➤ The Honkai Impact 3rd review 🎮

The assumption that there are things that can or cannot be done on smartphones and tablets begins to waver a bit when you see a title like Honkai Impact 3rd in action. It is in fact a real gem, an action game clearly inspired by Bayonetta that incorporates the most characteristic mechanisms, succeeding in the difficult task of implementing them in a really effective way, despite the limitations imposed by the touch screen. The plot of the game, which sees us in command of a group of fighters called Valkyrie, strictly lethal and poorly dressed, is only a pretext to stage the traditional fight between good and evil, the latter represented by the troops of the Honkai empire, determined to conquer the Earth.

The cinematic opening in anime style, which you find below, suggests a thick production; but it often happens that some mobile games turn out to be mediocre in spite of a spectacular introductory sequence. Well, that's not the case: the miHoYo title takes us by the hand and accompanies us in a series of stages that serve as tutorials for the commands (very simple: a virtual stick on the left side of the screen and three buttons on the right side for attack, dodge and special), the gameplay and the many facets of a contour that follows the classic elements of the freemium model, without imposing any constraints.

There are in fact many achievements to unlock that give coins and objects to be used for the enhancement of characters, weapons and perks, but the progression is so simple and natural that we do not notice the presence of an action energy indicator which in theory should limit our playing time, but which in practice does not do it in any way, letting us enjoy the experience for as long as we want. The interface in this sense must be understood a little, it can be confusing and dispersive especially at the beginning, but you will have time to get used to it and in any case it will reveal new contents as you go forward, completing the first campaign and then dedicating yourself to those additional, to "passive" missions and finally to the cooperative.

Witches or Valkyries?

As mentioned at the beginning, Honkai Impact 3rd is a title clearly inspired by Bayonetta. Beyond the exclusively female protagonists (basically three, with different fighting styles: Kiana Kaslana with her double pistol, Raiden Mei with the high-tech sword and the young Bronya Zaychik, who attacks from a distance using the energy cannon of a kind of robotic avatar), the game uses a system of combos and dodges that refer to the mechanisms of the Platinum Games series, with the dodges at the last moment that trigger a spectacular bullet time and allow us to sink several shots.

There are visual indicators that reflect quite faithfully some of the solutions seen in the two chapters of Bayonetta, but it is when Kiana activates her own special that the quotes become clear, between punches and gigantic kicks that come out of instantly created portals. To make everything work properly, the developers have seen fit to use an automatic lock-on, allowing us to manage or not the view while facing multiple enemies at once, since to carry on the fight we can also limit ourselves to pressing the attack button and dodging at the right time. To increase the thickness of the combat system, however, a traditional scheme has also been inserted that sees certain characters prove to be more or less effective against some enemies: a gimmick that pushes you to make quick switches and go to the next Valkyrie through a devastating combined maneuver.

In short, everything works beautifully well and it really surprises that Honaki Impact 3rd is a free title. The defects of the game are actually very few, even if some weigh: the low difficulty in the first place, the excessive brevity of the stages resulting from the portable nature of the game, the less marked commitment regarding the realization of the scenarios and the bosses, which tend to repeat themselves. Beyond this, the technical sector shows off a successful and very pleasant anime style, with an effective design for all polygonal models, good animations, level effects and sixty frames per second stable on the iPhone X. Performance that unfortunately they are paid for with a fairly sudden overheating of the terminal, but not with excessive consumption of the battery.

Comment

Tested version iPhone (2.0.1) Digital Delivery App Store, Google Play Price Free Resources4Gaming.com

8.5

Readers (10)

9.5

Your vote

Honkai Impact 3rd clearly and unequivocally demonstrates that mobile gaming now has very few limits and can offer frenetic, spectacular action games capable of guaranteeing an excellent sensation of impact, offering an experience terribly close to that of the best exponents of the genre on PC and console. The limits of miHoYo production lie in the excessive ease of the missions, in the technical outline of scenarios and bosses, in a forest of collectibles that initially send a little confusion and in the excessive brevity of the stages, an element that however is strictly related to the portable nature of the game. If you are a fan of Bayonetta or just want to be surprised by your smartphone or tablet, the download is absolutely a must.