Review: Infinity Blade - Does It Live Up To The Epic Hype?

Overview Infinity Blade has finally arrived, and the first full featured iOS game using Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. It’s a battle driven RPG that has you play as a warrior looking to end the reign of the God King. You battle your way through the castle to finally reach the God King and avenge your father who you see killed in the opening cut scene. The game is generational in that you’ll play through, and lose to the god king only to come back 20 years later as a son looking to avenge his father. You will play multiple generations under this format, but you keep your leveled up player as well as equipment for the next generation. The game is universal for all iOS devices. Features Infinity Blade features multiple types of enemies to battle with all kinds of equipment to acquire including swords, shields, and armor. You level up your character, and you gain experience for each item you carry which allows you to upgrade health, attack, shield, and magic. The game uses the touch screen to allow you to tap to move between areas, swipe for attacks, tapping dodge and shield buttons as well as swiping to parry. Game Center is included for online high scores and achievements. The Good The game is absolutely stunningly beautiful like none other to date, and it's even better than you would expect. Seeing all of the fine detail in motion on the retina display or iPad is truly jaw dropping. This officially pushes the bounds of what the iOS device is capable of graphically, and is far beyond just a mobile game. Behind the amazing Unreal Engine graphics there is an outstanding gameplay mechanic. Gameplay is why you play a game, and it needs to do more than just look beautiful, and thankfully Infinity Blade does. The game is billed as a battle RPG, and it's very heavy on the battle aspect, and very light on the RPG elements. As soon as you begin the game you’re met with a battle, and you progress through the castle from battle to battle with very little else in between. The battles are simply great gaming experiences with wonderful touch controls as you face gigantic opponents and killer assassins. There is a brilliantly designed difficulty curve to really keep everyone satisfied as there is always a challenge, but it's never too hard. You’re face to face with an enemy who is primarily on the offensive, and you’re on the defensive. They come at you from all directions, and the main way to attack an opponent is to stop them, and go on a counter attack when they’re slightly dazed. When an enemy attacks you can block by tapping the shield, dodge by tapping the two side buttons on the bottom, or parry their attack with a swipe to knock off their sword with your own. You can block any attack with your shield, but you have a limited number of blocks at your disposal. You can dodge by tapping the button in the direction the sword is incoming as long as it's a high attack. Parry is the most used as you swipe the way the sword is incoming to knock them off. The enemy will attack a few times, and by blocking them consecutively in any way they open up for some attacks. Then you swipe in any direction to guide the sword, and there are combos with certain swiping chains for more damage. Each new enemy and generation gets tougher with new attack styles, but you become stronger as well through every battle from generation to generation. The generational set up is a wonderful system for this type of game as every battle makes you stronger, and your upgrades transfer through to work your way up to beat the God King. Once you start your first battle you'll be hooked, and will keep coming back to the intense action through the generations. There is a ton of replayability with each generation taking about a half hour, and there are about four hours of total gameplay though both are just estimates. Once you make it through a generation you'll feel an obligation to continue on until defeating the God King especially after being defeated. Game Center is also included with online high scores and a number of achievements. The game does a good job of giving you more than just sword attacks as you have a stun ability as well as magical spells. Both are action buttons that take a bit to build up to be activated, but are very powerful, and the spells are cast by drawing specific shapes on screen. There is a load of equipment to buy, upgrade, and find in the castle, and you can master them as well as build up your abilities which is the extent of the RPG elements. The Bad The game does come across as repetitive in that you travel through the same castle through the same path from generation to generation. The battles and opponents are different every time though, and there are forks in the road to explore on a later generation. The battles themselves have a potential receptive feel with the same style for each one, but the enemies become more and more advanced so no two battles play alike. It would be nice to have more forks in the castle as well as a few more enemy types, but what is included is plenty. Multiplayer would also be great to allow the battle mechanic to be expanded from just a single player experience. The Verdict Infinity Blade came with the most hype ever, and in a true testament to the game, has lived up to that hype. The game offers the most advanced visuals yet seen on iOS devices, and the game takes full advantage of the touch screen with smooth controls. The battle gameplay, difficulty curve, and generational set up are simply amazing allowing the gameplay to rival the visuals in terms of quality and execution. Infinity Blade truly lives up to being an Epic game, and is a must buy for $5.99.

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