Blade: Sword of Elysion Review

Developer: Four Thirty Three
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2

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Blade: Sword of Elysion is a free-to-play game that's easily comparable to Diablo. It's all about gathering loot and wandering dungeons to defeat monsters to get more loot. Although it's not the best looking game in the world, Blade is surprisingly compelling - but it isn't exactly the best entry in its genre on the App Store.

The easiest analog of Bladeright now is the Dungeon Hunter series, specifically Dungeon Hunter 5. Much like that game, players have direct control over one of three character types (assassin, warrior, or mage), and they run across the land slaying monsters and getting dropped loot to either equip or use to enhance their current getup.

To make the combat feel a little less mindless, Blade features a timing-based combo system so players can decide which combos they want to unleash through judicious presses of the attack button, as well as through a block system that allows them to unleash devastating counter-attacks if they block things at the right moment. Blade also allows players to face off head-to-head in a PvP mode, which makes use of blocks and using the right combos particularly important.

Blade is kind of a clunky game in that it doesn't look particularly great, to the point that it seems like the aspect ratio is off (at least on the iPad Air 2). As a freebie though, it's remarkably generous with letting players just play - though it's just not as deep as or interesting as other titles, even with its unique combat system.