Brilliant presentaion and stylish fast paced action make this an epic dramatic action game starring a red haired beauty.
The story of Heavenly Sword is about…well, a heavenly sword meaning that a sacred sword is being protected by Nariko's clan so it won't fall into the wrong hands, the wrong hands in this particular story are those of king Bohan, an evil warlord whose ambition is to get it at all costs in order to gain the great powers it grants it's bearer, the story gets intense as Nariko herself wields it, for there is a terrible cost to all the powers the sword gives the one who carries it, it is the life of the bearer which will start dying as soon as he/she starts using it. The game begins as Nariko faces off against a vast army of king Bohan's men and eventually starts falling to the grownd, all what happens next is a set of flash backs that will form the games chapters and levels that you'll go through until you reach the inevitable end.
The degree of graphical excellence is something that will make you realize that we have truly moved on since the days of last generation, this game looks amazing and it really shows off what can be done with the PS3's power, the facial expressions and even Nariko's hair alone look like as if the artists who worked on them spent an unbelievable amount of time designing drawing and perfecting them, and also the back grounds look amazing from snowy mountain sides to green fields and fortified buildings all are well drawn and designed by great artists who worked hard in order to make this game looks this incredible .
But the graphics are not where it all ends, no way, the audio is also fantastic, the musical score has been chosen wisely to fit the games different situations from quiet tones fit for exploration times and highly suspenseful orchestral marvels to suit the epic battles. The voice acting alone is marvelous, king Bohan has been voice acted by Andy Serkis ( Gollum from The Lord Of The Rings ) and he does an exquisite job by delivering the right amount of detail to his character, but that's not all, all the other characters have a lot of detail to make you believe you're watching a high standard summer action movie, with great performances from the actors who make every character very believable and real. Add to all that a great story filled with drama and you've got yourself a great piece of acting artistry.
So how does it play? Well as we all have seen in previous trailers the game is an action adventure with a lot of focus on action with little exploration and rare puzzles, Nariko is a highly skilled warrior and if you combine that with the powers granted to her by the heavenly sword she will be almost invincible if you can master her every move which can be a daunting task since there are so many moves and abilities associated to that weapon, so just like God Of War this is a game were you slash your enemies mercilessly with a lot of available moves but unlike God Of War Nariko uses three different stances: speed, power and ranged stances which can be shifted at any time using the shoulder buttons, each stance has its number of moves and combos that include ground attacks and aerial attacks which can be performed after you launch an enemy into the air and follow that with a jump performed by tilting the controller up and then entering a combo. There are also defensive counter moves, after touch and super style moves which are very powerful and can only be accessed after filling the super style meter and that itself has three different forms which differ depending on which stance your in while performing the attack. See I told you the combat system is so deep, but don't let that bother you, it's not as hard as it sounds, for you'll get used to it if you give the game some time.
Another game play style will be introduced to you in the game, for in addition to Nariko you'll be playing as Kai, a cat like worm eating girl who isn't much of a close ranged fighter but has a lot of skill with her bow gun, which is very fun to use since you'll have the option of using the six axis controller to move the arrows in any direction as you tilt the six axis controller left, right, up or down. Even Nariko will shoot down a few catapults with a canon and you'll have the option to the move the shot using the six axis controller also. You can decide not to use that but it's nice to try out anyways.
The enemies you'll face in this game aren't very varied and they don't really pose much of a threat, but when you face off against an army made of hundreds of solders the last thing you'll want is an increase in the level of enemy AI. But even the bosses aren't very challenging except for the last boss fight which can be really hard.
Playing this game once really isn't enough to make you truly enjoy it, the main reason for that is the fact that the whole thing can be finished in about six hours, or even eight hours if you're not a skilled player, in both cases the game is just too short , even when you finish it it doesn't have much to unlock and there's not much point or reward for finishing it on the higher difficulty level. The only cool unlockables are the game cut scenes which are the best among other games and really enjoyable.
Heavenly Sword is a great game, it has fantastic graphics, great and fluid animation, unbelievably great performance from the actors, and a dramatic and compelling story shown by the great cinematics that separate each level or chapter. It's a real shame that it's too short, it really is a great proof to what the PS3 can do and a wonderful sign to what can we expect from the next generation games, so if you can forgive the fact that it is a short adventure and focus on the fact that it is a great one while it lasts, then you should definitely get it.