way to the hack and slash genre in pretty pixel art graphics. The game is not beautiful as, let's say, Sea of Stars, but it gets the job done. Sound department is alright, it does its job but more compelling music would have been nice, not to mention voice acting.
Gameplay is.... Eh. Upgrades don't really feel worth it for how much they cost. One example of this is: your base attack does 10 damage and you can upgrade it to do 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. It's not a significant upgrade and they cost a lot. On the other hand, the spells are alright. The good ones consume a lot of mana, which is not easy to get. The "weakness" system is lacking: fire beats ice, ice beats fire, etc. Something more rock papers scissors would have been better. Enemies were varied but a lot of them were a pain in the arse to deal with, not to mention the turrets that heal enemies or fire fireballs. They are poorly designed in my opinion since enemies don't attack you when you go after them; and it's the first thing you gotta do, otherwise, they'll heal enemies completely in seconds. Bosses were good though. Garen in particular was the toughest to me. And speaking of which, the game is not difficult but it forces you to play a certain way in some scenarios and I didn't like that. Combat felt slow for the most part of the game.
Most of the levels followed a simple structure with your average reward if you do some very very light exploration. I didn't like that many levels reused the same assets as you had to go into the same areas or cities more than once, so the level itself felt a bit repetitive. Game design is also average. You do a mission and then you go back to camp where you talk to your allies, get upgrades and "plan" the next mission. I didn't bother with any of the side content to be honest.
Story is good. It started slow but it was one of the highlights of the game. I know nothing about LoL lore but for the fans out there, I imagine they'll like it even more. I think it could have been a little shorter and more explanatory in certain parts (I thought many characters were dead when they weren't).
In conclusion, I give The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story a 3.5/5. It's an average game. It doesn't bring anything new to the table but it's entertaining enough for you to play it if you like the genre and or care about the lore.