Is Horn the Next Infinity Blade?

The weak point is on its back. It's always on the back.

Last fall Phosphor Games came out of nowhere with The Dark Meadow, a twisted and horrific spin on Infinity Blade’s first-person combat. The game’s semi-open exploration, incredible visuals and surprisingly extensive & high-quality voice acting ensured that all of Phosphor’s future games would be highly anticipated. At least by me.

Today Phosphor has finally lifted the lid on Horn, its next title. If the early media and playable build I experienced are anything to go by, the studio seems determined to outdo itself. And maybe everyone else.

Gamers play as Horn (natch), a blacksmith’s apprentice on a mission to find out why his fellow villagers have been turned into monsters. Along the way players will encounter bits and pieces of a larger mystery. Hulking and rusted golems litter the landscape, hinting that Horn’s world has contains something greater than the typical fantasy backstory.

Horn’s third-person action-adventure gameplay allows for complete free-roaming movement through the nine stages - no virtual buttons. Players simple tap where they want to move, with all other controls handled by contextual touch-screen inputs. Shimmying along ledges, activating grappling hooks and all other specialized movements that would normally be handled with a button press have been translated to gestural controls instead.

The combat I experienced was all one-on-one. The camera locks-on to your single opponent, allowing you to circle around them Zelda-style. This makes it easy to dodge-roll away from enemy attacks and counter-attack with swipes of your own.

A lot of questions about Horn still remain. Just how impressive the final product turns out to be will be determined by the quality of the puzzles, the characters and the exploration of the game world – all details not in place in the short demo I experienced. But the experience did prove that the iPad can play host to a console-style, freely navigable world; no rails required. It proved that clever and thoughtful developers can create touch-powered core game interfaces that don’t need to make compromises or slap a controller layout onto the corners of your iPad.

IGN will have more on Horn as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime be sure to check out our full gallery of screenshots.