Greetings & Salutations Folks!
This is your friendly neighborhood freelance photographer ‘The CameraMan’ with another review for you. This one is NOT for a movie though. It’s a video game review.
If I may provide a bit of background?
Being a ‘starving artist type’, it’s been a while since I could afford to buy a game console like an XBOX or a PlayStation. When I do get to partake in video games it usually involves borrowing a friend’s console.
I’ve had the good fortune to have been the official photographer for ‘Skewed & Reviewed’ @ PAX for a few years now and I was always amazed and overwhelmed by what I saw from the world of video games. Whether it was from a gaming console or PC, the worlds that take shape in video games is almost like watching your favorite TV show or movie or perhaps reading a really awesome book and picturing the story unfold in your mind. It all seems like the gaming world has come so far, so fast in such a short amount of time. That being said, I started to notice something at PAX 2013. With each progressing year, mobile games have had more and more of a presence each year. Coincidentally, two years ago I got an awesome deal on an IPad Air for about $80 and I immediately started downloading radio and photo editing apps like crazy and then I started getting recommendations and suggestions for mobile games. I’ll be the first to admit that my reaction was something similar to, “Seriously? Games on my phone or tablet? Sure, I’ll download a poker game and maybe TETRIS”. I though that mobile games were something akin to the first ‘GameBoy’ games. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Gaming has become extremely popular on phones and tablets in a very short amount of time and there have been great efforts on the part of a select few to accelerate the development of mobile games even further. I had the great fortune at PAX 2015 to meet with the folks from publisher 4:33 Creative Labs who are looking to not just accelerate mobile gaming, but to bring games to a level that could very well rival that of PC and platform games. The title I had the chance to view ‘Blade: Sword of Elysion’ most certainly lives up to that statement. The game has already one the Korean Game of the Year.
The game is 2-D but with far superior graphics and visuals for any game mobile or otherwise which is thanks to the utilization of the Unreal Engine. It’s an action-packed slice and dice warrior vs. monsters, ogres, and evil demon queen scenario. Once the game is downloaded and started, you’re immediately brought to a screen where you can select amongst a choice of characters. You can create a number of different characters and are then immediately sent to the town square. From there you can communicate with other players that are online and observe their statistics, what gear they might already have, and so on.
Once done at the village, you set off on a single player journey or campaign. The game is designed so you can play if you have a short amount of time say a lunch break or longer if it’s the weekend and your looking for an excuse to forget about doing chores or running errands. The game has 80 or so levels and there’s a boss every 10 levels although there is a single adversely you must defeat at the end of each level. As you play the game and defeat the bad guys you collect gold and gems which you can use in the village to buy weapons and assorted gear between levels.
One ‘strange’ option I was shown from the game was the auto-battle function. It’s actually a popular function in Asian games but this was the first time I had seen it. Once it was explained to me it actually made a lot of sense and I thought it was quite ingenious. It’s a given that you need to gain experience points and credits in the game. So your break at work is over or you’re on the town with friends and you can’t play the game, so you set up the auto-battle function and you can go on about your business and go back to the game when you have the time. I downloaded the game just three days ago and have played it for at least an hour each day and let me tell you folks that it’s tough to put down. I was instantly hooked and the controls are assigned and configured and such a way where you give yourself 5 maybe 10 minutes max and you’re good to go. Another aspect of the game is that along with the single-player mode, you have what is called the Infinity Dungeon. You enter the dungeon and you have to stand up to wave upon wave of enemy fighters and as you defeat one wave, the next one follows shortly and then even quicker the wave after that. Your basically putting yourself in a ‘last stand’ situation to see how you would fare with the odds stacked against and you and also to try out possible tactics and strategies you could use in regular mode.
BLADE is amongst the games emerging where it’s free to download, but you can use iTunes to make in-app purchases to buy more gold or gems and upgrade your weapons and experience faster. The game will also be launching for Android devices in October and regardless of whether you’re playing iOS or Android, you will be able to interact with anyone one either system.
I could tell when I met the folks from 4:33 that they were quite proud of the game and they have absolutely every right to be. This is by far, one of thee most amazing games I have seen for a mobile device. It engages the user, the action is fast but not so fast that you can’t keep up with it, and it utilizes a social networking aspect so that you can socialize with fellow players. I remember being told that one of the reasons they were are able to give the game the console look and feel was because the lead developer of BLADE was the lead developer of Dynasty Warriors in Japan “He’s considered an action God in Korea.” Which explains a great deal how they were able to create this gaming masterpiece. On a scale of 1 to 5 stars? I would definitely give this game 5 stars! If you have an iPad or iPhone? Get this game. If you have a Android phone or tablet? October is just around the corner. Once it hits .. Download the game!
