Infinite Borders is an addictive combination of Dynasty Warriors, gacha, and strategy

SHOULD I PLAY INFINITE BORDERS?

Play it—especially if you’re into strategy games or titles set in the Three Kingdoms era. Infinite Borders has everything that makes a strategy game of this type fun to play. Roaming through the massive map, conquering enemies, recruiting troops, and the crisp graphics all contribute to a positive playthrough experience, even if there are pay-to-win elements to be found.

TIME PLAYED

I spent around five hours on Infinite Borders. This mainly involved taking over new territories and customizing the towns and castles I conquered with new equipment and upgrades.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT INFINITE BORDERS?

• Welcome to ancient China. One of the things I loved about Infinite Borders was its ancient Chinese Three Kingdoms setting. As a fan of Dynasty Warriors, It was great getting my hands on old favorites such as Lu Bu, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei, who were all on the roster. I’m not the biggest fan of gacha systems, but being more familiar with the characters I was pulling for made building up my army all the more fun.

• The simple graphics. Infinite Borders looks pretty great on mobile devices. Don’t get me wrong, the visuals are far from next-generation, unless the next generation you’re thinking of is the PlayStation 2 era. But the cutscenes were enough to grab my attention, and I was impressed by how the game transitions from an expansive world map to a battlefield. It all ran very smoothly on my iPhone 13.

• The battles and city-building. Customizing my town in Infinite Borders felt great and provided an extra incentive for expanding my empire. Since the game incorporates MMO elements, the challenge from real-life players made battles all the more satisfying and forced me to play strategically. I also appreciated that I could skip battles by simply reading the “battle report” to find out the result. I could even replay matches if I wanted to. That meant that I could spend my time customizing, which is what interested me most.

• The huge map. I’m pretty sure I’ve only scratched the surface when building my territory because the map is massive. Taking over entire regions piece by piece feels satisfying, especially when witnessing the expansion of my kingdom from a few square blocks of territory to a whole continent.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT INFINITE BORDERS?

• Get your wallet ready. Unfortunately, Infinite Borders does have pay-to-win elements that affected my progress. Because everything happens in real-time, it can take an army hours to march between territories—unless, of course, I wanted to pay premium currency to speed the process up. I also needed to pay for the best quality gacha rolls if I wanted to boost my chances of recruiting the most overpowered generals. It’s not the most aggressive monetization system I’ve seen in strategy games on mobile, but it’s still annoying.

• Huge learning curve. Infinite Borders took a long time to get into via its tutorials. The number of mechanics and concepts I needed to learn before I could start having fun was almost overwhelming. This is not a good choice for those looking to hop into something quickly.

PLATFORM TESTED:

iOS via iPhone 13