Games worth discovering

CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story - It's Rewind Time!

841 View2023-05-31

CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story is a very linear metroidvania with fun combat, amazing visuals and creative level design. Understanding the story is not going to be a problem, even if you haven't played League of Legends and know nothing about the lore and the characters. This game is very narrative driven, but luckily it's pretty straightforward, you only miss some backstory of certain League of Legends characters, but it's not a big deal. Anyways you play as Ekko, a young inventor who can rewind time with his Zero Drive device and it's up to him to keep his city safe.

I think it's a really clever idea to make an action platformer around Ekko's kit, because he is all about time manipulation and being agile and it's really fun to see how they expand upon his abilities and how they used his ultimate as the most powerful move, just like in the main game. Ekko is a really annoying champion to play against in League of Legends, I can tell you that much, but I was always interested in his fun playstyle and I'm glad to say they did Ekko's character justice in this game.

I must say I really enjoyed this one, it's really solid from start to finish and playing as Ekko is so enjoyable, because of his agility and fun gadgets. Rewinding time has always been one of my favourite gimmicks in games and this game implements it so well. You can only do it a certain amount of times and sometimes you don't rewind far enough and still take the damage you were trying to avoid, so try to be careful and don't abuse it, because if you play on normal difficulty you only have 3 health points. I think having this low amount of health is pretty fair, because Ekko is not a tanky character and his kit allows him to have many retries. You can even get more retries if you complete optional challenges and collect these artifacts, so having only 3 hp may scare you in the beginning, but i'm pretty sure you will get used to it pretty quickly.

You will unlock some creative and fun new abilities along the way and they make sure the gameplay never becomes boring or slows down. The platforming is really fun and sometimes a few rewinds are needed to not instantly die, because it can really up the ante in no time, so having this rewind possibility is really appreciated. The gameplay becomes really fast-paced after you have unlocked certain abilities and I'm not only talking about the platforming, the same goes for the combat. The combat is in the beginning a bit basic, but especially in late game areas you are going to rewind a lot, because some enemies have really annoying attack patterns and sometimes there are so many projectiles on the screen that it becomes just pure chaos. Besides the fun rewind mechanic, you also have the ability to slow down the time in a selected area and teleport to enemies when they are within reach, so you can imagine the combat is going to be hectic, but so much fun at the same time when you have unlocked these abilities.

The boss fights are also challenging but fun, especially fights against League of Legends characters, because they have multiple phases and really test your skills. Their attacks all seem random at first, but if you take your time to analyze their attack patterns, you are going to have a really enjoyable time. You can also use perks to make it a bit easier, but you need to unlock them first and then craft them with items you can find and buy them with the ingame currency. I really enjoyed using Ekko's Timewinder and his ability to slow down time in a selected area so I mainly based my build around that, but you have a decent amount of possibilities at your disposal. Other things that are also optional to collect are multiple chromas to give Ekko a different coat of paint or different colored trails when Ekko moves and you can also collect these League of Legends clockwork statues that are a fun nod to certain League of Legends champions and were my personal favourite collectables to find. Sometimes unlocking these collectables required beating hidden challenge rooms and they were always difficult but so much fun at the same time.

So in general CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story is just a really fun game and I have nothing really bad to say about it to be honest. It's a bit short and it's very linear for a metroidvania game, but the gameplay and the overall presentation makes up for it big time. I'm not sure if I agree with the price tag, because 30 bucks seems a bit much for a game that I finished in 7-8 hours and has barely any post-game content, but if I look at how much fun I had and how smooth and responsive the gameplay felt, then I guess it's worth the price. I highly recommend this game if you are looking for another solid metroidvania to add to your library, besides expanding on Ekko's fun kit it does nothing new to the genre, but it's really solid the whole way through and there is just enough content to satisfy any kind of player, even if you have never played League of Legends or don't know anything about the lore.

So be ready to embark on a quest to save your city and adapt your approach to any challenge with the aid of your Zero Drive, so you will be able to survive all these spectacular and memorable encounters!