Avengers Initiative Review
- Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
- Genre: Entertainment
- Released: 6 Sep, 2012
- Size: 1.5 GB
- Price: $1.99
PROS
- Weighty and occasionally unpredictable combat; feels like a real clash of the titans.
- Multiple paths and scaling enemies; makes grinding feel less repetitive, especially if you can find a bonus area.
- Clean, yet detailed designs; as though the characters walked off a comic.
CONS
- Hard to beat that sense of deja-vu; relatively minor innovations with the gameplay.
VERDICT
Avengers Initiative may take its cues directly from Infinity Blade, but if this is just the beginning we can expect a lot of fun times ahead.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
With all the recent buzz of Unreal powered titles, you’d be forgiven for thinking Avengers Initiative is packing this powerful engine beneath its gorgeous exterior. You’d be wrong, though it’s one of the few things the title hasn’t borrowed from the inspirational Infinity Blade. From the swipe-based combat to the level-grinding repetition, it’s Chair Entertainment’s classic in a nutshell, but it’s the small details that help it to stand on its own sturdy, green feet.
Who better to take out the monstrous rogues-gallery of minions and villains than the Hulk-ster himself? Actually it could have been anyone from The Avengers, but there’s something satisfying about smacking a Skrull upside the head with two fists instead of some super-powered weapon.
In fact, reducing the combat to melee strikes gives the game a far more unpredictable feel to its combat, something veterans of the genre should enjoy as counter-blows and dodging becomes second-nature and feels all-too-easy at times.
Whether you side-step, block, counter or parry blows, the end result is a vulnerable enemy that you can whale-on with combo attacks or the occasional ‘Rage’ ability (including a handy life-leeching attack to save you from chewing up precious health packs).
Leveling up allows you to distribute a variety of stat points, while ISO-8 (the game’s version of currency) can be used to upgrade abilities, purchase augments to improve your base stats, and unlock various outfits that provide set bonuses such as improved drop rates and rage generation.
Taking out villains such as Wendigo, Zzzax and Abomination is just the beginning (in fact, should you fail to defeat Abomination, you’ll have to repeat the earlier levels again), but there’s plenty of spare ISO-8 and experience to soak up to give you an edge on your repeat attempts.
Hopefully the rumor of this being only the first chapter in a series is true as the game does feel devoid of objectives once the big-bads are put away, but thumping bad-guys as Hulk rarely feels tiresome and is definitely worth experiencing for yourself.
Screenshots
$1.99
