Infinity Blade II recently went free on the App Store, so I went ahead and took the opportunity to download it. If you own an iOS device, you know that Infinity Blade is one of the most popular franchises for the platform, and it goes without saying that the quality of the game is top-notch. Even if the first Infinity Blade blew all other games out of the water in its time, Infinity Blade II steps everything up from the first game.
When you first start the game, you'll notice that the visuals are pretty as ever, but more importantly, it seems that there's an actual story to follow this time, as opposed to the straightforward quest the first installment of the game threw at you.
You'll finally get to know the name of the character, and before long, finally see how he looks like under the armor. Additionally, characters are now voiced in English, so you can now savor the dialogue without having to check the subtitles all the time. The dialogue is especially important since instead of a faceless protagonist like we all had to deal with in the first game, we now have a character whose story we can actually follow, and is fleshed out throughout the course of the game. Don't expect a stellar story, however, considering that it is a mobile game after all. The addition of the story to help players understand why they're doing what they do complements to the overall package.
A few more gameplay changes in Infinity Blade II are the addition of dual wielded weapons and heavy weapons. These all have their pros and cons, and there are plenty of options for each category, so go ahead and explore to figure out what best fits your play style. Gems are also new in Infinity Blade II, allowing you to equip gems on certain pieces of equipment to grant elemental attacks, status boosts or other perks.
Another new feature is ClashMobs, which allows you to team up with other players to fight towards a common goal.
Simply put, Infinity Blade II is what sequels are meant to be - taking the best out of the original games and making them bigger and better.