Infinity Blade
Posted December 8, 2010
Demoed by Steve Jobs and company at a developer conference earlier this year, Infinity Blade has been on the must-play list of nearly anyone who watched the demo of the gameplay. The demo alone set a new standard for what developers should be striving for on Apple’s platforms as the visuals rivals console games, much less the handhelds from Sony and Nintendo. The narrative is definitely clever. The opening cutscene sets the stage for the entire game as a brave knight enters the castle of the God King, an egotistical bastard that likes to kick the crap out of any challengers with his magical God sword. To make matters worse, the sword absorbs the bloodline of anyone that it slays and increases in power.
As the knight is destroyed, the game cuts to 20 years later when the son of said knight is storming the castle with revenge flowing through his blood. You are tasked with battling through the God King’s minions one at a time to reach that maniacal monster yet again. Unsurprisingly, he’s just as skilled as he was 20 years ago and the cycle inevitably repeats. The ingenious aspect of the game’s design is that you keep all the armor, strength, gear of your ancestor each time you are killed always making the son more powerful than the father. You continue to repeat this pattern forever, thus is the quest to slay the God King.
The brilliant part of battle is that there are no buttons to tap, but rather a free form design to combat. The direction that you swipe your finger across the screen is the direction the sword is swung. You can just as easily string several short swipes across your opponent as you can some devastating blows. However, your enemy can parry and counterattack, you must choose the correct time to launch attacks. You can also parry attacks by swiping your sword into your enemy. It’s difficult to time and requires a bit of practice to nail perfectly. You also have the ability to dodge attacks by tapping the left or right side of the screen as well as hide behind a degrading shield that eventually shatters apart during battle. In addition, magic spells as well as stun attacks come available to add yet another strategic element to the gameplay.
However, don’t expect to roam around the castle grounds freely as I would describe this more as a rail shooter design than a free-form RPG. You do have the ability to search for loot on each level, but you are only tapping the area of the screen where it’s hiding rather than running around to find it. As you collect gold, you can use it to purchase higher level gear in the store, essential if you expect to reach the God King. Interestingly, the armor and weapons all have experience points that flow into the player as you use the gear. Once you have fully mastered the gear, you get a bonus point for your stats as well as a larger pile of gold when you sell it off to purchase another piece of equipment. Frankly, it encourages you to exhaust all the experience points from every piece of equipment in the game to build the ultimate warrior, even if you have already beaten the God King.
Man, I thought Rage HD looked good on my iPad a few days ago. All hail the new God King in iPhone visuals! In short, you have never seen a game this detailed on a mobile platform. Infinity Blade is an achievement in level and character design for the Apple platforms. It uses the Unreal Engine 3 seen in a multitude of console games like Borderlands, Gears of War and Mass Effect 2 and the result is jawdropping. It looks better than anything on a handheld and rivals what you see on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. In addition, the game runs smoothly and the animation is slick, thankfully awesome for a fighting game.
Of course, all that graphical horsepower comes at a price. You need the iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, iPad or the 3GS. It will not run on the iPhone 3G or earlier iPhone / iPod platforms at all. It also looks infinitely better on the Retina display than on the 3GS. I can’t tell if it runs dramatically better on the iPhone 4, but the visuals are just outstanding. It also looks great on the iPad and the layout of the touch screen controls was easier to handle for my big fingers. If I had any nagging issues with the visual, it’s somewhat difficult to parry attacks by watching enemies on the iPhone 4 screen due to the position of the camera angle and the size of the screen. This is negated on the iPad though as watching how an enemy starts to swing his sword is a bit easier.
The audio within Infinity Blade is just as good as the visuals. The soundtrack has an epic Lord of the Rings feel and uses very dramatic musical cues during each battle. The characters in the game use a strange foreign language in the game, but subtitles are provided to understand what’s being said. Voice actors don’t stray far from throaty, deep toned men that are thirsty for battle, but that’s really all the game needs. The sound effects are spot on as well, everything from the clang of swords on armor to the painful groan of a well placed hit.
