Here are some initial thoughts about the game. As a whole I think I would give the first infinity blade a bigger score than this one. First some technical issues. I have no clue why they didn't use bigger hotspots for dodging and blocking. In the first game the whole left and right Screen was used for dodging and the centre for blocking. In this version you can only dodge and block on the bottom part of the screen which makes for some really awkward gaming on the iPad. On the iPhone it's not an issue. But if it's not broken don't fix it. The same goes for the inventory. This is a game you spend a lot of time in the inventory so you better do a good job managing it... In the first installment it was great. You could quickly see what items you have equipped and really fast go to each category (shield armor etc). Here you have to go to each category to see what your character is equipped with which is counterintuitive. The same goes for the selection of the objects. You need to swipe like crazy to go where you want to go. And things get more complicated when you take in to account all the different gem management on top of that. They definitely need to rethink the ui for this. Also what's up with the really low res icons? I haven't witnessed this so far but I get the feeling that they try really hard to force people to buy extra stuff with real money. Haven't ran in to that yet but you also need to buy keys to open some chests. You can get by by only opening those chest with the keys you find lying around but I don't know for how long. Call me crazy but so far I think the art direction of the first game was so much better. Aside from some really nice scenes the whole colour palette is quite blah! It feels like a generic pc world game. Especially the scenes where the hero is lying down are very very bland. The first was fusing really nicely the retro and the techy. They do that here as well but in a less thoughtful way. And the huge photograph textures on the background made me cringe... Now to the meat of the game. It feels a little disjointed. The cut scenes seem a bit rushed and everything from sound use to dialog seems out of whack. Sound doesn't seem to follow the action and the action sequences are a bit forced. The simple and very effective plot of the first game is abandoned in a try to make everything seem complicated and intriguing. And I think it falls flat on its face. The loneliness of the first game which was very effective is abandoned on the very first scene where we see that the character had some sort of sidekick! The characters stop speaking the ancient dialogue they were speaking making the whole adventure more grounded and typical. One other bad consequence of this is that bad voice acting shows through. Whereas before you couldn't understand what they were saying so you didn't know if they were overselling or not!! Also the infinite loop of the first game which was a really intriguing concept now the way it's handled isn't really working. For me at least. One other bad decision that takes the viewer out of the whole experience are the locked paths in the game. Instead of trying to be creative and find a way to explain (even with just a few bars you are unable yet to break... Just something!) why you can't go in this path they just put some red icon locks there. It totally ruins the atmosphere and the ilussion and it looks like a really poor design decision. This is definitely not a bad game but I thought since the first was so good this one would be even better. But in some ways I think they took 2 steps back... I'll definitely play the game but I feel a little bit disappointed. ps. After a first failed game center sync the game works perfectly on the iPad and the iPhone. You can play the game on the bus and go back home and continue where you left off. Nice!
I'd give this a 4/5 rating. It is a good game but game play wise it is still the mechanics than the first one... so it feels a bit old if you already played the first one IMO. Despite I see some issues with in-game currency. I am only in the 2nd rebirth cycle but clearly see money issues. I come across chests that require keys that I don't have. Buying them from the store is not possible because of funds. After mastering the last set of equipment I could barely fund the next set and I think this problem will increase later in the game. This smells like pushing the need for IAPs which I really don't like to much for a game like this. If you haven't played IB1, this is a no brainer. Get it. If you did than it depends if you want basically more of the same with the possibility for the need of grinding or buying IAP. Just my $.02. I am sure the IB fans will rip this but this is my impression from the game Have fun!
It is really disappointing to see that Chair obviously did a bad job at QC for this game Crashing games and not saving progress is not what you want to experience with a game like this.
Yeah it's the same mechanics but expanded. I find the formula plus new things to be very worth while. Just my opinion As far as IAP, I was predicting all of these complaints all along. I knew Chair might do this especially after reading previews!
I had also problem on the iPad 1 (IBII crashed in the opening scene), so I've turned off iPad, turned it on and the game runs with no problems. Also I have gamecenter enabled, but icloud disabled.
Yeah, but that's pretty rare... Still, I really would have liked to be able to unclutter my equipment screens and getting money for sales to buy higher level stuff like in IB1.
I am having some technical difficulties as well. When I first started the app, it didn´t load, just crashed, after rebooting the device it worked. Then after going through some of the beginning of the game I had to stop and listened to some music. Then got back into the game and the sound effects were gone. Just some music and some dialogue was there. So I quit out of the app and started again just to find that my whole progress was gone and I had to restart the game. Hopefully this doesn´t happen again. So far it seems that there are some bugs in this app. But when it works it is a marvelous game.
I'm having this problem too. It's really unfortunate as it basically leaves the game in an unplayable state.
Nice review dk79! I totally agree with the point above. It still is not a bad game by all means but it is not as epic as the hype indicated (10/10 from IGN, 5/5 from TA etc.) I think a realistic review with a realtic score was published by Eurogamer.net giving the game 8/10 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-30-infinity-blade-2-review
I wish I could play the game, and not let my $7 go to waste. You'd think they'd actually have beta testers, but anyway.
A shared problem is a problem... multiplied My theory is that it has something to do with iCloud sync. Every time I return to the game, it seems to restore three level 0 character save games from iCloud (created by me as a way to test the multiple save slots), overwriting all my progress. Since I will not believe Chair could be inept enough to have forgone local saving when there is a connection to the net , my theory is that IBII has instructions to restore progress from iCloud upon EVERY relaunch, but somehow fails to upload new save data, thus bringing us back to the same point every time.
Argh doing my nut in, the game save is in iCloud for both devices but it won't load up on the iPad2, not even shows in the character save slot screen as a separate game save Anyone solve this? pleeeeeez
I agree with most comments that the game follows the same formula of the first game. However when you look at what a fighting game is, why so much it's not as epic as I thought it would be. I like TA and I've had good conversations with a ton of you, but geez you guys would have really killed my Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, and Mortal Kombat days. I mean I see a lot of discussion on the same formula, but the only remedies I see are free roam and more paths. I think based upon this being an iOS fighting game it's superb. If I was trying to turn it into something more than I see why all the fuss. The thing is I have a remedy for this play a RPG on your console. If you don't have a console than play Aralon, The Bard's Tale, or wait for World of Midgard. If you don't like Chair's version of a fighting game then play Street Fighter or Blades of Fury. This isn't some flamed out response but a practical one. IAP is another story. Blame the market (maybe some greed) on that!
So I just finished the game and am a bit confused by the loop. Is it meant to be continuous or just an excuse to continue to play your character?
