Infinity Blade (user review)
For those of you that think the iPhone isn't a serious competitor for hardcore games in the handheld market, I would advise you to look again. Angry Birds and Doodle Jump are eating into Sony and N's profits just as fast as the next Pokemon series. But if you dig past the "casual" games mucking up the App Store, you can find some serious gems. Infinity blade is the first of which really opened my eyes to serious gaming on a phone. But are the graphics, gameplay, plot, and presentation enough to make you impulsively buy a $5.99 price tag?
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): December 9, 2026
- Publisher: ChAIR Entertainment
- Genres: Point and Click/Fighting
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
I was very excited to play this game. I have seen videos, played a demo, and been amazed by the visuals produced by my iPhone.
Infinity Blade
Infinity blade, code named "Birth Right", at its beginning, was a staggering and ambitious project.
The game is a basic formula. Start a bloodline > wander around a castle (via point and click mechanics) > battle one on one with a big scary monster > repeat 2 and 3 until you make it to the God King > beat/lose the god king > repeat.
TOP:That's you, not the God King. He looks way cooler than you, if you can believe it. BOTTOM: The castle. And believe it or not, the entire game.
If it sounds a little boring, thats only because that is a dumbed down version on paper (or your screen probably). There is plenty there that isnt described in the formula that will keep you entertained for hours. When you arent battling the castle guards, there are massive environments to pan around, gold and potions to find, as well as chest to open.
The battle screen. You can see the HP bars, shield, combo and magic buttons, and the sidestep buttons. The player here is casting the "combo" move.
Battling will take you to a closer camera view where you see a third person view of you and the enemy. Simple touch controls keep battle easy and just as fluid as buttons (most of the time). Slashing does damage and racks up combos, a shield tap hides you behind your equipped shield for a certain amount of damage, and arrows on either side of the screen allow you to side step your opponents attacks. The blue bar is your hp and the other is the enemy's. Under yours is an icon that allows you to stun the enemy for a set time to combo the crap out of. The other is used to cast a magic spell, granted you have rings equipped to do so. Both have cool down times, and should be used wisely. They can alter the battle in the best ways if used correctly.
FINISH HIM!
After the battle you see your equipped items. Each one give you experience toward your level as well as mastering each piece of equipment. When you level up, your health is filled (very useful) and you get skill points to add to your stats. From here you can also access you inventory and the store (both accessible when you are wandering around) to buy and switch out mastered equipment.
Inventory screen, and a preview of how your equipment looks on you.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- GRAPHICS.
- Interesting art style.
- tons and tons of inventory use and master.
- Easy to use battle controls.
- really high replay-ability.
- Nice pacing, easy to accomplish alot in one short chuck of time.
What I Didn't Like ...
- Laggy if you have other stuff going or notification center wants your attention.
- If it feels repetitive, its because it is.
- No actual wandering around and adventuring, just point and click.
8
Gameplay
There is no actual adventuring, just pointing, clicking, and panning around the environments.
But,for the most part you will be locked in battle trading blows with a monstrous guard. The mechanics are pretty good, other than the side stepping. Even with the option to enlarge the arrows, I still tended to miss them sometimes and get cracked with a hammer over the head. The spells and slashing work well, as well as shielding. The only other problem is parrying a blow. You have to be quick enough to figure out the enemies swing direction and swipe the other way. I found it hard to continually swipe the opposite direction most of the time. Inventory and wandering around the castle is easy. Just scrolling and tapping. Even the looking around feature can be inverted, both axis.
9
Presentation
The graphics in this game are unbelievable, for a phone. The textures are on par with maybe a poor 360 game or so, but outstanding for a phone. The only problem come into play when you are running apps in the background. The game lags depending how much RAM you have available. This might be more of a problem for jailbreakers using Winterboard or other things that suck up resources. Also the notification center tends to make the frame rate chug when you are receiving a notification. The music is kinda non existant, Its more of just ambient sounds. But the sound effects are pretty good. The only voice acting is in a made up language, other than that, its all just grunts and roars. Because of the chugging due to resource hogging, i can't give this a 10 even if these are the best graphics on the iphone.
9
Lasting Appeal
Even thought IB is built on replaying the game, eventually it gets old. You can "beat" the game in under and hour easily. But before that there are hours of getting you butt handed to you by the God King and saving up for the Infinity Blade to access the secret dungeon. Its also something you can just pick up easily and keep playing any time.
9.2
out of 10
