CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story Review – Time is your Play-Thing

If you follow my reviews, you’ll know I have something of a consistent gripe about 2d platforming games. I often give the opinion that too many games in the genre deliver uninspired gameplay, delivering very familiar mechanics in favor of creating a game that looks good or is focused on its story. While I always praise the artistic design in these games, my argument is always that some effort should go into making a game that doesn’t feel like I’m playing another with a different paint job.

CONVERGENCE, right off the bat, knocks it out of the park with its gameplay. Ekko’s story makes fantastic use of the unique abilities presented by the character in his sister game League of Legends, creating gameplay that is familiar to fans but in a format that creates something new and interesting. For CONVERGENCE to get a good score from me, having interesting gameplay is the only box they needed to tick, and they managed to tick that box in the first five minutes of gameplay.

The biggest mechanic in CONVERGENCE is your ability to rewind time, something that’s been intrinsically tied to Ekko’s character since he was released in 2015.

In CONVERGENCE, you have a decidedly meager three hit points, making you significantly weaker than the foes you’ll encounter. Ekko’s strength, outside of gadgets, combos and dodging, comes from rewinding time. With a total of 8 seconds, stored you can backup out of fatal situations and try again. It isn’t a Get Out of Jail Free Card either, because knowing is only half the battle (queue readers groaning here) and you’ll still have to react to what you know is coming differently than you did the first time.

Rewinding time can be used to escape fatal blows, to restart combat, to redo platforming. It’s a powerful tool, but one the player has to be careful not to become too reliant on, a theme that follows Ekko in his published stories. The game isn’t over when you run out of lives, but when Ekko runs out of time to rewind.

The adaption of Ekko’s other abilities from League of Legends to CONVERGENCE is done cleverly and feels natural for the title. Ekko’s Timewinder (his q ability) is both a projectile yo-yo attack much like it is in League and a useful gadget used to navigate through the Zaun underground. Chronobreak, Ekko’s ultimate ability, is much the same in CONVERGENCE, being a powerful weapon with limited uses that can be used to get out of a jam. I didn’t even realize this until writing, but even the dodge function in CONVERGENCE looks very similar to Ekko’s E ability in League.

CONVERGENCE’s platforming is fast-paced and satisfying, switching movement up frequently as you navigate dangling pipes and jump between walls. The movement reminded me a lot of the old Ratchet & Clank games, which were my introduction to platforming at a young age. Your ability to rewind time comes in handy in the platforming too, making a whiffed jump much less punishing as you simply rewind back to the floor. The game makes use of your ability to undo mistakes by putting plentiful hazards and enemies in the platforming segments, expecting full well that you’re going to make a mistake, rewind, and try again.

Platforming, ironically, is usually my least-liked part of most platforming games, but it is by far the strongest part of CONVERGENCE’s gameplay. The game will toss a handful of different platforming mechanics in the same path, and failing to adapt to them means falling to your death (or rewinding.) The fast-paced, challenging nature of the platforming paired with how satisfying nailing the mechanics felt made for a super fun experience. I especially enjoyed wall running, time-slowing and rail grinding, which thankfully are frequently presented obstacles throughout the game.

I also love CONVERGENCE’s boss battles, as I do in most games I play. While CONVEGERENCE makes use of iconic League of Legends characters for some exciting fights, my favorite bosses were the original characters made for the game. How can you not love a character named Scary Janet?

You can’t talk about CONVERGENCE without talking about how great the game looks. The overall presentation of Zaun is as stunning as it is unique. While elements of the Arcane Netflix show certainly go into designing the world of CONVERGENCE, we are without a doubt experiencing a new way of presenting the undercity. The use of vibrant colors and an overall less dreary tone makes Zaun feel different than it has in other League of Legends media, but doesn’t sacrifice the spirit of the region at all.

It feels much more like you’re in Ekko’s world, surrounded by the day-to-day residents of Zaun who make the most out of a bad situation.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the game, unfortunately, does come from the presentation. It won’t take the keen player long to notice that characters in the background of Zaun’s more populated scenes are frequently reused. This is expected, of course, but it becomes super jarring when you see the same character presented multiple times in the same scene. Sometimes, scenes will feature straight-up mirrored versions of characters standing on the other side of the screen.

Conversely, the game actually features pretty great enemy variety. You’re not going to be having to learn new mechanics every encounter, and visually the enemies look the same, but the game funnels in new types of enemies with new mechanics to learn often enough to keep you on your toes. The ability to make a mistake and try again ala your rewind gives the game a ton of room to get creative with enemies and hazards without the whole thing feeling like an oppressive death fest.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story is available on Steam, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, Playstation and Xbox.