An endless 3D runner with an edge (a sword’s edge, that is!)

This game was launched almost five years after the popular Temple Run, which is considered by many the grandad of mobile 3D over-the-shoulder endless runners (quite the mouthful, eh?) But, how many of the runners that followed actually innovated on the Temple Run formula?

Sure, you have some amazing follow-ups such as Subway Surfers, or Alto’s Adventure, but Blades of Brim (which is from the same guys who developed Subway Surfers, by the way) combines the heart-racing running mechanics of these old games with brawny combat. That’s right! This game would have you slay monsters scattered around its world as you traverse through apparently endless corridors.

Blades of Brim gives you three main options for approaching the one-eyed gargoyles. Your character will swing the weapon in the direction in which you swipe your finger, be it left or right. You can also swipe down to roll right into those suckers. In addition, the game has a health meter that allows you to see your “mistake allowance” (no pun intended) when battling these foes.

Along the way, you’ll get some handy power-ups such as wings that grant you flying abilities for a limited period or damage boosters such as the green sword. The purple shield basically makes you immune to damage, while the Midas touch, as you can probably guess, turns your enemies into gold, but only within a restricted radius.

Nevertheless, the game only provides you with so much, and I fear that, while it does offer quick bursts of fun, you won’t get much more mileage out of it. You will have access to a broad array of challenges and dungeons but, as it’s expected from games of this genre, the variety of objectives is exceedingly narrow. In most cases, the goals don’t go beyond killing a specific number of enemies or collecting certain items such as “Lighting Idols”.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. It’s just that people are wont to raise their expectations too high when they see games like these inserting innovative gameplay features into a genre, so it’s important to keep them at bay.

Notwithstanding, I would have loved for SYBO (the developer, just in case you didn’t know) to feature more enemy types. As it is, you’ll only find the same purple monsters with different trappings. To be more precise, this game only has around six units (including a “boss”) and, yeah, they’re all purple! Why not at least change the hue once in a while?

The game doesn’t skimp on character classes, though. You can choose between eight heroes. However, at first, you may only play as Aric (the “Knight Prince from the Western Kingdoms”). As you level up, you can unlock others such as Fay (“Elven Princess from the Frozen Lakes”), Zamu (the “Beastman from the Swamps”), Atlas (“King of the Depths”), and, last but not least, Lilith (a succubus, though I guess you’ve already figured that out).

The game also gifts you with a great diversity of pets and mounts to choose from, many of which can cast several offensive spells against enemies, though you can only use them sparingly. Some of them include the purple “Starlight” or the fiery “Blaze”.

The graphics follow the same stylized trend typical of games of that era and the scenarios are gorgeous, though nothing I’ve never seen before or after. There is a decent variety of environments, from green pastures to icy caves to hellish-looking mines, all of which you can seamlessly traverse across. 

Lastly, you can purchase items with a premium currency called “essence”. However, you’re absolutely not required to, as many of these items could be found in-game. Also, you’re not bombarded with ads here, which is a huge positive.

Verdict

Blades of Brim is another thoroughly-polished mobile product from SYBO that thrives with great gameplay mechanics and cool stuff to see. It accomplishes its mission as a time-killer though, as said earlier, is not without its glaring faults. Perhaps I’m being extremely picky here, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have more enemy variety and, why not, more compelling boss fights than the same old ones with a giant purple monster wielding a mace. Irrespective of these cons, this title is totally worth checking out!

If you wish, you can run over to the comments section and say your piece!