[PS3] Heavenly Sword

[galson]

Originally developed with Xbox in mind, Heavenly Sword came through a long way to end up on PS3 console this year. The development started in 2003 in a studio of Ninja Theory team in Cambridge, UK and then spread even to New Zeland's Weta Workshop (yeah, the ones from LOTR). The game is the first part of planned trilogy as Tameem Antoniades, Ninja Theory co-founder stated.

System tested on: Sony Playstation 3 PAL FW 1.93, HDMI output 720p, 5.1 surround sound system

Graphic: 9/10
The graphics in this game are really first class, starting with enviroments, objects and ending with character models. Everything is top-notch. During playing the game I didn't notice any framedrop issues or slowdowns, however there were a few occasional v-sync issues (a.k.a. screen tearing), mostly during FMVs. By the way, a little word about them, as people are quite confused if they are pre-rendered or rendered in a real time. Well, most of them are pre-rendered on game engine but not because PS3 wouldn't be able to cope with them, they are just used to cover loading times in the background and that would be impossible to do if they were rendered in a real time. Few scenes are indeed real time, mostly the ones with Kai and they look as good as the pre-rendered ones. If you want to know which ones then it's enough to say that all the movies you can unlock and watch in menu are pre-rendered.
Anyway, back to the topic, beside pretty visuals everything also is very well animated (well, maybe except Nariko's hair), this game has probably the best facial expressions and acting up to date, especially King Bohan played by Andy Serkis (the one who played Gollum). It's hard to describe, you've got to see it for yourselves! Same goes for his 500+ man army that you fight single handedly
Unlike Ninja Gaiden Sigma, the camera is very good here and you don't have to center it every 5 sec. (screw you Itagaki!).

Sound: 9/10
The sound is very good, both enviroment and battle effects. Voice acting is one of the best I've ever heard in a video game. The music is deep and climatic. If you're a happy owner of surround sound system it gets even better

Gameplay: 8/10
Heavenly Sword is basically a hack'n'slash game. You gain the controll of two characters, depending on the chapter - a red haired chick Nariko who fights using the heavenly sword itself and her adopted sister Kai whose weapon is some weird variation of a crossbow. Controlling Nariko is very similar to controlling Kratos in God of War, so anybody who played it should get a hang on Nariko pretty fast. However there is no block button in HS; it is automatically executed if Nariko is in correct stance (of which there are three: Speed, Power and Range). Switching between stances are easy and requires only holding L1 for Range, R1 for Power stances. Speed stance is Nariko's default one. There is no jump button either, but it's no big deal (I really don't know why some people make such a fuss about that).
As for Kai, she can only fight using her crossbow, which means shooting enemies from some range. When they come near her she becomes quite helpless, but not entirely as she can push an enemy and ran away. She can also jump above obstacles to increase the range between her and the enemies and start shooting them again. You'll have a lot of running with her, fortunately she's the fastest runner in the game.
The best part about Kai is shooting the enemies. You may shoot them in a traditional way, but it's really hard to hit the guys who are far away. Instead you can use an aftertouch, which is executed by pressing and holding the attack button and then controlling the bolt by using either Sixaxis or left analog stick.

Overall: 9/10
The game is very good, the plot is interesting and the only thing that you could complain about is its length - it can be finished in 6-7 hours and there's nothing like mission mode or anything, you just get a Hell Mode which is harder and that's pretty much all. Nevertheless I recommend buying it for every hack'n'slash games fan.