It’s been a while since I last played anything to do with Riot Games’ mammoth MOBA, League of Legends. The last I remember, League of Legends didn’t have anything remotely like lore, which highlights how long it’s been since I last played it (September 2014 is when they added a story, according to Wikipedia). Until finishing Convergence: A League of Legends Story (stylised as CONV/RGENCE), I’d also not played the other titles set in Runeterra, nor had I watched the series on Netflix. If anything, Convergence certainly piqued my interest enough to watch Arcane, so that’s a thing.
Let me get the core issue out of the way; if you don’t know the story behind League of Legends, there’ll be a lot to confuse you here. Playing through Convergence: A League of Legends Story, I was finding myself confused by who these characters were – of course, I knew they were all going to be understood from the core game – why I should care, and why in the hell they had names like “Poingdestre”, and who the werewolf is. Honestly, there’s even more, like what Hextech or Syntixi is, but the reality is that it doesn’t matter.
The reason it doesn’t matter is that it’s all just a means to progress the story. I don’t care why I’m fighting a werewolf called Warwick or that some mad cow named Jinx is throwing bombs at me. It’s irrelevant because I came into this game knowing that I don’t know about League of Legends, and while I expected it to explain some things (it doesn’t, at least not well), It was all about playing the game. Surely a game that’s spun off from one of the more successful games ever made, both financially and by sheer numbers alone, will also be well polished and good?
The good thing here is that is most certainly the case. But before I talk about the gameplay, let’s talk about aesthetics. Convergence: A League of Legends Story is a good-looking and sounding game. The beautiful comic-book-style design and the perfect animations make this a joy to watch as you play through, with Zaun – the setting – a great backdrop to the action. It’s a dismal and bleak setting, full of deadly gas, drops, and more. On the flip side, the residents have turned it into a neon wonderland. So even though I can’t say I cared about the setting, it’s certainly done an excellent job of making me want to care.
