A real work of art, even with its various flaws intact. A must buy for the PS3.
The control scheme of Heavenly Sword is a nice blend of simple hack-and-slash commands mixed with a fairly deep counter and stance system that held up well throughout the game. The only gripe here is that although there is a dash button, the team did not implement a jump. No matter what the title, all action adventure games should have a jump button. I know there are millions out there that would agree with this point. Also, the sections featuring Kai, Nariko’s creepy but loveable friend, could have been a tad less repetitive, even though they did provide a welcome break from Nariko’s insane acrobatics every now and then. Speaking of repetitive, the only other gripe with the combat system is that the enemies are all the same. From the very beginning of the game to right before the final boss fight, the enemies all fall into a scant 3 or 4 categories. It really would have been nice if they would have added different types of enemies through the game, or perhaps took a cue from God of War and implemented more frequent boss battles with gigantic enemies. The boss battles that are present, however, are admittedly fun and full of character—which brings me to the best part of Heavenly Sword.
Dramatically directed by the incomparable Andy Serkis of Golum and King Kong fame, the voice acting in Heavenly Sword is truly top notch. The main characters are acted convincingly and beautifully, but the real show is with the villains. From the sensually serpentine fish-lady Whiptail to the hilariously terrifying Silver Fox (who sounds a bit like the Monarch from the Venture Bros.) the villains are voice acted with an over the top, campy theatrical flair all led by the voice of King Bohan, spectacularly acted by Andy Serkis himself. In testament to this catchy, absurd genius, after watching me play the game my entire household non-stop quoted villainous lines for a week afterwards (especially Silver Foxes’).
All in all, Heavenly Sword is an addictive romp featuring groundbreaking graphics with an amazing production and directing team that pulled in theatrical elements for the truly Hollywood-like quality of a film production. The story is admittedly a bit flimsy, but the style of the game, the full-bodied characters, and the fleshed out back story (told in well crafted little anime style unlockable sequences) helped to blanket the clichéd plot. The length of the game is also a bit of an issue here—at around 7 hours long, it’s hard to justify a $60 price tag. To its benefit every chapter can be replayed in hopes of achieving a higher score to access the game’s myriad unlockables, but unfortunately the majority of the unlockables are already freely available on the PC. Beating the game also unlocks a Hell mode, which might appeal to some gamers. All its flaws notwithstanding, Heavenly Sword is still an amazing game that is as fun to watch as it is to play and should definitely be considered a must by title for the PS3 this holiday season.