Review SIGINT 5/5 · Mar 29, 2021
The "I" in team
2022 Edit: This game gets better over time, with some really nice mechanics meaningfully evolving its genre well past what the competition is doing. It has near-infinite replayability for me and has become one of my all-time favorite games. This review was written a couple months after I started playing and still holds true.
I love the core genre of …
2022 Edit: This game gets better over time, with some really nice mechanics meaningfully evolving its genre well past what the competition is doing. It has near-infinite replayability for me and has become one of my all-time favorite games. This review was written a couple months after I started playing and still holds true.
I love the core genre of this game, the auto-battler. It is my personal favorite online game genre of all time and this is the most updated and active game in the genre. It nails all the genre's most important fundamentals.
The item building system in this game is extremely flexible and well-balanced with the game's other elements of randomness. As a whole, the game really rewards those who can overcome RNG to consistently make the most of what they're given.
The many League of Legends characters featured here are mostly distinct and appealing. Many of the different team compositions you can assemble from them are really exciting to pull off and see in action. Getting to that completed team build is a fun push and pull of risk/reward and resource management. Unit positioning and enemy scouting really matter, meaning there is rarely a dull moment once you're in the higher ranks.
(2024 Edit: This paragraph isn't really accurate anymore, but keeping it for historical purposes I guess lol) Some convenience features and helpful tooltips as seen in other games in this genre are currently missing from TFT. This is downright brutal for new players in a game that is already more complex than its competition, but creates a higher skill ceiling and rewards deep game knowledge.
Seasonal gimmicks such as Set 4's "chosen" unit mechanic are big swings that can dramatically impact the game's strategy. I find this particular mechanic to be kind of a mixed experience, and I worry that I will downright hate one of these future experiments. I at least approve of how far they're willing to go to keep the game fresh, especially considering the short length of each set.
Being stuck inside the League of Legends client on PC makes for some clumsy setting of TFT-specific options, and a poor matchmaking experience. The mobile client is worse, though, especially considering that on tablets, you're forced to play a blown-up version of the phone app. Valve's Dota Underlords and Riot's own Legends of Runeterra have amazing iPad implementations, so that's pretty unfortunate. (2024 Edit: This was also resolved, yay)
Overall, I've had an amazing experience playing the game despite its flaws and balance issues. This is definitely the auto-battler of the future.