Infinity Blade Review: Multigenerational Combat at its Finest?

After the Epic Citadel tech demo was released in September, there has been plenty of buzz surrounding Epic and Chair’s latest game, Infinity Blade. This collage of stunning visuals and fast paced gesture based gameplay is the first iOS title to take advantage of the Unreal Engine, and is representative of the shifting focus in iDevice gaming. After spending several minutes with Infinity Blade, you will most certainly find yourself questioning your definition of what exactly the difference is between “real games” and “cell phone games.” Check out the full Infinity Blade review after the jump!

Light on Plot

I’d like to think that Epic skipped out on cultivating a deeper narrative for Infinity Blade because they were so determined to keep the mobile gamer in mind during development. Forget about a gripping tale of good versus evil here, folks. Instead, gamers are presented with a nameless character that, through a multitude of bloodlines, attempts to defeat the mysterious God King and his minions. What follows is a journey through literally generations of warriors until one is strong enough (a high enough level) to finally defeat the God King. Resting on the pillars of character progression, the “story” in Infinity Blade is shallow. However, gameplay and presentation is where the game really shines.

The last two battles that will determine the end of your journey.

Swipe, Swipe, Dodge

Infinity Blade is an action RPG in the very simplest sense of the term. Moving from battle to battle, your character will gain experience and can be customized accordingly. However, that’s about where the RPG elements end. Movement throughout the God King’s kingdom is extremely limited, consisting of simply tapping checkpoints to advance. Combat throughout the game essentially boils down to dodging, parrying, blocking, and swiping during combat. Weapon attacks are carried out through swiping your colossal enemies, while drawing symbols with your finger allows your character to use magic. Combat early in the game can be repetitive, but as you encounter higher-level enemies their attack patterns become more ambiguous and difficult to judge, which adds freshness to the otherwise linear action sequences.

They typical structure of battle in Infinity Blade.

There are plenty of ways to accessorize your nameless character in the game with a multitude of weapons, shields, helmets, and armor. While the inventory available varies a great deal in stats and power, a sword is wielded the same as a mace or a dagger, which can also make combat feel a bit shallow at times. The very well thought out XP system motivates players to continue level grinding by allowing you to gain skill points through mastering items in your inventory, and then trading them for other items that can then be used for gaining additional experience. So instead of saving all your gold and buying the best weapon you can find, which would make the game extremely simple, Infinity Blade gives the player incentive to use weaker kits strategically to level up faster.

Presentation is Everything

Instead of a deep, engrossing story, Epic instead decided to focus the gamers’ attention to the aesthetics of Infinity Blade – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The small loudspeakers on the iPhone 4 simply do not do the soundtrack to Infinity Blade justice. The score fits perfectly into the action and is truly immersive during gameplay, which adds to the sensation of playing a game much more grand than any other game in the App Store right now.

An example of the gorgeous visuals in Infinity Blade.

Just like Rage HD for iOS, this is a game that will make that retina display sparkle when you are showing it off to your friends. The visuals are absolutely stunning, and the beautiful sweeping cut scenes give the game a sense of depth that makes up for the bland narrative. That’s just about all you can really say about the visual presentation of Infinity Blade – remarkable.

The Future is Now!

Epic and Chair have promised an assortment of updates for Infinity Blade that will be arriving in the future. The first update arrived December 21st, adding the inevitable in-app purchases, ten new items, a new enemy dubbed the Marrow Fiend, and altering the level cap from 40 to 45. While it’s hard to complain about free content, adding a new area to explore would have significantly improved the update. However, new castle dungeons are rumored to be in the second scheduled update. The real update that everyone will be waiting for is the addition of multiplayer, which could fundamentally alter the dynamics of the game.

The Holiday Helm - Part of the first Infinity Blade update.

The real triumph of Infinity Blade is how well the game seems to know mobile gamers. Whether you are on the bus heading to work or lounging on the couch for an extended play session, every aspect of the game is built for being played in a variety of situations. While there were a few hiccups in frame rate during the more exhaustive and fast paced battles, Infinity Blade executes beautiful, addictively fun gameplay in a way that could be mistaken for one of its much deeper console cousins. Simply put, if you own an iOS device, you should have Infinity Blade in your library.