'Blood & Glory' Is Fun (And Gory) But Could Benefit From Story

Blood & Glory is a gladiator-themed hand-to-hand arena combat game by Glu Games. Players face off against ominous-looking, heavily clad fighters in a one-on-one fight to the death. Players advance through a series of tournaments (with individual battles in each tournament) to gain rubies and silver coins which can be used to purchase more advanced equipment. The mechanics are very similar to Infinity Blade, but Blood & Glory lacks any backstory which makes it a charmless bloodbath game. The basic moves are: block, dodge, attack, parry and special attack. To block, tap the shield at the bottom of the screen—but you can only block so many times in one fight. To dodge, tap and hold the arrows on the left and right sides of the screen. To attack, swipe your finger across the screen from left to right, right to left, or diagonally. If you do this right before your opponent attacks, you will parry leaving him open to attack.

Timing is key, since you can’t parry more than a couple seconds, and if you attack and miss, you leave yourself open to counterattack briefly (one good trick is to hold down one arrow and tap the other one). Also, in order to successfully attack, you have to successfully block or dodge an attack first. After you attack and block/dodge/ parry your enemy enough times, you can use a special attack to do extra damage and stun him. With each victory you can gain XP points and silver coins. Silver coins, along with rubies, can be used to buy weapons, armor, and potions .  Potions can be used to heal, or strengthen your attack or defense. Blood & Glory even offers some seasonal items: “Pilgrim Hat,” “Thanks Cleaver,” and “Turkey Shield”. Rubies cost real money, but you can also get free rubies by downloading or buying some of the apps that Blood and Glory advertises. Gladiators can play in regular tournaments, elite tournaments, or online using OpenFeint. Once in a while, the screen freezes up, in the heat of battle, as it were, and that can be distracting (the problem may occur more on the iPad than on the iPhone). The action interface is a lot like Infinity Blade, but Blood & Glory does not have Infinity Blade’s detailed storytelling and therefore seems repetitive after a while. AppPicker Rating: 3 / 5 Stars Pick It Up in the App Store: Blood & Glory Other apps by Glu Mobile Read our other app reviews by clicking here. 

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