Infinity Blade 2 has been out since the beginning of December and once again available for the iPad and iPhone like it's predecessor. Like the first Infinity Blade it brings a fairly hardcore experience to the an area of gaming that has very few, if any, other games like it. The first game had you travelling through an old castle in order to defeat the evil God King, you used the motion touch of the iPhone/iPad to dodge, parry, block and strike back against your enemies. The game was also an rpg, letting you gain experience and loot through every fight, plus you could find chests and money pouches throughout the world. The castle you traveled through was fairly linear, you had several options for different paths but they all lead to the same place. It was a deep game that had an entire bonus area once you finally managed to get the god kings blade, an area complete with several difficult bosses. Infinity Blade also had multiplayer that was surprisingly well done and enjoyable. The new game takes all of those ideas and builds upon it by creating more paths, more enemies, more loot, more bosses, new spells and so much more.

One of the biggest new features of Infinity Blade 2 is the new weapons. Not only is there a plethora of new weapons to use but they also added two handed weapons, dual wielding on top of the original sword and shield style. They all have their own particular uses against specific types of enemies and for the new weapon styles you have to get super good at parrying, which requires you slash across the screen in the same direction that an enemy is swinging. Parrying was a lot harder to do in the first game but now it is a little easier since it is almost a necessity, especially with two handed weapons. Two handed weapons do absolutely massive amounts of damage while dual wielding doesn't do much damage by comparison but it does allow you to dodge/parry without becoming exhausted as easily as any other weapon type. Exhausted is something new they added so you cannot indefinitely keep dodging, especially when you have a heavy shield or full plate armor. It will still allow you to dodge but you will now take some damage if you are out of stamina.



With the new weapons they have also added gem slots to every piece of equipment, including rings, shield, armor, helmets and well everything. There are many different types and gem shapes, but they do things like increased damage of a specific type, shield power is restored upon casting a spell, parrying heals you x amount of health and many other effects. The gems are something that you find in chests or earn through battle and they can be worth quite a bit of money. Money has been far less of a problem in this game thanks to that but also thanks to how much bigger the world is. Compared to the first game this new area has quite a few more paths, each of which ends at three different bosses and half the time you can travel sideways through the level in order to get to different areas. For instance there is an arena and in the middle of the arena is a giant tree, you can climb up that tree which will take you straight to one of the bosses but far from the boss that you would have encountered if you had traveled through the doors of the arena. This world is also full of secrets to unlock, as you defeat each boss a part of this mural lights up, eventually leading to some interesting situations and rewards.


Infinity Blade 2 takes everything good from the first game and expands upon it. They have created a world with more options, more loot to find, more enemies to fight, more items to unlock and more ways to play through it. It also still a very challenging game and by no means a casual game. The game runs surprisingly well on the iPhone 3GS, even though it recommends you use a newer phone (4G) to run it. The game isn't all good though, they have gotten rid of survival and multiplayer, two of the latest additions to the first game. The size of the app is also huge and problematic for people like me who only have an eight gigabyte phone. Other than those complaints the game is one of the best games on the iPhone, hands down, and definitely the most gorgeous one. If you have an iPad then Infinity Blade 2 would be absolutely love to behold but even on the iPhone it still looks quite good and runs fairly well. Both games are developed by Epic Games and Infinity Blade 2 costs $7.
Main Website: http://infinitybladegame.com/
App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infinity-blade-ii/id447689011?mt=8




-Written by Sean Cargle