Infinity Blade -- an Unreal Engine-powered action RPG for iPhone
Infinity Blade is the first of its kind – an on-rails role-playing game. And it’s good!
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently predicted the imminent demise of handheld game systems as gamers migrate to smart phones. Infinity Blade, the new action RPG from Epic and Chair released last week for iOS devices, is beautiful and wildly fun. It also perfectly demonstrates why Michael Pachter is wrong.
The greatest strength of the iOS platform is its processing power. Infinity Blade looks and animates better than any game on any other handheld (including the iPhone), and even outshines many full retail console and PC releases. But the platform’s weakness is its controls, a shortcoming especially evident in a game in which console-quality graphics and art stand in stark contrast to gameplay restrictions, necessitated by touch-only controls, that would never be tolerated on any other gaming system, handheld or otherwise. Will I play and enjoy Infinity Blade? Definitely – but I won’t surrender my Nintendo DS anytime soon.
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