Dewmandew7's Score:

7.0

Good

The Good

Amazing graphics * Combos are somewhat entertaining to watch * Excellent replay value

The Bad

Just another button mashing Beat 'Em Up * Generic gameplay * Generic enemies * Incredibly short

NOTE: The word that is starred out is stile (with a y instead of an i). I didn't want to go through that whole paragraph looking like I spelled it wrong, so I'm noting it here. I cannot use the word for formatting reasons. Please try to stomach through it.

On July 26th, 2007, Sony released a demo to one of the most highly anticipated games of the year for the PS3. The game in question is Heavenly Sword, a game starring Nariko, a female ninja-warrior-type person. It's essentially a button masher. Think God of War, but with a girl instead. As much as people want to believe it isn't a God of War-clone, it is. Now, on with the review of the demo.

The demo starts with a cutscene hinting at what the story's about, but not really telling you anything that interesting. It opens up with Nariko talking to this weird little Gollum-like girl named Kai. Nariko tells her to go keep watch and then says something about a Twing Twaang (bizarre, no?). She then goes off to apparently find her father. The whole story is pretty hushed up in the demo, but that's besides the point. You may have half a mind to skip the opening cutscene but you're actually better off watching it. It takes about as long to load the game after you skip the cutscene as it does to actually watch it, which leads one to believe that the opening cutscene isn't real time and I'll tell you why.

The graphics are amazing! This is immediately evident as the opening cutscene ends and goes to Nariko standing and overlooking the terrain from a cliff. Everything is incredibly detailed. Nariko's hair sways in the wind, all of the different ponytails moving independent of each other. The environments are beautiful. There are waterfalls cascading down a cliff and... get this... a rainbow that fades out or becomes more solid looking as you change the camera angle. The draw distance is amazing. You can see for what looks like miles. Now, after you're done looking in awe at the visuals, you realise you have something to do.

The sound is better than average, but it's nothing special. You get one song for the demo. There is a bit of background voice-over. The sound effects are rather generic. Don't expect any amazing soundtrack or anything.

The first action in the demo involves you running down a rope connected to and supporting a pillar off in the distance. You tap the X button repeatedly to run but then, what's this? There are enemies on the pillar below you! They see you coming and start chopping the ropes. You have to jump between the ropes. You perform actions on the ropes God of War-esque **** by pressing the buttons indicated. You press the left and right buttons to jump between the ropes, which I thought was strange, because it seemed like that would a much more Sixaxis-appropriate control. However, do not fret. There is plenty of Sixaxis control, which I will get to in a minute. So, you keep running down the rope and eventually come to a pillar, where you body slam the jerk (read: axe wielding enemy)who keeps chopping the ropes on you off the pillar (most deliciously evil). From there, your first moments of combat start.

What can I say, the combat is just like God of War's. You have two attack buttons. Triangle is an undercut-type attack and square is your average slash.Besides this default Speed "Stance", as the game refers to the different fighting stances, there are two other stances. One of the stances is a power stance where Nariko will combine the two swords into one and use the sword more like a warhammer (it is a big sword). This makes her much slower, but her attacks are much more powerful. There is also a range stance, which will have Nariko throwing her swords at her enemies. Each complementary stance is entered by holding down R1 and L1 respectively. There are many different combos. The normal ones for each stance aren't particularly outstanding. Just your generic combos. However, when you start using your aerial combos, it gets a lot more exciting. By holding down L1 and clicking Triangle, you may (or may not) throw an enemy into the air. After this happens, quickly move the Sixaxis upwards. Nariko will leap into the air where you can beat the living snot out of said enemy. The combos are pretty exciting and entertaining to watch, one involving a kick right in the crotch (poor guy). Now, rounding off the list of attacks are the super****. You only get one type during the demo, which involves tapping circle. You power up your super****move by counterattacking and pulling off combos. There are three spheres in the small HUD showing Nariko's health. When one sphere has been lit up, you can pull off a level one super**** However, this only dispatches one enemy. Having two or three spheres lit up let's you do the level two and level three super**** respectively. These ones will also knock the enemies around you off their feet. Now that we're on the subject of enemies, let's talk about them. There are three types of enemies: enemies without shields, enemies with shields, and enemies with axes that you don't get to fight. Yes, very generic. There isn't even any difference between the enemies within these three types. All enemies of the same type look exactly the same. You can pretty much beat the crap out of the shieldless enemies. The shielded enemies, on the other hand, must be knocked off guard. Certain combos will accomplish this for you. Finally, the axe enemies only receive short cameos in the demo and you never get to fight them.

Now, after you've dispatched the enemies on the pillar (whether by tossing them off or outright killing them), you cut the final rope keeping the pillar from toppling to the ground. This causes the lower ropes to snap and the pillar begins to fall down to the ground below before landing right in the middle of an open air building and a couple poor dudes' arm wrestling match. It's a pretty cool moment, however. Anyway, after you've killed all of the enemies down there, axe enemies break through a door nearby and...

The demo ends. Just like that. You go from being "All-right! I get to fight some axe-dudes!" to "What!? That was the shortest demo I've ever played in my life!". Yes, the demo that takes up 1 GB of space takes three to five minutes to complete. However, it has a load of replay value. It's fun to go back through and see all of the different combos. After you've done that, however, you can delete the demo. I suppose you could call it fun, but this demo didn't make me want to buy the game for $60. As this is only a demo, certain things about it could change before the game is released, but as it is set to release in September, major changes are unlikely. I may pick the game up after it becomes a Greatest Hit (which, with the massive hype-train behind it, it will) and it's $30. However, that will be a while. Besides, there are already loads of other amazing games coming out this fall/holiday, so I'm not complaining. If you agree/disagree with my review or have something to add, post a comment. Thanks for you time.

--dewmandew7, Free Lance Writer