The most enduring aspect of League of Legends, is the Summoner's Rift. It might go through a few minor changes each season, but ultimately it looks pretty much the same as when the game launched back in 2009. However Riot thinks it's about time it was made more uniform in its style and brought into the teen years of this century with a graphical overhaul.
It's not finished yet, but here's what it looks like so far:
As you can see from this quick whistle-stop tour of the map, the colours have all been toned down a notch, making it - to me at least - look a lot more like DotA 2 in its colour palette. However, it does have a much more uniform look now, with less of a cartoony feel. There's also some gorgeous animations in terms of the small waterfalls around mid-lane and the way the neutral camp monsters appear instead of just aimlessly standing around; they look fantastic.
The ground for each lane is now much more lifelike, featuring lush grass and dirt paths, as well as damaged and broken roads, all with improved shadows and texturing making large parts look like hand drawn images. It's quite a sight if you've been playing the game since its earliest iterations.
Even the creeps have gotten a fancy reskin making them stand out much more. Bases have been redone, as well as summoning animations and each monster camp has been reskinned to better showcase its threats. No longer will the smaller golem be a clone of its larger cousin and the wraiths will be different beyond just size and colour.
It's a big change and there's lots more to look at and discuss, which Riot has been doing in an official update, where it talks about wanting to make the map more readable to newer players and to keep characters visible, not letting them disappear during frantic melees or into certain sections of the map. Clarity and readability were a big part of this update and it shows.
Don't worry if you're running on an old machine though, as Riot is tweaking the game as much as it can to make sure that if you can run the current client, you'll be able to run this version of the Summoner's Rift at current, or better frame rates.
What do you guys think of the visual upgrade? It's very pretty, but does it kill off some of League's unique look?
