Somehow, a combination of League of Legends and Vampire Survivors has produced something strangely relaxing. The infamously intense MOBA is getting a new mode this summer – just temporarily, at least for now – called Swarm, taking characters from League and design elements of the recently formed “bullet heaven” wave survival genre. But the big twist is that for all the on-screen carnage – and there is a lot of on-screen carnage – the result is something strangely chilled out.
Like all things League of Legends these days, Swarm has been fleshed out with reams of worldbuilding backstory. The mode is set within the alternate universe world of Anima Squad – for those understandably not in the know, Riot Games themes its many of its paid-for character skins in League of Legends around alternate realities or short fictional stories, like the cyberpunk-themed PROJEKT skin line, or the K/DA skins that tied champions to Riot’s virtual pop group of the same name.
The vibe with Anima Squad is a kind of peppy, futuristic anime-sci-fi, where a group of heroes – with animal-enhanced abilities – defend the remnants of earth from an alien invasion. For the new mode, Riot has built out that universe further, with a range of enemy types introduced from the invading Primordians – purple, shark-like grunts and their bosses of various sizes, who believe themselves to be the “white blood cells” wiping out the virus of humanity – and the mode’s various maps set in different parts of a post-apocalyptic Runeterra.
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