League of Legends Released CGI Short, and New PvE Mode

When it comes to video game cinematics, it’s usually hard to top Blizzard, who is broadly considered the best in the business when it comes to scripting out and crafting beautiful, pre-rendered cinematics for their games. They mistakenly assumed they could make a whole movie of that, but all the same, their reputation remains more-or-less untarnished. That said, they’re not the only people in the cinematic game, and League of Legend’s Riot Games has also produced some pretty stellar CGI when the situation demands it.

And as is turns out, one such situation has just arrived, with their new “Odyssey” short:



Looks pretty cool, right?

Now, if you’re a League of Legends player like me, you’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Jesus Christ not ANOTHER Jinx Skin wtf” but trust me, there’s more being offered here than that. Indeed, this marks the start of a brand-new PvE event in the typically PvE game, called Odyssey: Extraction, where you and four friends have to work together to save Ziggs (a bomb-using furry midget) from an alien planet.

Here’s the catch: on top of all the other stuff you typically get in PvE modes, such as icons, ward skins, and other weird loot, this mode will also have several difficulties. As you play them, you’ll unlock “augments” that permanently improves your champion’s power (for that mode specifically), which you can then use to battle your way up the mode’s five difficulty levels, starting at Intro and ending at Onslaught.

And, of course, there are a bunch of skins for the characters above that you can buy, which make up the real thrust of the event. Riot’s gotta make those dolla dollas, after all.

In any case, it’s a neat looking cinematic for a neat looking mode, and a welcome breath of fresh air for the sometimes stale MOBA. And at least it’s not a Battle Royale mode. It'll kick off officially on the12th.