Recently, we have seen Friv5Online Games and its divisions actively promote the League of Legends universe to the masses. And they do it so delicately and powerfully that comparisons come to mind only with  Blizzard in its best years - and even that, perhaps, they surpassed. At first there was the stunningly cool Arcane series, and recently Ruined King: A League of Legends Story came out, which instead of local turn-based tactics for its own turned out to be one of the best isometric RPGs in recent years. This, however, is not entirely a surprise - it was developed by the Desura Online Games studio, responsible for Darksiders Genesis and amazing (in our coordinate system) Battle Chasers: Nightwar.

As with Arcane, you don't have to be a LoL fan  to immerse yourself in the history of Ruined King. Yes, it is played out by the forces of champions well-known from the original (among them - Miss Fortune, Illaoi, the cheerful Bugai Braum, the beloved by many vastaya fox Ari and others), and events unfold in places such as the port city of Bilgewater and the Shadow Islands. But in general, everything is familiar to anyone who has played / read / watched fantasy.

The plot tells how the champions try to stop the invasion of the deadly black fog from the Shadow Isles to Bilgewater. This threat was initiated by the deposed king of robbers Gangplank. He was overthrown by Miss Fortune, who considered her mother's killer dead, and one of the champions helped him to survive, who, naturally, tries to hide it from the new queen of Bilgewater.

Yes, here, of course, there is not that level of drama, direction and elaboration of characters that is in  "Arcane", but this is not just a series of missions about battles with evil, but a solid fantasy. And the game itself looks great, because it is framed by the eminent Joe Madureira, who painted for Marvel Comics.

There is intrigue in the plot; the characters now and then talk with each other (especially on vacation) and demonstrate their character in every possible way - even though they, like the dialogues, are not devoid of stereotypes, the characters still look colorful. And vivid phrases and humor slip through conversations. In this sense, the game reminds again of Battle Chasers: Nightwar.

For example, the good-natured big man Braum with a funny little animal is somewhat reminiscent of the famous Minsk and Boo from  Baldur's Gate. Therefore, RPG lovers who have never launched League of Legends in their lives will feel like family. The thug at every halt either amuses or torments the allies with amusing tales - for example, why he fights exclusively with a huge door torn from its hinges.

In addition,  Ruined King has a lot of opportunities for free exploration of the world - there are more of them here than in  Battle Chasers: Nightwar. Bilgewater is divided into several areas, which delight with excellent design, detail and scale - you even have to use elevators to move. Everywhere we find pages of diaries (by the way, they are interesting to read), merchants, places for fishing (this was again in  Battle Chasers ), chests, notice boards, as well as characters participating in numerous side quests.

Additional quests are not limited to primitive exercises from the series "Kill so many" or "Bring seven carrots." Or all this is played out in an interesting way. As soon as I took the first off-plot tasks, I immediately began to participate in the investigation of a mysterious murder, volunteered to search for the missing cargo in the spirit world using a special device and agreed to help build a career for a local minstrel, for which it was necessary to find suitable stories, poems and tools for him.

And in order to get to the local arena and to the black market, where they trade for special marks, they had to solve separate quests - in particular, cunningly poison the owner of an important key by forcing him to run away to the toilet.

Yes, this is still not the level of the same Baldur's Gate, but the authors do not claim the laurels of the most serious moral and ethical RPG, but feels completely comfortable in the adventure fantasy niche. Some players still complain about constant backtracking, but it didn't seem pointless to me. Running, looking for chests and completing quests is interesting and useful - money and cool equipment are always needed here, especially if you are playing on the heroic level of difficulty.

And even during story missions, you can often get distracted in order to look for the same chests or, for example, explore a completely optional, but alluring estate, where ghosts and diaries will tell a dramatic family story, and as a reward we will receive a valuable little thing.

As in Battle Chasers: Nightwar, there are dungeons as a separate section. There we not only fight, but also solve puzzles and use the unique skills of the champions, which help precisely in the exploration. For example, the same Braum knows how to break down fragile walls and launch poros where a person cannot crawl in order to find something useful. And Fortune can find caches when exploring the area.

Naturally, each champion, in addition to "underground" skills, has a full set of unique combat skills that provide them with individual tactics and their role on the battlefield. Braum performs a support function, periodically applying shields to allies. Fortune briskly fires from her pistols and relies on speed - for this, every move she accumulates the so-called "Walk", which allows her to act with lightning speed.

Illaoi can heal everyone and constantly summons tentacles that beat opponents. And most of the damage in my case was caused by Yasuo, a wind swordsman from Ionia, prone to critical hits. His absolute attack is especially powerful, which each champion uses when filling the corresponding scale (however, it is one for all - you have to choose).

Skills are allowed to improve (gradually open up to three stages of the upgrade), choosing between options for new properties. And equipment can be enchanted, increasing the indicators of acceleration, attack, or, for example, the level of vampirism, which makes the treatment more effective. The main thing is to have the necessary resources - the more we put them in a special menu, the better the result will be.

There is also a system of runes that increase characteristics, increase power / critical strike chance, or provide useful properties such as automatic healing of the entire party at the end of each battle. Finally, a hearty dinner on vacation also gives bonuses in battles, so you have to stock up on food / drinks.

The battles themselves take place in turn-based mode and resemble what we saw. guess where. Of course, in  Battle Chasers: Nightwar. All stand opposite each other, take turns, apply buffs on themselves or allies, debuffs on enemies, and they do the same. The order scale is always in front of your eyes, and an interesting mechanic is connected with this. Zones appear on it, once in which the character will receive strengthening or weakening, depending on the characteristics of the zone - this can be a poisonous fog or, conversely, an area of ​​comfort and treatment.

So, in this situation it is important to get or, conversely, not to get into this zone on the move scale. And for this you need to decide which of the three ways to apply the skill - to follow the path of speed, balance or strength. In the latter case, the effect will be more powerful, but preparation will take longer. And the faster way allows you to do not so much damage, but to act faster - this also affects the movement along the move scale. In the same way, by force or speed, we remove all sorts of gains that are disgusting for us, imposed on especially tough opponents.

In general, Ruined King constantly keeps in suspense, especially on the heroic level of difficulty, where all the possibilities and mechanics are used, and the potions are wasted (though they are not cheap). And with the main bosses, even on normal difficulty, you have to suffer. I had a case when the victory came only with the last blow of the half-dead Yasuo, who was the only one from the party who had not yet been knocked down on the ground.

Therefore, you constantly need to be in good shape, use all the possibilities and, in particular, select the optimal composition of the group - there can be a maximum of three characters in it. Thank God we are allowed to change the difficulty level at any time. Sometimes I was tormented only by an inconvenient save system (even if the save was made "manually", after a defeat you are still thrown far enough away from it and from the place of the last fight) and constant loading even when moving between neighboring locations and buildings.

Friv5Online Games and  Desura Online Games prove that these firms don't knit brooms, so it's no surprise to me that in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story we've got one of the best RPGs of the year, successfully combining the traditions of Western and Japanese RPGs. Yes, a lot is taken from  Battle Chasers: Nightwar. But, firstly, it was an amazing thing, which turned out to be not enough for me - I wanted a supplement. And secondly, there is a different universe, new history and heroes, its own chips, and in general the game looks more complete and versatile just like an RPG.

Pros: I want to follow the plot; colorful characters; addictive gameplay; challenging and exciting tactical battles with interesting mechanics; exemplary audiovisual performance - including expressive Russian voice acting.

Cons: not very convenient, especially for PC boyars, save system; excessive number of downloads.