Being the Boss: Infinity Blade's Multiplayer

Infinity Blade is appropriately named. One of the more successful iOS games, gamers are still talking about it months after release (a feat most iOS games except Angry Birds can't manage). The wait for that infamous "Coming Soon" button in the menu is just about over, though, as this Thursday, May 19th, a free update is coming that unlocks online multiplayer. It's a one vs. one affair, wherein one player controls a hero character while the other takes the helm of one of Infinity Blade's many boss characters. Two IGN editors battled it out, trying out both sides, and here's what we think.

Anthony Gallegos, Editor: I'm going to be honest: I played Infinity Blade when it came out because it was such a showstopper with its tech, but the game bored me after a few moments. Online multiplayer, though....well, let's just start by saying it's rejuvenated my interest in the title. I immediately went home and re-downloaded it after trying it out. What's your knee-jerk impression?

Watch Our Multiplayer Montage

Brian Altano, Features Editor: Infinity Blade not only redefined how an iOS game could look, but also how they can control. Developer Chair actually "got" the devices they were designing a game for, and instead of shoehorning awkward touch screen analog sticks onto an unintuitive interface, they created something that worked brilliantly for once. Allowing players to focus on a giant screen spanning one-on-one fights against opponents felt almost like Punch-Out with swords. And balancing your strategy between dodging, parrying, blocking and attacking always felt like a clever on-the-fly puzzle game played to outwit the AI. But how would things work if two human players were in on the trick? As it turns out, incredibly well.

As an avid Infinity Blade player, multiplayer completely caught me off guard. As a typical hero character, your traditional Infinity Blade single player skills will (mostly) still work. But with your opponent now able to speed up or slow down hisattacks at a whim, everything you've learned to expect from an axe swing or a sword stab is now timed in a way to completely make you rethink your strategy on the fly. Imagine approaching the first Goomba in the original Super Mario Bros., and as you casually head over to jump on him like its second nature, he quickly speeds up or slows down to thwart your strategy, totally catching you off guard. It made me watch every familiar animation with incredible detail and put my once trusty Infinity Blade skills back on their toes.

Anthony Gallegos Yeah, I'll admit it was a really smart take on multiplayer. I think all of us in the demo figured we'd just have two hero characters facing off against one another, but having one take control of a hero while the other plays a monster works really well. The interface for the boss character is really intuitive, too, enabling you to quickly change of the speed of the attack with a quick slider on the left side of the screen.


I also dig how in between matches players have a chance to spend gold to upgrade. You have to make hard choices too -- do you upgrade your monster to a better one, or do you buy him rings that give him additional characteristics? With the hero character it's even tougher, since you have an abundance of options to upgrade.

I think what's obvious is that both of us dig it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the boss character player has a distinct advantage. I mean I guess this is balanced since you switch roles after a few rounds, but man it sure seems like they're hard to beat.

Brian Altano: Yes, but so were many of the later bosses in the single player campaign as well, so brutal difficulties aren't exactly new to the gameplay. I do think that the omission of the single player's magic system in multiplayer was an interesting decision as it forces players to focus more on actually dodging and parrying attacks rather than waiting for arbitrary moments when they can salvage a battle by unleashing a magic attack. It's something that would have brought serious balance issues to the table in multiplayer and Chair was wise to avoid it entirely. It certainly does feel at times like your opponent can be significantly stronger than you, but that's probably an indicator that you haven't set your character with the right attributes or properly identified his attacks during battle. Infinity Blade's multiplayer really plays like an entirely new experience and abandoning your familiarity and comfort with the game's previous mechanics are probably a strategic idea. Even the experts are going to have to learn some brand new tricks here.

---

You've seen the footage, and you've read our initial impressions. The bottom line, though: This is a free update coming out May 19. If you own Infinity Blade then it's a no-brainer – you need to try this out for yourself. If you've waited to pick it up, the time is now, with multiplayer extending the amount of time you can play it to..well…just about infinity.

• More Wireless Previews
• Latest Wireless News, Reviews, and Videos