If you are just getting your iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch for Christmas, this game should be at the top of your list, if not the top. Epic Games and Chair Entertainment have done a phenomenal job creating not only the best looking game on Apple platforms, but a game that’s engaging, entertaining and worth playing. The only downside to the game is that it lasts about three to four hours, but downloadable content is promised for later in the year including new open rooms in the castle and extra gear. It’s also a great game to pick up and play for a few minutes each day as boss fights only last a short time. Infinity Blade is definitely worth the purchase price and should be snagged by everyone with an iPhone 4 immediately.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum
As the knight is destroyed, the game cuts to 20 years later when the son of said knight is storming the castle with revenge flowing through his blood. You are tasked with battling through the God King’s minions one at a time to reach that maniacal monster yet again. Unsurprisingly, he’s just as skilled as he was 20 years ago and the cycle inevitably repeats. The ingenious aspect of the game’s design is that you keep all the armor, strength, gear of your ancestor each time you are killed always making the son more powerful than the father. You continue to repeat this pattern forever, thus is the quest to slay the God King.
The brilliant part of battle is that there are no buttons to tap, but rather a free form design to combat. The direction that you swipe your finger across the screen is the direction the sword is swung. You can just as easily string several short swipes across your opponent as you can some devastating blows. However, your enemy can parry and counterattack, you must choose the correct time to launch attacks. You can also parry attacks by swiping your sword into your enemy. It’s difficult to time and requires a bit of practice to nail perfectly. You also have the ability to dodge attacks by tapping the left or right side of the screen as well as hide behind a degrading shield that eventually shatters apart during battle. In addition, magic spells as well as stun attacks come available to add yet another strategic element to the gameplay.
However, don’t expect to roam around the castle grounds freely as I would describe this more as a rail shooter design than a free-form RPG. You do have the ability to search for loot on each level, but you are only tapping the area of the screen where it’s hiding rather than running around to find it. As you collect gold, you can use it to purchase higher level gear in the store, essential if you expect to reach the God King. Interestingly, the armor and weapons all have experience points that flow into the player as you use the gear. Once you have fully mastered the gear, you get a bonus point for your stats as well as a larger pile of gold when you sell it off to purchase another piece of equipment. Frankly, it encourages you to exhaust all the experience points from every piece of equipment in the game to build the ultimate warrior, even if you have already beaten the God King.
Graphics
Man, I thought Rage HD looked good on my iPad a few days ago. All hail the new God King in iPhone visuals! In short, you have never seen a game this detailed on a mobile platform. Infinity Blade is an achievement in level and character design for the Apple platforms. It uses the Unreal Engine 3 seen in a multitude of console games like Borderlands, Gears of War and Mass Effect 2 and the result is jawdropping. It looks better than anything on a handheld and rivals what you see on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. In addition, the game runs smoothly and the animation is slick, thankfully awesome for a fighting game.
Of course, all that graphical horsepower comes at a price. You need the iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, iPad or the 3GS. It will not run on the iPhone 3G or earlier iPhone / iPod platforms at all. It also looks infinitely better on the Retina display than on the 3GS. I can’t tell if it runs dramatically better on the iPhone 4, but the visuals are just outstanding. It also looks great on the iPad and the layout of the touch screen controls was easier to handle for my big fingers. If I had any nagging issues with the visual, it’s somewhat difficult to parry attacks by watching enemies on the iPhone 4 screen due to the position of the camera angle and the size of the screen. This is negated on the iPad though as watching how an enemy starts to swing his sword is a bit easier.
Audio
The audio within Infinity Blade is just as good as the visuals. The soundtrack has an epic Lord of the Rings feel and uses very dramatic musical cues during each battle. The characters in the game use a strange foreign language in the game, but subtitles are provided to understand what’s being said. Voice actors don’t stray far from throaty, deep toned men that are thirsty for battle, but that’s really all the game needs. The sound effects are spot on as well, everything from the clang of swords on armor to the painful groan of a well placed hit.
Conclusion
If you are just getting your iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch for Christmas, this game should be at the top of your list, if not the top. Epic Games and Chair Entertainment have done a phenomenal job creating not only the best looking game on Apple platforms, but a game that’s engaging, entertaining and worth playing. The only downside to the game is that it lasts about three to four hours, but downloadable content is promised for later in the year including new open rooms in the castle and extra gear. It’s also a great game to pick up and play for a few minutes each day as boss fights only last a short time. Infinity Blade is definitely worth the purchase price and should be snagged by everyone with an iPhone 4 immediately.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum