Farewell God King: The Infinity Blade Series is Going Away

Epic Games has removed the acclaimed fighting/RPG trilogy from the App Store.
Infinity Blade

Epic Games recently announced that the Infinity Blade trilogy — which received numerous accolades, especially for their Unreal-powered graphics — is no longer available for purchase (though current owners can still download and play the games). But the developers suggest that Infinity Blade may make appearances “in places you wouldn’t expect,” including the latest installment of the ultra-popular Fortnite.

I loved the Infinity Blade games when they first came out. They really showed off what could be done with mobile gaming. As Garrett Murray put it in his review of the first game:

If you had shown me Infinity Blade even 5 years ago and told me it was running on a phone I would have punched you in the face and stolen your phone. Infinity Blade is an amazing technical achievement, with sharp, highly detailed graphics, great sound, and a smooth framerate. It also happens to be a fun game with a simple but solid leveling-up mechanic, inventory system and other RPG elements. The story is dead-simple (basically one line of script), but the battles are fun and I kept playing even after I beat it just to keep leveling up my character. Infinity Blade is not only a great game, but it truly feels like the beginning of some amazing things that will happen in the iOS gamespace in the next few months and years.

But even with its “dead-simple” storyline and minimal gameplay, the Infinity Blade series managed some impressive world-building. Its simplicity actually helped in this regard, as it invited players to use their imagination to fill in the gaps:

[T]he Infinity Blade developers seem to have made that famous filmmaking adage,“Show, don’t tell,” their mantra. Although the actual narrative contains few details about the games’ world — not terribly surprising, given the limitations inherent to the platform — the Infinity Blade games are full of visual and design details that add up to create an intriguing experience.

I’ve tried to find other games that are similar in style to Infinity Blade, but so far, I’ve yet to find anything that comes close to matching the trilogy’s mix of excellent visuals, simple-yet-elegant gameplay, and imaginative sci-fi/fantasy aesthetic.

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