Do not bother reading the Gamespot review. For starters, LoL is FREE, and the amount of content grows almost weekly.
For starters, ignore anything you may have read in the ill-informed Gamespot review of this game. Gamespot reviewed the retail version of League of Legends, which I will admit, is lackluster in the bonuses it grants new players. Do not worry though, because League of Legends is absolutely free. Yes, free to download, free to play. The only aspect of this game that costs money are "skins", which are nothing more than aesthetic upgrades for players who wish to show their pride for the champion they are playing as. I will come back to skins in a little bit, but I will tell you that pretty much the only bonus of *purchasing* this game is some early champion unlocks and "runes".
The concept of League of Legends is very simple. You are a summoner, and there are countless champions which you must choose one of to take into battle. I say countless, because RiOT games adds about two new champions every month, and shows no signs of letting up. At the time of writing, there are 54 champions in the game, with one slated to be coming out this week. Summoner's start at level 1, and earn experience by playing matches, with a maximum level of 30. The grind is rather quick. By leveling, you unlock slots in your "Rune Book", which you can insert runes into that are passive upgrades to your champion. Runes include things such as attack speed increases, faster health regeneration, and XP bonuses. Also by leveling, you unlock "Mastery Points", which can be spent in the players mastery tree, which closely resembles the talent tree of Diablo and World of Warcraft fame. The Mastery Tree has three branches, Offensive Upgrades, Defensive Upgrades, and Utility Upgrades. The final tiers of "masteries" in the trees are upgrades that increase all damage done by 5%, reduce all damage taken by 4%, and reduce the cooldown for all abilities by 15%, respectively. Both the Rune Book and Masteries can be altered on a whim, and it is actually encouraged that players tweak their masteries in the pre-game lobby to best suit the champion they are playing. Also before matches start, players may select two "Summoner Spells" to take into battle. These are universal abilities that are available to every player, and they include powers such as a minor heal, a temporary run speed boost, and "Smite", which will let you instantly kill one enemy minion every 60 seconds if you use it. Now, lets get into the actual game!
The object of League of Legends very similar to the Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients. This game was actually created by those very developers, and they have improved on every aspect of their original project. Two teams of either 5 or 3 players (there are currently two game modes, each with a different map) are pitted against each other in an attempt to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus" There are multiple lanes through the map, with what is commonly referred to as "jungle" separating them. The "jungle" can be dangerous to move through alone, but it can also be critical to a players escape or for setting up attacks. Numerous areas of brush throughout the jungle let characters hide or remove themselves from sight of the other team. Neutral monsters provide buffs, experience, and gold.
In every individual game, champions start at level 1, and are able to reach a maximum of level 18. All champions have 4 abilities they can activate, and one "passive" ability. They start the game off by choosing one ability, and unlocking levels allows the selection of new abilities, and ranking them up. Also at the start of the game, players are granted a small amount of gold they can use to spend in the shop. These items range of stamina increases to mana regeneration to potions. By getting kills, assists, and killing minions, champions can purchase bigger, badder weapons from the shop. End game items include the likes of a shield that blocks one spell every few seconds, a sword with massive damage and life stealing capabilities, and defense items that remove all debuffs from your champion. Players may only shop from the safety of their base, and must return there anytime they wish to purchase items or heal themselves.
In the lanes of the battlefield, there are numerous turrets that a team must destroy before having access to the enemies Nexus, which again, is the object of the game. While the purpose is to destroy a particular building, getting kills and not dying grants more gold for items and experience, giving your team the edge. If a champion dies, they must wait for a respawn timer ranging from 10 seconds to over a minute (if the game lasts a long time) in order to come back to life at their team's base. In order to have the ability to attack the Nexus, a team must destroy every turret in at least one of the lanes. To prevent you from doing so, minion waves spawn in each lane and battle with each other. Only after destroying the last turret in a lane will a team have the chance to halt the spawning of minion waves, and even the opportunity to create their own "super minions" which do increased damage and have significantly more health. This is a push and pull type of game, and the team with the better strategy and whom work together will always prevail.
All this talk of how the game works, and I haven't even had the chance to tell about the most fun aspect of League of Legends - the champions. Again, there are dozens to choose from. I will give you a couple of examples of champions in the game, and their abilities, so you can see just how unique and varied they are:
Ashe - The Frost Archer
Frost Shot - Using mana on each shot, every arrow Ashe shoots slows enemy champions.
Volley - Ashe fires 7 arrows in a cone in front of her for increased damage.
Hawkshot - Ashe passively gains extra gold when she kills a unit. She may activate this ability to send a hawk in a certain direction to reveal the fog of war.
Enxhanted Crystal Arrow - Ashe fires a large arrow in a certain direction, which flies until it hits and enemy champion, stunning them and anyone around them. The further away the enemy is, the more damage they receive.
Heimerdinger - The Revered Inventor
H-28G Evolution Turret - Created a stationary machine gun which can be upgraded and attacks enemy units within range. Maximum of 3 turrets.
Hextech Micro-Rockets - Launches 3 high damage rockets, which hit the 3 closes enemies to Heimerdinger.
CH-1 Concussion Grenade - Throws a grenade at a targeted location, blinding and dealing damage to anyone in an area. If it makes a direct hit, the target is stunned.
UPGRADE!!! - Passively reduces Heimerdinger's cooldowns. Activate this to turn his make his turrets temporarily fire frost shots, which slow enemies.
Alistar - The Minotaur
Pulverize - Smashes the ground, dealing damage and knocking all enemies nearby into the air.
Headbutt - Rams a target, dealing damage and knocking them back.
Triumphant Roar - Alistar heals all friendly units nearby. The quicker units are dying, the more often Alistar may use this.
Unbreakable Will - Grants bonus damage, removes all debuffs from Alistar, and reduces all incoming damage by a significant amount for the duration.
As you can see, those are only three of the 54 champions at your disposal. They all have unique abilities, and building a team with 4 friends using the synergy of different champions is beyond rewarding. Earlier, I mentioned skins for champions. Skins are availible by spending "Riot Points", which in short, is real world money. They range from $2 to $15 for the most legendary. If you never plan on using a skin on a champion, League of Legends will be free for as long as you play it. However, many LoL supporters show how big of fans they are of the game by purchasing skins and taking them into battle. For example, there is a ninja champion who has 2 skins, one making him look like Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, and the other making him resemble Scorpion. A Paladin style champion has a skin which mocks the Tier 7 Paladin armor from World of Warcraft. A Pirate themed champion has a skin which turns him into a ghost, giving him a creepy vibe a la Lechuck from Monkey Island. Skins are no required for play, and they add no benefits besides having something that looks different to show off in battle.
League of Legends is a very deep an rewarding game. The developers of it care greatly for their fan base an interact with their community to make it the best game possible. With constant updates and improvement, it would be no surprise to see League of Legends take over the competitive multiplayer community in the near future.