Infinity Blade review

Another great review by guest contributer Simon Boulle who takes at one of the top selling iPhone & iPad games, Infinity Blade

Infinity Blade – $5.99 (iTunes Link) is an incredible game. The graphics are amazing, and look great on the Retina display of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G. The gameplay is fun and immersive, and I was hooked on trying to defeat the God King (the ultimate boss).

The concept of the game is relatively simple: you play a warrior who plans to avenge his father, who was killed by the God King. A  battle ensures with a series of other warriors, from Paladins to Marrow Fiends, in order to reach the God King. You will gain experience along the way,with gold, potions and equipment, in order to improve your character. Each battle is connected by short-cut scenes where you can pick up gold and potions, provided  you keep an eye out. During battle you can defend, dodge an attack, parry an attack and obviously attack. These actions are performed by swiping or tapping on the screen. The controls work really well, though at times tapping on the defend icon is interpreted as a swipe to attack, which can be annoying.

After roughly 10 – 15 battles, you can reach the God King, who is initially at (a high) level 50. If you lose (which is most likely in your first playthrough) a new bloodline starts, and your character now becomes the son of the defeated warrior, who in turn tries to avenge his father. He gains all the experience, items and gold of his father. Eventually you will reach a level where you will be able to defeat the God King. Once you defeat him, you start from the beginning again, and can play through again and try to defeat the God King again. Each time you defeat him, he gains an extra 50 levels.

Attempting to defeat the God King, though somewhat repetitive, is fun and had me hooked. Equipment is made up of swords, shields, helmets, armour and magic rings (which enable you to cast spells). As you defeat other warriors, you earn gold which can be used to buy new equipment. Equipment gains experience and can be mastered, which means it can’t gain any more experience but your character is able to use it better. However, your character only gains the experience your equipment gains. So if all your equipment is mastered, your character doesn’t gain any more experience. This encourages you to buy more and better equipment.

The characters and environments are detailed, clear and sharp. I have never seen any other game on any other platform which matches the clarity and detail of the graphics in Infinity Blade. They are simply breath-taking. If you own an iPhone 4, you should buy the game for that reason alone.

In closing, the game is enjoyable and the quality of the graphics is simply unimaginable. I highly recommend it to the owners of the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G. It is also supported on the iPad, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3G, though obviously the graphics aren’t as good, due to the lower resolution screens. Interestingly, Chair originally decided to create the game for the iPhone 3GS, as they thought it was powerful enough to run the game. When the iPhone 4 was announced and released they decided to add support for Retina display graphics. The game sells for $5,99 in the US App Store, and is a Universal game, meaning it also runs on the iPad.