God of Blades by developer White Whale Games is an atmospheric side-scrolling slasher, which beautifully combines fluid combat with an eye-catching art style inspired by Seventies prog rock and pulp sci-fi novels.
Playing as either The Nameless King or The Whispering Lady, the player dashes ever onwards, hacking their way through swathes of enemies with gusto, sending them into oblivion with timely sword swings.
As the game handles forward movement, the player is free to concentrate on the satisfying, meaty combat, which comprises of swirling strikes, devastating upward-strokes and hefty downwards smashes. A parry move is also worked in and all moves simply require the player to swipe a direction on the screen at the right moment.
There’s a nice variety of enemies to slice through and dexterous use of all the abilities is essential to make it through to the end. Not only that, but the varied selection of swords all have their own special powers with which to wreak havoc.
New swords can be unlocked through the Campaign mode, but not all of these desirable prizes are dished out for completing levels or garnering experience. Using the Loreseeker option - which takes advantage of Foursquare and GPS on iOS devices - players can find new blades in their local library – which is a really neat touch.
Along with the Campaign mode, there's a nerve-shredding Eternal option and the new Revenant mode. The latter allows you to create and level up a character, deck them out in a variety of armour and then challenge your friends to a brutal showdown.
The visuals throughout are excellent and the high fantasy backgrounds are packed with detail; marauding armies cause bloody chaos, neon-tinged expanses of space float by and dank caverns flicker with the constant flow of lava. The character animation is also spot on and it's incredibly satisfying to chip away at an opponent's armour, before finally delivering the killing blow.
While the game is only currently available on iOS, White Whale have teamed up with Venus Patrol to release Slayers - a free PC/Mac spin-off which tasks two players with knocking seven bells out of each other as they charge headlong into the fray. It provides brilliant and tense scraps and the frantic action is a real test of timing and rhythm.
White Whale have really pushed the boat out to deliver a compelling and delicious romp through wonderful ethereal environments and God of Blades is definitely one of the best mobile games I've played this year.
Find out more about the iOS version at the official website. For more about, Slayers on PC and Mac, click here.
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