League of Angels spreads its wings once again in a market already saturated with massively multiplayer heroism and fantasy, and does it with grace with
League of Angels 2. Let's recall that the first game, having received numerous awards in 2014 and 2015, is still quite active in over 150 countries. What can we expect from League of Angels 2?
New Tale, New World
To start, story-wise the game will be quite different from what the setting of the first game got us used to. The developers announced in a recent article that the angels had "transcended", and it truly seems to be the case. Angels are no longer in such a vulnerable position that their fate depends entirely on a hero. Granted, as you progress in the story, they will be faced with quite dangerous circumstances. But it is also quite interesting to see how well they recovered from their state in the first game. They've thrived. So much in fact that since they had no true enemy, they ended up having conflicting ideologies among themselves, separating their race in three distinct factions; the Midas kingdom, the Celestial kingdom and the Tempest kingdom. You've guessed it, you hero and his/her allies will end up having to face other angels in battle, some believing your quest to be immoral, others being controlled, and so on.
In terms of graphics, the game also benefited from a complete overhaul. While I quite enjoyed the design of the first game myself (considering that it was a browser MMORPG), I found it hard to go back to it after seeing the work they've done on League of Angels 2. It was redesigned with a refined 3D engine, and the numerous animations and effects included do it justice as the next generation League of Angels. One thing that didn't change much, to the pleasure of most, is the clothes to skin ratio of the female angels.
Limited customization
Considering that the game is still in Open Beta, that is to be expected, but it should regardless be noted that it barely offers any character creation customization. You pick between a male and female character and are thrown into the game, where you can, however, acquire costume items like outfits and wings. Not that the game truly needs any hero customization with the dozens of angels that you can choose from to accompany you on your journey, but the class choice present in the first game would be a pleasant addition.
Paired with a mount system that offers additional skill as well as a relic equipment that provide players with large stat boosts and thus creates a notion of character build, it shouldn't be too hard for players to have a hero or even a squad they deem unique enough.
Character progression
The character progression in League of Angels 2 will keep you occupied for quite a while. The first thing to consider, and probably the hardest to achieve, will be the quality of your angels. There are the normal quality angels, basically fodder to be recycled for souls, the Epic quality angels from which your squad will be composed in majority for most of the early game (pre level 35), and the Legendary quality angels that will be your ultimate goal. Comparing them, my one and only Legendary angel has nearly twice the Battle Ranking of my best Epic angel, both being equally leveled and geared. These can be obtained through rewards, bought with diamonds, or through the Ritual Summon feature.
Your hero and angels can also be augmented through the use of Water, Wind, Rock and Mountain prisms dropped in Normal and Elite dungeons, providing them with higher stats and new skills. Want to push them even further? Simply use Bless Stones to upgrade their rank, increasing their stats by a fixed percentage, and leveling up their skills.
Then you will need to consider the equipment and relics your angels will be geared with, Legendary quality ones once again being your ultimate goal, and quite hard to acquire. Equipment can also be upgraded through the blacksmith, while relics can also be enhanced, and socketed with runes that provide huge stat boosts. These runes themselves can be combined and upgraded to offer larger boosts.
A deep gameplay
With League of Angels 2, it will be quite hard to get bored with the large variety of dungeon options available compared to the first game. You start with the story dungeons, also called Normal dungeons, to complete, offering gold, Exp and Exp scrolls, gems and angel summoning tokens, as well as the different prisms required to augment your hero and angels. Once you've completed all the Normal dungeons in a zone, you have access to its Elite dungeons, much harder challenges that offers rewards somewhat similar to the Normal ones, with the addition of Equipment and Hero shards. The only downside to these is that they require stamina to be completed, something that has yet to affect my progression in the game.
If you want a break from the basic dungeons, of simply need to kill time while you recover stamina, you can stop by the single player NPC for a number of other alternatives. The Arena provides players with diamonds and prestige, the Hero Trial that provides resources (gold, Mastery Stones, Relic Essence, etc.), the Abyss that provides equipment shards as well as currency for the Equipment Shop, and the Dominion that offers large amounts of Bless Stones, Refine Stones and gold. Simply put, these Single Player dungeons and quests will be your main source of equipment and character upgrading materials. Moreover, the Arena and the Dominion are basically PvP activities meant to pit your squad against those of other players, to see how you fare against them, and also to get build ideas.
Finally, there are also multiplayer activities that are basically co-op quests to be completed in what is called the Palace dungeon, as well as guild dungeons where you raid bosses with guildmates.
The one and only downside in this aspect of the game is that you will have little control during battles, sometimes having none. Your actions will be limited to picking when to use your ultimates, something that isn't present in certain modes like the Arena. Other than that, your control over the results of battle will be limited to building your teams properly, and coming up with the most effective formations for your angels.
A slightly intrusive but optional cash shop
League of Angels 2, just like the first game, is F2P. With such an economic model, the main way for the developers to monetize if it is through a cash shop. And they surely don’t miss any opportunity to show off the fact that it contains various items and packages that will save you a lot of time.
And that is all it is in reality, a way to save time. Indeed, cosmetics aside, there is nothing in the cash shop that cannot be acquired the traditional way. Even the main cash shop currency can be easily obtained in the game as I am personally sitting on 3000 diamonds (valued around $70) after just about 8 hours of gameplay.
Conclusion
While we have yet to see concrete results reflected in how the playerbase reacts, there is little doubt that League of Angels 2 has done a great job at surpassing its predecessor, and that in every aspect. Veterans should find their interest in the series renewed, experienced and new players alike having a whole lot to discover.