Time to catch up on my iOS backlog! How does the hotly-anticipated-game-of-2014 hold up today?

That’s a little disingenuous. I usually am indifferent to being current, as you probably realise. But it’s true that the once-cutting-edge graphics are showing their age a tad. It’s the double edge of aiming for a realistic style. The actual design aesthetic of the series still works, though: a post-apocalyptic mashup of fantasy and sci-fi designs.

And the core gameplay is solid, as it has been since the first instalment. You progress through a series of encounters with monstrous foes and gnarly knights, dodging/blocking/parrying as appropriate, then swiping away during an opening. They’ve expanded this with a split of weapon types which change up your block/dodge actions. Some sadly make the shield stat redundant, and I also preferred options where dodge was available. The secondary playable character adds even more variety and another avenue for progression.

Between fights are short cinematic wandering sequences. They’re slightly interactive with little bonuses to find scattered around, and treasure to collect. Progress is quite linear in this sequel though, with fewer branching paths… not that I mind that, actually. In place of the previous game’s compact, mazey worlds and intimate, abstract plots, IB3 has expanded the scope into a grand-ish adventure. There’s a map with many locations, including optional side-quests. I never understood the story and still don’t really, but there’s more dialogue than there’s been before, I can tell you that much.

But really what the Infinity Blade games come down to is the grind. You get moneys, you get experience points from your gear, you level up, you allocate stats, you get different gear so you can keep getting XP. It’s all very loopy and addictive. Taking on a tough opponent before you’re ready and finally overcoming them after ten tries is fun, whaling on some beast-man with an overpowered sword is fun, steadily increasing your power to match your opponents is another kind of fun. It’s a good game for the touchscreen platform. Maybe not the best time to play it, not only because it’s a fading graphical showcase but because the online features and events don’t seem to work anymore… also it crashes on my new phone; luckily my iPad could still run it.