Is More Of The Same A Bad Thing? Not For Infinity Blade III

I tend to avoid getting too excited over a game’s visual appeal, but when it comes to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade series, it’s hard not to be blown away by the visual splendor. Sometimes it makes you forget that you are playing a mobile game at all, which is no small task.

Infinity Blade III has hit the App Store, but how does it stack up compared with the fantastic experience brought about by the prequels? Keep reading and find out!

Gameplay

In Infinity Blade III, much of the core gameplay from the previous two remains in tact. It still plays a lot like Punch Out from the classic Nintendo days in that the player is dodging attacks and countering when the time is right. It’s very formulaic, but if it’s a formula you enjoyed in the previous iterations of the game, or if you’ve never played them at all, it’s a good bit of fun that is well suited to quick pick up and play gaming sessions on an iOS device.

In case you’ve never played the older Infinity Blade games, it all shakes down into a pretty simple formula. You progress through the game, fighting various bad guys of progressively harder difficulty. As you play, you earn money and level up, which makes those harder enemies not too hard. Once you die, you move on to the next person in your family line. It plays a lot like a roguelike and it’s not the deepest gameplay you will find, but it’s fun.

This game has added a lot more complexity than the previous entries, especially to the leveling system. You can craft more weapons among all other kinds of cool stuff, much of which shows that Chair has not just phoned it in, but is actually trying to push the game forward instead of simply churning out another one for a cheap cash in.

There is a rather large problem with Infinity Blade III, however, and that’s the progression. There are side challenges you can opt-into on the minimap, and they pay out an obscene amount of money. This allows the purchase of the most powerful weapons in the game extremely early. In a game that is all about the combat, trivializing it by allowing you to purchase the most powerful weapons quickly takes out a lot of the fun.

Still, in spite of that drawback, Infinity Blade III is a smooth experience, and the combat, while simple, retains the fun for which the series is known.

Sound & Visuals

Let’s be honest here: the main thing that attracts players to the Infinity Blade series is the visuals. It’s an absolutely gorgeous game, and it’s one of the best showpieces available on the App Store. Every detail from the characters to the environmental design is crafted with a degree of care that you just don’t see on other mobile games. Next time your friends start claiming that mobile games are just quick puzzle blasters like Candy Crush Saga, boot up Infinity Blade III and show them what mobile games can really look like if the developer is willing to put in the effort.

Sound design is also absolutely fantastic. The lumbering footsteps and growls of the enemy sets the tone perfectly. All too often I find myself playing iOS games with the volume down so I don’t annoy the people around me, but with Infinity Blade III, I pull out the headphones and take in the ambient sounds while playing. It’s just beautiful to listen to, which is somewhat expected from a game that manages to look this good.

Game Life & Value

In an App Store filled with free-to-play games that limit your play time or only give you a piece of the game unless you are willing to drop some extra money, it’s nice to see a game that you simply buy and play. Of course, there are in-app purchases that allow you to buy various amounts of in-game currency, but that is completely optional, and acquiring money in the game is not a difficult task, so you would have to be very lazy to actually spend any real money on it.

The game will set you back $6.99, which is a little high relative to many other games on the App Store, but the level of quality it offers makes it worth the price of admission. You will be making your way through the story for a good long time, so the value is definitely there.

And whether you want to grind your way through it like you would a home console game, or pick it up and play for a couple of minutes – this game is perfectly suited to both play styles.

Conclusion

In the end, Infinity Blade III shows that you can release a sequel on the App Store that pushes things forward without stepping out of the comfort zone the franchise has created. It looks great and it’s perfectly suited to the platform. If you liked the last two, you’ll love this one.

Download: Infinity Blade III

Have you tried Infinity Blade III? What did you think of it? Hit the comments section and let us know!