I have to be honest and admit that while I played and even enjoyed the original 2014 Lords of the Fallen, I wasn’t able to get very far in it. Maybe that was the case for others as well, which brings Deck13 Interactive and CI Games to release a lighter version of their hit game for mobile devices and giving it an ‘Infinity Blade’ feel. This title is also confusingly called Lords of the Fallen (much like The Thing film from 1982 and the 2011 one also titled The Thing), and fans of the 2014 game and Infinity Blade will find lots to enjoy as they swipe their way to victory.
Seeing that this is a stripped down version, there’s little in the way of story and instead just jumps into guiding our hero Harkyn through one swipe filled battle after another. As with the original title, you start off with a sword and some spells that grant attack boosts, magic attacks, and restore shield points. Working your way across a map, you’ll come across a few minor enemies to defeat until you make your way to a boss-like character. Once you conquered them, you’re able to move on to the next area on the map and so on. You can also unlock two other characters to use, one being a thief named Yetka who uses daggers and poison spells to cripple enemies, and a cleric named Kaslo who has the ability to use healing spells.
Anyone familiar with Infinity Blade will feel right at home here with the touchscreen controls, as tapping either side of the screen will let you dodge attacks, tapping a shield icon near the bottom of the screen allows you to block if you have enough points on your shield meter, and quickly swiping left or right after a dodge allows you to do parry-counter strike. If you manage to land three consecutive attacks, you’ll stun your opponent and can pound away on them with a series of attacks. Along your journey, you gain experience points that level your character and their skills, and you’ll pick up items and money you can use to upgrade or buy better gear at the forge, or create all sorts of enhancement potions at an alchemy-like place.
The graphics and audio are really well done for a mobile title. Playing this on my original iPad Pro made me feel as though I were playing an early PlayStation 4 title on it as the visuals are nicely detailed with high definition textures and has a smooth framerate to boot. The audio is just as great as every grunt, yell, and devastating blow is heard loud and clear as you pummel those that stand in your way. The only real problem I came across is one I heard others were having where the game will make your character and opponent stand there and unable to attack each other, forcing you to abandon the match and try again. Thankfully this didn’t happen often, but is still annoying nonetheless when it does.
If you enjoyed the original game it’s based on and Infinity Blade, you’ll want to gear up and take a swipe at Lords of the Fallen. While some may feel its asking price of $10 is a bit steep, and features an annoying bug, great graphics, audio, and gameplay ease the sting a little while making for a swiping good time for any who play.
