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Rating : 7.4 / 10 Developer : Ninja Theory Availability : PlayStation 3 |
Heavenly Sword follows a female protagonist Nariko who seeks out to avenge your clan against the rising army of Bohan using the sacred weapon known as the Heavenly Sword. Through her journey, she changes from a strong warrior to a more battle thirst but desperate fighter; later maturing and choosing what she will fight for.
Heavenly Sword is visually stunning, but lacking at the same time.
You journey through a vast world with large landscapes both foreground and background full of vibrancies and contrast between different settings and atmospheres. But though it is colourful, it isn’t nearly as detailed. To be clearer, textures are detailed, but blurry rather than crisp. This isn’t a huge issue as you battle through groups of enemies or going through puzzles, but during slower paces, you could wish there was more, albeit it isn’t a very noticeable appeal. What shines most however are facial details in comparison to the game in general; a lot of work was put into these and it is especially evident in the evil king Bohan. Though texture detail isn’t the greatest on anything, it is well done on Bohan; sympathy and love for the king.
The game plays very smoothly, though not perfectly smooth. Even in the midst of heavy battles, the game does do well to maintain the frames. Though at times, there are small drops.
As mentioned, you battle through mobs of enemies in a linear environment. The linearity isn’t so bad as it pushes the story along, moving from one battle to another, and the group by group approach allows you to more comfortably fight your way to victory rather than outnumbered and struggling.
There are three battle stances and two extra modes when fighting.
The first is the speed stance, quick, and deadly. The second is slow but powerful power stance, eliminating men in a matter of seconds. The third is the rapid and wide range stance. Though weak, it is good for making some room around you and fending off arrows from archers. Mixing and matching these stances enables you to string various combos. Otherwise, there are pre-set combos for the individual stances providing two types of attacks, normal and block breakers; for enemies who’d prefer to hide behind their blade or shield.
Blocking is done automatically and if an enemy decides to use a strong attack, you only need to be in power stance to block also. Pressing triangle just after they strike whilst in the correct stance will allow you to use a counter attack on them. Just like countering, when you are knocked off your feet, a flick of the controller allows you to automatically recover and begin attacking again.
The next step, the first extra mode, is whilst in the speed stance, you can launch them into the air and with the flick of your controller you jump into the air to do an aerial combo. There are set combo strings which you can pull off while up there.
The second is once you’ve gained enough style points, you can activate a stuperstyle action where you perform instant kill moves on enemies, where later in the game as you become stronger, they can damage or kill the others around you along with your target.
You also play as Kai who uses a crossbow as her weapon. She doesn’t have any close quarter attacks; only stuns to enable you to get afar and fire more arrows at your enemies. Throughout the game, there will be various times you use Kai but they are mainly for small errands. Only once is she played as a real character.
Each arrow you shoot has an aftertouch where using the sixaxis controller, you can twist, turn, and pivot the projectile to fine-tune the aiming. It isn’t only Kai’s arrows but also some of the projectiles Nariko uses. The aftertouch can take some getting used to though.
Boss fights can be a challenge but generally comes down to blocking and dodging their attacks and then attacking at the right time when they won’t block as much. As a finish off, you will go into cinematic battle where at certain times you need to press certain keys to progress in it. If you miss, the boss will replenish some health and you will need to beat them down again to go into the finishing cinematic.
Whilst in the outside world, there will be a few places where this is necessary also. Messing up will require you to do the sequence again which isn’t too bad as the sequences never change.
Whilst beating warriors to a pulp looks good, it sounds good also. The bone crunching and blood spilling all fit well with the sword clashing and voice acting. As you whirl your swords or enemies around, you can hear them flung through the air. But the fine detail of thuds and rummaging isn’t heard at all. Such as when you break the carts up, running through the pieces of wood won’t make a sound, or at least an extremely quiet one. But the initial crunch is still beautiful nonetheless. Across fallen swords however, you will hear plenty. Without fine detail, the overall atmosphere is filled mainly with clashes, cries of battle, and some collateral damage. Concentration is on these aspects rather than the debris.
On the other hand, voice acting when Nariko is narrating her journey or during cut scenes show a lot of emotions with fairly good dialogues. The facial qualities of the characters really portray the message visually and at times, there is a bit of sarcasm amongst the characters.
Music is rhythmic, majestic, and ancient. It is generally upbeat as the game is filled with battles, but a lot of cut scenes are narrations and it becomes solemn.
The only quirk in the game is the lack of precision when Nariko is using a projectile. You will need to use projectiles to trigger switches at times and a lot of them require you to ricochet shields or such off various objects to hit them. The lack of precision means at times, even using aftertouch, it is hard to twist it enough into the direction you want. Minor nuisance but the overall game has very little problems, being very little required to present to begin with.
Also, the camera is locked onto you, though you can pan it left and right, you can’t really turn it to view from another angle.
Heavenly Sword is simple, but technical. Fights are always filled with action as you pummel your enemies and during countering attacks, most of the time you get a cinematic view angle. You’re constantly moving and never a dull moment because of its linearity and simplicity. Some people may find her outbursts very crude and her apparel only making it more so, but you really do need to give some sympathy for the cursed child.
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