Back in September Infinity Blade was announced for the iPhone at Mac World. At the time it was just a tech demo showing off Epic's capabilities. Now that it's out everyone is amazed a game with such high quality could actually run on an iDevice. It is without a doubt the best looking iPhone game in the app store today. Graphically everything is fully 3d with normal mapping, advanced lighting effects and all sorts of technical stuff I will never understand. When you play it, you feel like it's something that should be on a Play Station or Xbox 360 yet it's running on the humble iPhone. Infinity Blade is an rpg (Role Playing Game) that lets you fight enemies and make your character stronger after you win epic battles...
For those of you familiar with the genre, most rpgs start where you have a character on a map and you have to decide what town to go to next in order to stop the dark lord from doing evil. Along the way you have many random encounters with weaker enemies who basically serve to make your character stronger and to add hours to an otherwise short adventure. You also have the typical boss fight every so often to make things less repetitive. After much grinding you fight the final boss and save the land from evil. Infinity blade still follows this formula but they have taken out the "annoying" random encounters and done away with the whole exploration element. Overall the quality of the experience was very high, but I felt it was missing something.
You do get to customize you character with different weapons and armor, and you get to choose which stats to level up. Combat wise it's an interesting experience, you have to use swipes and gestures at the right moment to strike your opponent. It feels like a rythm game with a fantasy backdrop. Story-wise it's fairly mainstream. Evil dude kills your father now you have to go kill him. Overall though, I felt saddened playing it because I see role playing games going more in the direction of vast appeal and ease of use, while abandoning depth of play. If you have played role playing games for several years now you know what I'm talking about.
If you go all the way back to Ultima V in the 80′s most role playing games were an extremely complicated gaming experience to get into, but once you figured it out, you were left with a very deep and rewarding gaming experience. What hurt most role playing games at the time was how difficult they were to get into. You had to read a thick manual just to learn how to play because most actions, in the game, involved typing commands on the keyboard. But, if you could get past that you were left with a very deep and rewarding experience. Over the years role playing improved in interface and accessibility. Especially after the release of Diablo but as they appealed more to the masses they gradually started to loose that special something which, made them so rewarding in the first place. The model infinity blade follows is the ultimate evolution in rpgs because it boils roleplaying down to it's core elements just like Final Fantasy 13 did. People say they like combat in an RPG developers deliver Infinity Blade. People say they like the story, developers deliver Final Fantasy 13.
My personal belief is what people really want out of role playing games isn't story and it's not Combat. It's letting their creative voice be heard. It's the ability to say "my character is a half elf warlock with a peg leg wearing pink stockings". Creativity is ultimately the most rewarding experience you can get out of a game. That's why games like Mine Craft have been so successful. What I want to see in the future, is more games that focus on letting the user decide his own adventure and forcing him to use his wits to solve problems. I mean combat will always be important in rpgs but I hope it won't be the only thing that is.
Closing Comments:
Overall, Infinity Blade was a solid streamlined experience. Graphically it has achieved more than any app on the iPhone so far. Each still from the game could almost be put in an artist's portfolio. Combat is fun, especially when you want something to do for 5 minutes while you wait. Where Infinity Blade goes wrong, is how extremely linear it is. I would have at least liked the opportunity to explore the environment a little. Also while I think the swipe combat interface was interesting, I would have preferred a more traditional console style duel analog control scheme. Again it's a solid game just way too linear.
GAMEPLAY
Gesture based game play is interesting, however, extremely linear adventure hurts the experience.
7.0/10
SOUND
Good sound quality, nothing memorable here.
8/10
GRAPHICS
Best graphics on the iPhone to date.
10/10
ORIGINALITY
Swipe combat is original, but the linear game structure and novelty of the control fail to impress.
8.0/10
OVERALL
Infinity Blade is one of the best selling apps in the app store. It's what people want. The problems is if it weren't for the graphics we wouldn't be talking about it.
8.5/10
For those of you familiar with the genre, most rpgs start where you have a character on a map and you have to decide what town to go to next in order to stop the dark lord from doing evil. Along the way you have many random encounters with weaker enemies who basically serve to make your character stronger and to add hours to an otherwise short adventure. You also have the typical boss fight every so often to make things less repetitive. After much grinding you fight the final boss and save the land from evil. Infinity blade still follows this formula but they have taken out the "annoying" random encounters and done away with the whole exploration element. Overall the quality of the experience was very high, but I felt it was missing something.
You do get to customize you character with different weapons and armor, and you get to choose which stats to level up. Combat wise it's an interesting experience, you have to use swipes and gestures at the right moment to strike your opponent. It feels like a rythm game with a fantasy backdrop. Story-wise it's fairly mainstream. Evil dude kills your father now you have to go kill him. Overall though, I felt saddened playing it because I see role playing games going more in the direction of vast appeal and ease of use, while abandoning depth of play. If you have played role playing games for several years now you know what I'm talking about.
If you go all the way back to Ultima V in the 80′s most role playing games were an extremely complicated gaming experience to get into, but once you figured it out, you were left with a very deep and rewarding gaming experience. What hurt most role playing games at the time was how difficult they were to get into. You had to read a thick manual just to learn how to play because most actions, in the game, involved typing commands on the keyboard. But, if you could get past that you were left with a very deep and rewarding experience. Over the years role playing improved in interface and accessibility. Especially after the release of Diablo but as they appealed more to the masses they gradually started to loose that special something which, made them so rewarding in the first place. The model infinity blade follows is the ultimate evolution in rpgs because it boils roleplaying down to it's core elements just like Final Fantasy 13 did. People say they like combat in an RPG developers deliver Infinity Blade. People say they like the story, developers deliver Final Fantasy 13.
My personal belief is what people really want out of role playing games isn't story and it's not Combat. It's letting their creative voice be heard. It's the ability to say "my character is a half elf warlock with a peg leg wearing pink stockings". Creativity is ultimately the most rewarding experience you can get out of a game. That's why games like Mine Craft have been so successful. What I want to see in the future, is more games that focus on letting the user decide his own adventure and forcing him to use his wits to solve problems. I mean combat will always be important in rpgs but I hope it won't be the only thing that is.
Closing Comments:
Overall, Infinity Blade was a solid streamlined experience. Graphically it has achieved more than any app on the iPhone so far. Each still from the game could almost be put in an artist's portfolio. Combat is fun, especially when you want something to do for 5 minutes while you wait. Where Infinity Blade goes wrong, is how extremely linear it is. I would have at least liked the opportunity to explore the environment a little. Also while I think the swipe combat interface was interesting, I would have preferred a more traditional console style duel analog control scheme. Again it's a solid game just way too linear.
GAMEPLAY
Gesture based game play is interesting, however, extremely linear adventure hurts the experience.
7.0/10
SOUND
Good sound quality, nothing memorable here.
8/10
GRAPHICS
Best graphics on the iPhone to date.
10/10
ORIGINALITY
Swipe combat is original, but the linear game structure and novelty of the control fail to impress.
8.0/10
OVERALL
Infinity Blade is one of the best selling apps in the app store. It's what people want. The problems is if it weren't for the graphics we wouldn't be talking about it.
8.5/10
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