PlayStation Hardware & Games

Mash those buttons.

Video: 4
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 4

At first glance, Heavenly Sword seems like just another fighting game. Indeed, some of my compatriots dismissed it as such. But after a brief demo at E3, I was intrigued. There seemed to be more here. I was mostly right.

At its core, Heavenly Sword is, in fact, a fighting game. The term most fitting is hack-n-slash. I don’t usually like this kind of game, but I was won over by the simple, yet fun gameplay, beautiful visuals, and an interesting story.

At the core of the story is the sword so named in the game’s title. A clan with a prophecy, which says a future male heir will wield the sword and bring peace to the land, guards this incredibly powerful weapon (think The One Ring). Of course, that didn’t happen, as the male heir turned out to be a female resented by family and clan alike. Her name is Nariko, and for most of the game, you play as her. She has a redheaded Barbie kind of look, and even though there is snow on the ground in many levels, she doesn’t wear much clothing. This remains unexplained.

After a few intro levels, you wield the sword. There are three stances, and this is one of the ways where Heavenly Sword separates itself from its hack-n-slash brothers. In Range Stance, you have a distance attack with parts of the sword on long chains. You don’t do a lot of damage, but you’re able to keep most enemies at a distance. In the Speed Stance, you have fast attacks (obviously) thanks to the sword being in two parts, one for each hand. In Power Stance, you have the huge sword in one gigantic piece. In this stance, your attacks are slower but cause more damage.

You can block incoming attacks, but only if you’re in the corresponding stance. For example, Power Stance attacks glow gold, and when you see one incoming, you can quickly switch to that stance and block it. Or you can do what I do and just hit every button on the controller as fast and as often as possible. This works marginally well for the early parts of the game. But as the difficulty increases, some memorization of different combos (thankfully listed in the game menus) is pretty much required.

During some levels, you play as Nariko’s adopted (and basically bat-guano crazy) sister Kai. What at first seems like a distraction, I found to be the most fun part of the game. Kai is small and nimble, and instead of a sword, she has a crossbow. The crossbow bolts, as well as cannonballs and anything else thrown or shot in the game, can be flown in flight in a sort of bullet-time-meets-The-Force. You move the SIXAXIS controller itself, pitching it up, down, and around to guide your arrows to your target. It takes a little getting used to; however, once you accomplish this, it is the most fun I’ve had with a PS3 game (admittedly not saying much so far).

Scattered throughout the game are kind of interactive movie parts. They look like cut scenes but require you to hit certain buttons at specific times. These parts could be done as straight cut scenes, but the button-press requirement keeps you involved. It actually works quite well.

On the downside, like most games of this type, there are only checkpoint saves. So you’ll often be doing certain sections over and over (and sometimes viciously over and over and over). Also, the difficulty depends on your own skill levels and abilities. For example, I found the Kai levels relatively easy and fun, while a friend who tried the game found them difficult. On the other hand, he was able to beat several Nariko levels easily that were causing me agony.

Regardless, the game isn’t very long. If you’re slow, you may get 10 hours out of it, but if you’ve played these types of games before (I generally haven’t), it will likely be much less.

The visuals are flat-out gorgeous. The screen shots you see here are actual screen shots, not doctored cut scenes. Some of the vistas and open areas look better than most movie backdrops. The cut scenes themselves are at least as good as some CG movies from a few years ago. The detail in the faces and the character animation throughout the game really show off the PS3’s computing power. The only disappointment is a maximum resolution of 720p. Otherwise, this would earn a 5 out of 5.

Audio, likewise, is excellent and makes good of use of the surrounds. And the effects and music are rich, although at times they could sound a bit more robust. The beautifully written music brings an element to the game all itself. The fear in a game like this would be anachronistic music (think A Knight's Tale), but thankfully, it matches the atmosphere of the game perfectly.

Above all, this is some of the best voice acting I’ve heard in a game in a long time (or movie, for that matter). Most of the actors here are people you probably haven’t heard of. (Personally, I’d rather listen to talented voice actors than recognizable stars phoning in a performance.) Anna Torv and Lydia Baksh voice Nariko and Kai, respectively, and deserve special mention for their performances. King Bohan is played by Andy Serkis, the incredibly talented actor who brought Gollum to life in the Lord of the Rings movies. Well-known English thesp Steven Berkoff rounds out the cast. Across the board, they all do a fantastic job. These talented voice actors, along with a good story, script, and visuals, make this almost more of an interactive movie than just an action game.

And in the end, that’s what makes this game so enjoyable. It is more than the sum of its parts. It’s essentially an engaging movie that has you mashing buttons till your fingers hurt during the action scenes and then being entertained during the cut scenes. I recommend it, even as short (and, occasionally, brutally annoying) as it is.

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