QCF: Infintity Blade III

This Review was Freelanced by Rob Rich; you can find his other work here

here are always a few games that become synonymous with their platforms. Not just because they’re exclusives, not because there are plenty of “this console only” titles out there, but because they exceptional exclusives. Infinity Blade is one such game, and it’s one of the biggest (if not the biggest) names in iOS gaming. The first was a tale of revenge against a seemingly immortal tyrant told over the course of centuries, and it blew minds thanks to its use of the Unreal Engine to create some truly amazing visuals--on a phone, no less.

The second continued the story of Siris and his crusade against the Deathless, and dressed the visuals up a bit, but the big change was a more impressive scope and variation to the enemies and environments. Infinity Blade III is the wayward hero’s final stop as he attempts to make up for his past and put an end to the reign of the Deathless for good.

Infinity Blade III isn’t necessarily “more of the same,” nor is it an evolution of the series, but more of a natural progression. While the first game introduced the inexplicably fun Punch Out!-esque swipe combat, and the second refined it while expanding on the plot, the final installment tries to polish everything up nice and play around with the pacing; it works pretty damn well, for the most part. There’s quite a variety to the environments and enemies, more weapons and other gear, more potions and gems, and two playable characters. That’s right, in addition to Siris players can also assume control of Isa - his companion and sort-of murderer but not really - who controls the same but plays slightly differently.

All the classic parry/dodge/block dueling is intact, with a few curveballs thrown in for good measure. Siris will feel familiar to series veterans, and for the most part hasn’t changed much, but Isa is a bit of a breath of fresh air. As I’ve said, she’s mechanically similar to Siris but she’s a little faster and uses a slightly different complement of weapons. Another plus is that she sneaks around each level like a badass ninja and usually finishes off her foes with her bare hands.

Other little tweaks are sprinkled throughout as well; such as enemies’ weapons breaking on occasion when parried, resulting in them grabbing new armaments and changing their attack patterns mid-fight. Upgrading Siris and Isa’s stats (health, attack, etc) will also unlock special bonuses at certain levels like discounts at the blacksmith or the ability to unlock weapon-specific special attacks. It adds a surprising level of depth to leveling each of them up in the early game. And holy freaking crap is this game gorgeous. I mean, the other two looked great but Infinity Blade III really pushes things on the iPhone 5. I’m talking fancy lighting effects, improved textures, the works. And yet somehow, miraculously, it runs better than either of the other earlier games.

Where things start to fall apart slightly is in the level progression. Unlike the rest of the series, Infinity Blade III runs out of a hub called The Hideout - where players can upgrade their equipment, fuse gems, combine ingredients found throughout the environment into potions, buy discounted goods from the Merchant (when she shows up), and select their next destination from the map. The problem with this is that once a location has been cleared, it can’t be replayed--at least not initially. On top of that, while the various areas Siris and Isa visit are gorgeous and vary widely, most of them are pitifully small and lack branching paths when compared to either of the earlier games. Of course, it’s still possible to start over while maintaining levels and equipment, but there’s a lot less to explore this time around, which is pretty disappointing.

That’s just nitpicking, though. In the grand scheme of things, Infinity Blade III is a remarkable game. It’s packed with content (and it’s bound to see updates with even more stuff), loaded with variety, and ridiculously pretty. I’m not even exaggerating; I’ve been taking screen shots just so I can use them as desktop backgrounds on my computer. Fans of the series absolutely should not miss this and iOS gamers in general looking for a high-quality, virtually limitless source of entertainment can call off their search. Infinity Blade III is a shining example of how to cap off a high profile series.