Heavenly Sword is a PS3-exclusive action game featuring Nariko, a crazy
woman with really red tagliatelle like hair and a crazy sword / swords.
The game was created by Ninja Theory, whose only other game was an
original Xbox game called Kung Fu Chaos.... right.... Turns out that
Ninja Theory had a gem up their sleeve with HS though...
First
off, I need to mention the presentation. This game is like playing an
action movie. The graphics are superb and the cutscenes (along with the
facial animations) are absolutely outstanding. It's obvious that the
team went to great lengths to make the game look beautiful, and it has
definately paid off. The facial animations in the cutscenes really
bring the scenes to life, and makes the cutscenes really watchable. The
voice acting is incredible and just goes to show that with a little
effort, cutscenes and voice acting don't have to look awkward or sound
like they're being acted by amateur dramatics...
The gameplay is
mostly a hack and slash style affair with one very simple difference.
Usually, hack and slash games have an attack button. Heavenly Sword
uses stances. The idea behind it is you have three stances. Normally
you have Speed stance which means you can do speedy combos and do
moderate damage. You hold L1 and you're in range stance, which enables
you to do damage to multiple enemies at once. You hold R1 and you
arrive at power stance, which is slower but deals more damage. On paper
this sounds pretty standard, but in practise it adds a layer of depth
to quite a shallow style of game.
The story is great, with well
conducted cutscenes and a well crafted linear path. Linear doesn't mean
a game is terrible! The gameplay is satisfying and although it is close
to God Of War, it stands as a great game on it's own and although it
has been called a copycat, it's not so close that it's unenjoyable by
any stretch of the imagination.
To list it's shortcomings
quickly, the framerate can get a little choppy, especially during the
big battle sections, and some of the animation can look a little
clunky, but it's not gameplay killing really. There are missions
playing as Kai, Nariko's sister (?), where you have to use a crossbow
with the aftertouch (using the sixaxis in slow motion to control where
the arrows go). This was a good idea, but once you get to around
Chapter 3 there is a big section with this, and it does grow thin
towards the end. It also could have been maybe a little longer, maybe
an extra chapter just to bulk it out and make it feel a little less "to
the point".
Of course, all of this was nitpicking, and it's a
brilliant game and a worthy addition to any PS3 collection, and I must
say, I heartily recommend it!
