Heavenly Sword (2007)

I'd love to give this game 4 stars but it has some big flaws to prevent it from reaching that level:

• Framerate is far from stable
• Sound is uneven, i kept having to adjust the volume
• Quick time events way too short. In most cases that means repeating that section until you have it memorized, which is doable, but in some cases it gets frustrating really quickly, like with the first time that you fight Flying Fox and if you mess up (which you will repeatedly) he recovers like 70% of his health back, artificial difficulty right there.
• Those bouncing shield "Puzzles" to open doors are so out of place and really frustrating when they decide to make you repeat other actions between each try, like having to pull up a statue or open a first gate, every time you fail, there you go again back to the wheel, press X a bunch of times until it's open/up, go back to the shield, try again, fail, go back to the wheel... it breaks up the flow of the games, is frustrating as fuck, and serves 0 purpose, whoever came up with that shit needs to get fired.
• The game doesn't teach you how to deflect projectiles even though it's a necessary skill to beat the last fight. Maybe it's in the manual but i bought my copy second hand and it didn't came with one. So i actually had to go to youtube in frustration to see a video of the fight and read the comments about how to deflect those damn projectiles to finally manage to beat the game.

Overall the game can be fun but could have been much better, had they removed those idiotic frustrations out of the equation this would be a great little short game with lovely characters and good presentation.

Whoa! Playing this game now is a trip! It's like the most PS3 game that ever existed, the over reliance on sixaxis, the low framerate, fighting thousands of clones, Ueda-esque visuals and the first baby steps of mocap in video games.

It's fascinating to play this game now and see just how far games have come, from the beggining of last gen to end of this gen, and just how much Ninja Theory have improved with each game. The only reason i've decided to give this game a shot, was because i loved Enslaved and DmC, and just how talented Ninja Theory is at creating interesting characters is really something else, there's so much personality and fun in how they are presented, the cutscenes are clearly a highlight of the entire game, unfortunatly the game itself, feels a bit disconected from them, it obviously lacks the seamless transitions, that games today have revolutionised. The story is very video game'y, but i'm not complaining and the music is actually kind of great, it adds a lot to the tone and setting.

As to the gameplay, it's quite rough and incredibly dated, but i do like the combat and animations, it's not entirely a torture to play, there is some satisfaction in destroying hundreds of enemies at once ala Dynasty Warriors, the most frustrating part though, are the motion controlled sections, steering the arrow and trebuchet, is quite awful, but also kinda fun...ish, once you get the hang of it.

I probably wouldn't recommend it now, but it's still an interesting title to play, through the prism of time.

This game is buckets of fun and is very charming in an early PS3 exclusive kind of way. Oh you better believe there are tacked on sixaxis controls - you'll be guiding arrows like they're dragons in Lair. I have also been playing Lair. I am sick.

Upon release it was often referred to as "Goddess of War", which is apt, as it pales in comparison in many respects. The combat isn't as fun, but its stance-based system of passive blocking is a clever way of discouraging buttonmashing. It also lacks the sense of progression that makes GoW so satisfying, both in regards to upgrades and the environments you travel through.

Where this game excels is in its presentation. Featuring mocap performances from mocap performer Andy Serkis, as well as the always awesome Anna Torv, the cutscenes are a genuine delight to watch. Torv brings an intensity to Nariko that makes her far more compelling than that yelling angryboy Kratos. Speaking of yelling - Serkis chews scenery with such relish that it helped cement Bohan as one of my favourite videogame villains. The other villains are also a lot of fun.

Overall Heavenly Sword is a fun flawed little game with a big personality.