With Swarm, League of Legends heads to bullet paradise, and its roster may be its best asset.

Beyond the confines of its MOBA beginnings, the League of Legends universe has expanded significantly. Turn-based role-playing games, Netflix series, auto-chess, fighting games, and other genres have all adopted its characters. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Riot introduced its champions into the bullet heaven genre with the Swarm mode in League.

Swarm, the new PvE game mode that will be a part of this summer's event, was officially unveiled today. Swarm | Operation: Anima Squad is the full term, and as the name suggests, it's focused on the Anima Squad skin line in particular, rather than simply the League of Legends. That could be a little perplexing for those who don't play League of Legends, so allow me to clarify: they are multiversal variants of characters, similar to the many Spiders in Spider-Verse.

The Anima Squad is a cybernetic, animal-themed squad in an other reality that is battling the Primordians to save humanity. Between more recent faces like Aurora and more established names like Yasuo and Jinx, you'll still see names you remember. Similar to Teamfight Tactics, the whole event occurs within the League client. Even while the structure seems similar, Swarm will feel quite different for everyone, regardless of how long you've played in the League or how new to it is.During a preview event held during Summer Game Fest, we had the opportunity to experience the new game mode firsthand. I was interested to see what Riot was creating in the space since I had played Vampire Survivors and the many, many games that were influenced by it for a good amount of time. The first thing that surprised me was that Riot was not constructing this independent, but rather integrating it into the League client.It was produced there since the initial prototype was constructed there, according to a Q&A with the mode's creators. Additionally, developing in the League setting provided some speed. The client already has champions, animations, and other components. They claimed that it was quicker and simpler to create Teamfight Tactics within the client than it was outside. Riot like to keep it within that ecosystem since this is a League event.

Immortal combatants

In Swarm, you choose a champion from the list of League of Legends and enter the arena, where you must move about and repel swarms of enemy players. However, you don't use the majority of those abilities yourself. All you have to do is move your hero across the map; they shoot automatically. Additionally, you may move about in a League initially by using WASD, and you can choose to aim automatically or use your mouse to control the direction of your firing.The opponents become more resilient and potent with time, ultimately giving rise to unique types of formidable adversaries and even bosses. In order to counter this, you may choose new skills or enhance current ones using a pick-three system each time you level up by collecting experience orbs that drop when an opponent dies. This plays just as in Vampire Survivors, if you've played that game.To be honest, this familiarity isn't always a terrible thing. The principles from Vampire Survivors are used by many other games, not only Swarm, for their own bullet heavens for a reason: they work so well with the mode. Fundamental ideas that have proven effective elsewhere—such as using orbiting projectiles to repel opponents, accelerating your mobility or firing rate, and "evolving" your skills into more potent forms depending on the synergy between your attack and attribute—also apply here. Don't repair anything if it's not broken."Events" in the arena, where characters such as Yuumi may appear and initiate mini-games for prizes, are a clever concept. Sometimes they feature intricate mechanics that must be completed while dodging waves of adversaries, like kicking soccer balls into goals, and they may be rather challenging. If you can handle them, the improvements make them worthwhile.The movements, attacks, and abilities of each of Swarm's distinct champions seem noticeably different. Champions have fundamental mechanics that determine how they survive in the game, more so than the majority of other games in this genre that I've played. With her machine-gun assaults and hype-up passive, Jinx is the quintessential bullet heaven character. The more people she kills, the more zoomies she gets, and the quicker she fires. Rapid fire, swift death, clean up after yourself.However, if you switch to Riven, you're playing a whole other game. The wielder of the broken sword executes a hop-slam strike based on her movement. Above all, don't stop moving. Her skills support this even more by providing shields and integrating well with armor, allowing you to enter the heart of the throng and yet escape unscathed.Yasuo, I believe, quickly became a crowd favorite at the preview event. He enjoys having a better chance of hitting a critical strike, and as his crit chance rises, he may start dealing out serious damage. He's a surprisingly potent combination of damage and usefulness when you include in his Wind Wall, which can both form a barrier and keep waves of enemies at away for ranged attacks.Perhaps the key to success for League of Legends might be champion identity.Swarm mode, as every character has a unique role to play. Up to four players may work together in the cooperative mode to repel the Primordian invasion. There is also a ton of meta-progression to be unlocked, including new maps, characters, and permanent stat boosts.

Emotionalizing

In comparison to the more depressing versions of this genre, Riot's concept for the game mode is also notably brighter and happier. You're defending against aliens in light environments as opposed to bats and zombies. Dangerous missiles materialized as beach balls that would menacingly roll towards us throughout our preview session. Though I'm not sure whether it will remain, I hope it does. Amidst the rows of PCs, there was nothing quite like hearing someone cry, "not another damn beach ball."The amount of opponents and colors on the screen sometimes made it difficult to see the screen. I think the contrast may be a little bit greater. However, I was generally aware of my character's whereabouts as well as that of my adversaries. It was a bit more difficult to follow some of the bullets and projectiles, but it was still successful.

The bosses of Swarm also have the same color and character. Although boss fights aren't particularly new for the genre, Riot once again creates large-scale, action-packed boss bouts by using its well-known roster. We had the opportunity to take on the Primordian iteration of Rek'sai, which required us to avoid subterranean attacks and destroy tunnels. Our group was very well overwhelmed by the time we arrived, but it felt fantastic to take down such a large titan and do some simple raid tasks like concentrating targets and avoiding AoEs.The existing fan base of League of Legends will undoubtedly help Swarm, since it is likely to appeal to all fans of those heroes and their Anima Squad skins. Fans of the bullet paradise genre should definitely download the client and give it a try at the very cheap cost of free. In my opinion, there is plenty here. The way the champion toolkits have been incorporated into the actions of the characters is incredibly effective, even if some of the fundamental ideas may seem familiar.whether anything, I'm interested to see whether it endures in the same manner as TFT . Anima Squad will begin on July 17 and continue until August 19, giving Swarm gamers a little window of opportunity to explore all that's available. Regarding the possibility that this mode will return in the future, Riot said that they would keep an eye on the figures. However, I wouldn't object if Riot kept experimenting with this concept. It's nice so far, and with time, it may grow much better.The Legends LeagueOn July 17, Swarm mode becomes active._{Riot Games covered the cost of travel for this preview.}