An action packed 8 hour thrill ride with magnificent animation that blurs the line between movie and video game.
The story of Heavenly Sword revolves around Nariko and her father's clan. Their primary function is to guard the Heavenly Sword from those who wish to wield it and abuse its great power. King Bohan, a tyrannical king who is brilliantly played by Andy Sekis (Gollum from the Lord of the Ring movies), seeks the sword and its power to consolidate his control over the land. As you would imagine, the paths of Nariko, her father Shen, her sister Kai, and King Bohan all cross at one point. The result is the meat of the game, a 5 day war pitting "good" vs. "evil". During the game you will play as either Nariko or Kai. The sections with Kai differ from those with Nariko in that Kai uses her agility to outmaneuver her enemies and her crossbow to kill them. Speaking off crossbow, you have the option to manually control the trajectory of her arrows via SIXAXIS controls. The learning curve is steep, but once you get the controls down it is very rewarding. Unfortunately, I didn't have the patience to master the controls during my first play through and chose to use the analog sticks (much easier, almost to a fault) to control the arrows. Kai is a character whose first impression will make you think that she is REALLY messed up in the head. She is, but as the story played out, I began to appreciate her charm, her wit, and her humor. She is a good diversion from the long sections played as Nariko. Speaking of Nariko, you don't get an opportunity to wield the Heavenly Sword until about half an hour into the game. You will use a katana for the beginning of the game as you valiantly defend your tribe and the Heavenly Sword against King Bohan's invading army. Combat with the katana is...simple...thankfuily it doesn't last that long. Once you whip out the Heavenly Sword the game cranks itself up a couple of gears and becomes WICKED FUN! There is TONS of combat in this game so here are some things to note about fighting with the Heavenly Sword: You have 3 stances (Speed, Power, and Range). The 3 stances can be switched on the fly with the L1 and R1 buttons. The speed stance is the default stance. AUTO BLOCK. This may seem weird to some, but it allows you a better opportunity to counter enemies. Countering...You will counter using the Triangle Button. Enemies will attack you and their attacks will either be Blue, Orange, or Red colored attacks. You can counter Blue by pressing Triangle upon contact. Orange attacks can be countered using the power stance (R1 and Triange). Red attacks cannot be countered. Perfectly timed countered result in awesome looking counter attacks that NEVER GET OLD. Super Moves- As your combo strings get longer and you counter more, your "style" meter will go up. This is what fuels your super moves. You press circle to do super moves (You can also press L1 or R1 and Circle to do other super moves). These moves will instantly kill the enemy you are attacking. High level super moves will kill 20-50 enemies at once. You can roll around using the right thumbstick. Camera angles can be controlled with the L2 and R2 buttons or via SIXAXIS controls. You will fight thousands of enemies in the game. At some points it can be a drag because you will kill a group of enemies and then go and kill another group (rinse and repeat). The enemies will vary from basic soliders to beefed up soliders with axes to ninjas...The game lacks variety with respect to the enemies and chooses to make up for it with quantity. I found the default difficulty setting to be rather easy. Most games are pretty easy after you have beat Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Devil May Cry 3. Hell mode is A LOT more fun as the AI is more aggressive, smarter, and does more damage. The boss battles in this game are very good. The bosses talk A LOT of trash. Again, much better on Hell Mode because the bosses are pretty easy...You will fight Whiptail, Roach, General Flying Fox, and of course...King Bohan. The last battle with King Bohan is the only truly challenging part of the game during the first play through. The battle is memorable and very intense. The music in Heavenly Sword fits the mood and the environment very well. It is not as epic as God of War, but it does the job well. IN CONCLUSION:
Heavenly Sword is the kind of game that you want to show off to all of your friends and family to flaunt your shiny black PlayStation 3. The game is a hell of a lot of fun to play, shows off excellent graphics, has a very good story with an excellent ending, and has production values that will absolutely blow you away. Does the game have flaws? Absolutely. It's not very long, not very challenging on the first play through, and the enemies lack variety. Of course my main faults of the game can be resolved by playing the game again on Hell Mode. It would be really nice if you could just start the game on Hell Mode instead of having to beat the game first...
I don't regret paying $60 for Heavenly Sword. It is a short game, but it is a hell of a fun, memorable ride.