Heavenly Sword(review)

If epic tales could be recited using the shimmering blade of a sword, Heavenly Sword would be the outcome. The game takes epic story telling to a whole new level, breaking the zenith of production values you’ve seen in almost any modern day game and executing every cutscene, every in-game action sequence with enough finesse to rival any top Hollywood martial-art flicks.

Make no mistake; at its core, Heavenly Sword is a hack-n-slash game. What transcends it from the lot is the fact that each and every element of the game is so minutely worked upon (even the ones that most action games overlook) that it blurs the line between cinematic and interactive entertainment. The voice acting for instance is the best I’ve heard in a while – it isn’t overacted, nor is it bland; the fact that they’ve hired actual actors to play the role of the various characters really gleams through. The voice acting coupled with the extremely well done facial animation stacks up to breathe a great amount of depth into the characters, setting them apart from those paper-thin ones you’re used to seeing in most other action games.

The storyline on the other hand is your standard ‘Sword meets Girl and kills millions’ kind. Ok, that might not be too standard, but you can certainly say that it lacks depth. The game manages to immerse you nevertheless, thanks to some inspiring narration and amazing story-telling mechanics that add to the grand feel of the game. The way this works out is that between missions Nariko comes on screen reflecting on her actions and exposing the way she feels in a very believable way that’ll draw you in; it’s a lot like what we’ve seen in The Darkness’ loading screens, only emotionally charged (she is a chick after all). All this happens with a picturesque backdrop that has jagged blades ripping out of the ground, each representing a different Chapter in the game. You can use these blades to select different segments of the game that you wish to replay, which is a great feature since there are quite a few parts that you’re sure to love and will want to play again. The duality of the transition screen is truly commendable, since it manages to please you aesthetically as well as maintain its functionality. It just goes to show the amount of work developer Ninja Theory has put into something as small as the mission transition screen. Kudos to Ninja Theory for that!



Another area where the game truly shines through are its visuals. Heavenly Sword is one of the most gorgeous looking games out there, and there’s no denying that - everything from the way Nariko’s flaming red hair is animated, to the detailed texturing on everything from the armor of the enemy soldiers to the broken pieces of equipment scattered throughout the game is done so brilliantly that they feel truly lifelike. The best part of this is that in a bid to mock reality, the game doesn't lose its visual style – from the dreamy backdrops that’ll leave you breathless to the not-so-subtle far-east Asian architectural influences, the game seems to have accommodated a plethora of different styles to form a soul of its own that’ll rouse a sort of wanderlust in anyone that plays it.

The great visuals extend even to the big battles, where Nariko takes on thousands (literally) of enemies by herself, on an outrageously large battleground. This has an impact on the performance however and the framerates begin to suffer quite noticeably. This wouldn’t make such a huge difference in any other game, but with the standards Heavenly Sword has set for itself (it meets most of them almost in all areas), these framerate dips makes the team behind it look quite shabby. I really wonder if the low framerates are caused by the limit of the PS3’s power or game’s unoptimized code. Regardless, Ninja Theory should’ve made it a point to fix the dips before they shipped out the game.

Another area where the game falls blaringly short of greatness is the combat system. If you’re a seasoned combo-ist, the combos will leave a lot to be desired. Combos are basically executed in the way you normally execute them in any other hack-n-slack game, only here (unlike God of War) the combos don’t reward you with great amounts of damage or in any other way whatsoever. In fact, a button masher can do as well as a seasoned player by just punching the two attack keys – Triangle and Square in a random order. If that wasn’t bad enough, even the attack-counter system seems very counter-intuitive; to counter a blow, you’ve got to keep an eye out for the color of the trail of the enemy attacking you. A blue trail means that you can counter the enemy while you’re in Speed stance, while an orange trail indicates that the attack can only be countered in the Heavy Stance. To change stances you hold either the R1 (Heavy Stance) and L1 (Ranged) buttons, and to counter a blow you just press the Triangle button at the right time. The counter system would be way better if you could block blows and then use the counter key, rather than doing both simultaneously which feels too unnatural in battle and requires special attention. Even though the outcome of counters is brutally impressive, most players (me included) will never get quite acquainted with it.



That said, the game’s combat is really good for people new to the genre, since it isn’t very hard to master in normal difficulty. Just get a hang of the different stances via the in-game tutorial in the first mission and you’re all set to kick some butt right till the end of the game. I doubt that Ninja Theory intended for the combat system to work this way though, but it makes the game seem like it’s targeted to the really non-hardcore audience. To enhance that feeling, the game has other segments that feel a little out of place. Every now and then you get missions to blow up rolling catapults or decimate armies using a cannon. To do this, the game allows you to move into first person to shoot a cannon ball, that you can control in-flight using the SIXAXIS controls. After tinkering with the settings a little you can use the analog sticks to control the projectile; however that isn’t the way Ninja Theory wants you to play those parts.

The game even puts you in the shoes of Kai (Nariko’s best buddy) from time to time. This chick is basically an archer, and all her gameplay bits involve sniping people in first person and controlling the arrows using SIXAXIS. While these bits may seem a little out of place from time to time, they work well to add a bit of diversity into the gameplay and give you an opportunity to take a break from the button mashing.

The diversity, which would be a good thing otherwise, seems pretty unnecessary here since the game ends faster than you’d want it to. A seasoned player will be able to finish the game in about 8-9 hours flat, which is a really short time for a game that’s been in production for roughly 5 years. For what it’s worth, those few hours will have in store for you an experience that any action fan shouldn’t miss, provided he doesn’t mind spending Rs. 2,799 on a game that has limited replay value and absolutely no online play.