Infinity Blade

The rule of thumb for mobile games is to make something that you can play for 5-10 minutes and then you move on to another game or reach your destination. Infinity Blade does it’s best to defy that rule of thumb. You start your questline as a warrior out to destroy the God-King, the immortal warrior who has yet to be defeated. It is a typical in RPG-style game where you gain experience from kills and can find treasures of health potions, cash, or new equipment. When you Level Up, you can put your experience points into Health, Attack, Shield, Magic, and there is a Bonus attribute that changes based on equipment you are wearing.

The equipment you have breaks down to: helmet, armor set, swords, shields, and rings. Helmets have an armor rating, Armor sets have an armor rating, Swords have a hit rating and buffs such as lightning, fire, and poison damage, Shields have an armor rating, and Rings provide unique stats – they can Heal, cause Lightning, Fire, or Shield you further from taking damage.

There is an in-game Store to spend your hard-earned cash on new equipment and even sell old equipment to help buy new equipment. Each item can be “Mastered” which gives you an extra attribute point to spend.

Navigating the world is similar to Myst. You can reach a certain point, look around for potions or treasure. When you’re done, you can touch on the next path choice (usually you are given a choice) to the next encounter.

Combat happens in real-time and uses the famous “gestures” techniques in order to induce damage. Swiping your finger up, down, left, and right can make the warrior slice and dice his enemies in those directions. Combination moves can also be performed. The enemies you fight could be comparable to mini-bosses as they are not simple encounters and take a minute or two to complete.Special attacks can be activated when you either take a lot of damage or cause a lot of damage over the course of the battle. They stun the enemy so you can perform a Super-combo to inflict a lot of damage quickly. Your shield is useful to block the incoming attacks. The Shield only has a set number of blocks to use and each enemy takes away a certain number. Once down to zero you can no longer block. When each battle is complete, your blocks will be restored.

Infinity Blade uses Game Center for Achievements and Leaderboards if you’re into that sort of thing (I sure am!). This is a solid game worthy of infinite gameplay and is quite a contender for the Angry Birds, Cut the Ropes, and the Canabalts that are at the top of the sales charts on the App Store. The price may be steep if you’re used to $0.99 games, but it is well-worth it and there is a lot to do.

Value: This game is worth $5.49 of the $5.99 MSRP

I originally wrote this for Saving Content: http://www.savingcontent.com/2011/01/infinity-blade-review/