Heavenly Sword's amazing and well-acted narrative make it worth overlooking a few flaws. A fun but short journey.
"Heavenly Sword" is an action title that has inevitable similarities to "God of War", but ultimately "Heavenly Sword" has a compelling narrative that really drives it. The game features female lead Nariko (portrayed by Anna Torv who currently stars in J.J. Abrams' TV show "Fringe") and her clansmen. According to one of their people's ancient stories, on a specific day a strong male would be born to their clan and would deliver them from their enemies using the Heavenly Sword. The Sword is said to be sent down from Heaven and can only be wielded by a god for if a mortal wields it, it will slowly drain their life force. Instead of this foretold hero, Nariko was born.
Her clansmen are understandably distressed by this since Nariko is not the man they were promised. So, Nariko grows up to be a strong warrior with a bitter attitude towards the Sword and her people's beliefs. Her friend Kai is an eccentric character and she uses arrows to attack enemies. The evil King Bohan (played by Andy Serkis of Gollum fame from "Lord of the Rings") is meanwhile taking over entire lands and attacks Nariko's village to acquire the Heavenly Sword. To defend her village, Nariko takes up the Heavenly Sword to combat Bohan's forces, knowing full well that using the Sword will slowly kill her. At the same time, Kai plays an integral part of the gameplay and story.
The story has a cinematic presentation with dialogue and cutscene driving the story forward. The narrative is one of the strongest in video games and is a central point to the whole game. The story really compels you to keep playing to find out what happens to all of these unique characters. Both Torv and Serkin do a great job with their characters and deliver their lines with believability and a fitting tone. Add that to the motion capture and you have a Hollywood scale story.
The gameplay in "Heavenly Sword" is reminiscent of lead action titles like "God of War" but has enough of its own spirit to keep things fresh. Nariko wields the Heavenly Sword which has three stances; speed, ranged and heavy. Speed attacks are your default blows, ranged attacks can't block melee attacks but can keep weaker enemies at a distance and the heavy stance allows you to bring the pain at the expense of mobility. You can mix all three of these styles into combos and experimenting with all three stances (triggered by holding down nothing, L1, or R1 respectively) makes combat more interesting than it would initially appeal.
Nariko will automatically block attacks if she is not attacking and doing nothing to block enemies is a bit odd as I'm used to holding down a block button. However, that doesn't mean you can just leave Nariko and not be damaged. There are three types of enemy melee attacks which are speed, heavy and unblockable. The first two attack types are blocked by having the matching stance active while the third is, well, unblockable. Dodging is mapped to the right analog stick (just like in "God of War"). To block ranged attacks like arrows, Nariko must attack with her ranged stance active. That mechanic gets a bit disorienting since blocking ranged attacks requires ranged attacking while melee attacks require no input aside from the right stance.
To top off Nariko's combat options are superstyle attacks. During each mission, successful combos will add to your superstyle meter. Superstyle attacks look neat and will kill one enemy while killing or knocking down surrounding enemies. It's an all or nothing system so if you have two superstyle meters filled, executing the move will unleash a level 2 superstyle move instead of two individual superstyle moves. To keep combos going, Nariko has aerial combos and K.O. Recovery, the latter which allows her to counter an enemy once they've knocked her into the air. By default, both of those options are mapped to Sixaxis controls, which can get a bit awkward.
When controlling Kai, taking cover from enemy archers and keeping sword enemies as far away from you as possible is the focus. The controls for Kai are fairly standard; she'll aim with the holding down of a trigger, zoom in with another and fire with other buttons. What makes these segments unique is the 'Aftertouch'. By holding down the fire button, you can steer the arrow from an opposite wall right into an enemy archer's head on an opposite wall. The 'Aftertouch' makes for some cool slow-motion kills but doing it in long battles can make the fights seem a lot longer than they actually are given the slow down. Aiming without the 'Aftertouch' isn't nearly as effective but luckily, you almost always have the option of using the 'Aftertouch' (it really only loses its practicality if an enemy is too close to you at which point the arrow will already have passed them by the time the camera switches to the 'Aftertouch'. Playing as Kai is fun and makes for some nice breaks between all of the melee action.
The combat can get a bit repetitive since new enemy types aren't really introduced so it's fortunate that the story drives things forward. The combat is also kept more interesting with "Heavenly Sword"'s rating system. At the end of a sequence you will be rated on how well you performed. Doing well unlocks special features and also gives you access to new moves. A few boss fights are sprinkled in the game to mix things up but ultimately, combat doesn't really evolve.
The graphics of the game are quite impressive (considering when it was released) and all of the cutscenes look great especially with the motion capture. However, Nariko's hair has always struck me as odd given the way it flows around and moves. Movements and attacks all look real and the visual effects of using 'Aftertouch' are always fun to witness. While I can't remember much of the soundtrack, I do remember that it fits well and had some good tracks. In addition to the soundtrack, the game also boasts tremendous voice work and overall excellent sound design; weapons sound the way they should, Nariko's strikes change in sound with each style and attacks have the proper weight. Technically, "Heavenly Sword" is great.
Ultimately, "Heavenly Sword" is a memorable experience driven by its fantastic narrative. In terms of gameplay, it's a fun time but doesn't do anything revolutionary. At the same time, the main game doesn't take particularly long to get through so it's not a huge problem that the gameplay doesn't evolve. "Heavenly Sword" is a must-play for any story fan in gaming, or if you just want a fun weekend action game.