Editor's Say - "Good" "Worth playing!" Find out what i thought...
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INTRODUCTION
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THE POSITIVES
Beautiful visual effects – Outstanding animation – Interesting story line – Brilliant voice acting – Good game-play
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THE NEGATIVES
Too short – Game-play can be some what frustrating and can be somewhat painful on the fingers
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Developed by Ninja Theory and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, Heavenly Sword is a good game sent from Heaven, but had a few small problems.
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*****PLOT*****
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The Heavenly Sword, a divine weapon of the gods, no mortal can wield it without paying the ultimate price. The clan protect the sword from those who lust for its power. Their prophecy spoke of a boy, born to wield the sword to save the world from tyranny. In truth, a girl was born, Nariko. Now she is the only thing that stands between the clan and extinction… Can she move beyond revenge and reach redemption before the sword destroys her?
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*****GRAPHICS*****
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Beautiful visuals, great background sceneries, brilliant character development and performances from Andy Serkis, great skin textures, and overall animation. Heavenly Sword may not be one of the best looking games on the PS3, but it certainly a gorgeous game to look at.
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*****GAME-PLAY*****
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Heavenly Sword bares the same resemblance as Santa Monica Studios's God of War. The controls and overall game-play is solid and sharp. Heavenly Sword is a typical button masher, where like other hack n' slash games, consists of you hacking and slashing and performing a series of combos, in order to fight against your enemies and protrude through the game. Heavenly Sword doesn't really offer anything remotely new to the hack n' slash genre, but it does offer a solid and satisfying playthrough. Like most hack n' slash games, you have to be pretty fast on the fingers, which can sometimes be frustrating and can be a little painful and long winded after a long hard battle with about a hundred enemies on the screen at once. Heavenly Sword consists of you performing cool combos, and watching Nariko perform lots of cool acrobatic stunts, but after awhile (much like traditional hack n' slash games), you'll find yourself constantly smash one button, as you get further into the game. Heavenly Sword is the PlayStation 3's presentation of showing off the PS3 capabilities, not just with in the visuals department, but with the SIXAXIS control system. You'll be doing a lot of motion sensitive controls in the game, which is rather cool. You can use the control to better help your aim by tilting the control in the direction to want to go. If Nariko gets knocked out in the air you can shake the controls and she will recover quickly but you have to be fast in doing so. Again much like traditional hack n' slash games, the level design in Heavenly Sword is quite consistent and linear, which result in you going from A to B, fighting of enemies as you proceed through the level, and ultimately, through the game. Heavenly Sword also has it's fair shame of QTE (Quick Time Events) similar to that of God of War, which result in you hitting a series of timed button allocations that appear on screen at certain moments in the game.
Heavenly Sword's game-play is indeed good, solid, and has it's fair share great boss fight, interesting game-play elements of overall game-play satisfaction.
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*****SOUND DESIGN*****
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The sound-effect is great. Amazing voice acting, nice soundtrack and a good feel on the battlefield.
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*****LIFE VALUE*****
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Heavenly Sword is a relatively short game, which could last you anywhere between 6 to 8 hours. With no additional unlockable game modes, Heavenly Sword features behind the scenes development videos of the game, as well as other additional special features.
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*****EDITOR'S FINAL THOUGHTS*****
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Overall Heavenly Sword is a good game that's worth the 8 or so hours. Despite the length and some frustrating game-play moments, Heavenly Sword was a fun and enjoyable little game with great visuals, interesting story, superb animation, and overall fun game-play.
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*****RECOMMENDATIONS*****
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If you like the hack n' slash genre, Heavenly Sword is a game you should check out.
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*****FINAL OVERALL SCORE*****
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Story – 7.5/10
Online Multiplayer – N/A
Life Value – 6.5/10
Presentation – 7.5/10
Graphics – 8.5/10
Atmosphere – 7.5/10
Game-Play – 7.5/10
Controls – 7.5/10
Sound Effects – 8/10
Concept – 6/10
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*****EDITOR'S OVERALL THOUGHT SCORE – 7.5/10*****
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Heavenly Sword Review by Simon a.k.a. [TheDevilDweller]