I suddenly realised the other day that I’d played nothing but Angry Birds on my phone for ages and that I should play one of the games that were languishing in folders on my third screen. I booted up Infinity Blade II and pretty quickly got back into the swing of quick swiping to slash dudes and monsters.
It’s pretty much just the first game again. They added two new weapon types; one better (dual) and one worse (heavy). Blocks always seem to get broken so I never used them, hence my reliance on dual, plus they can combo better. The other thing they changed was adding a slightly more coherent plot and goal. The first game was quite vague and mysterious, which contributed to the atmosphere, but this one still maintains that while also giving you something to work towards and names for the characters. There’s also the new gem mechanic which I didn’t use at all.
I found myself sucked into the game; retrying fights several times until I’d got them perfect (I never quite got there but it was good enough). It’s quite challenging but mastering the fights and improving your skills along with your stat points is quite satisfying. I found it maybe more challenging that the first one, but I also had basically finished it before getting any of the really good weapons, so either the balance is off or I did it too quickly. I’m only halfway to the money requirement to get the actual Infinity Blade, and after getting to the credits it got a whole lot harder for a second playthrough, so I decided to stop. So I don’t have the sense of completion either from when I explored all the secret stuff in the first game.
I should mention the “clashmob” thing which is a new system in this game. There’s global progress bars that players can collectively contribute to by doing fights outside the story, from a menu. So sort of like Noby Noby Boy. The problem is, by getting into it now everyone’s played the game and moved on, so although there are new goals all the time they never get achieved. Or so it seemed from my brief foray. Bit of a dud then.
So, compared to the original: the interface is certainly cleaner, but in the process of adding bells and whistles with the social element, keys, prize wheels, new weapon types, and all that, it has diluted the pure gameplay, which is the game’s strength. Well, that and the pretty graphics; arguably it’s a showcase for the effects the iPhone is capable of. It certainly achieves that but it’s not a huge selling point for me. Still, going back is hard; I just opened Infinity Blade 1 for comparison and the menus are super ugly, and it hasn’t even been updated for iPhone 5 screens. The fidelity of the lighting doesn’t affect me but that stuff sure does. So onwards to the future I suppose. Next time it’s on sale I guess I’ll try Infinity Blade III…
