E3 Disclaimer: AMN’s E3 previews are designed to inform you of what each game at E3 plays like, and what we think of what’s shown. These previews are not reviews, and we reserve final judgment of each game until it is finished and released. These previews offer an honest opinion of what a publisher chose to demo at E3. So, without further ado, read on.
What the Game’s About
Heavenly Sword is a next-generation slasher action game, and one of Sony’s biggest upcoming fall titles. The game was around for last year’s Wii infested anti-Sony E3 where it received mixed impressions. Times have changed, and Heavenly Sword has also changed for the better. Billed as an “artistic slasher,†Heavenly Sword is compared to the legendary God of War franchise.
What’s Hot
The gameplay is sick, and in the best way. Deep down, the game is a melee brawler, but one with intelligence. The AI is aggressive, and smart. Enemies flog in groups and cooperate to smack you down. The various attacks connect in a similar fashion to God of War, but it feels more smooth and graceful, once you master it. The game’s combat is incredibly refined, but it looks like a brainless brawler on the surface. It takes time to learn all of the small quirks of the combat engine. You won’t get anywhere without it.
The game is also just plain ‘effing beautiful. It does not have the highest polygon count on the PS3 (though who cares), but the art direction and animation is unrivaled, period. You can see the emotion in facial animations, and the fury (and flexing thigh muscles) during the thrill kill “Superstar Moments†in the heat of combat. Those moves add a Soul Calibur level of satisfaction whenever you ram twin blades through someone’s skull after doing an air ballet decent with an orgasm of color just in time for the shower of blood to explode whenever the game comes out of slow motion.
With the audio crew that worked on such movies as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, you know the sound is going to rock.
What’s Not
Two words: Anti-Aliasing. Heavenly Sword is one of the most beautiful games at E3, and one of the most artistic projects in years, but it is plagued by jaggies, the old PlayStation standard. It really is no fault of the game, but rather the hardware. Still, everybody else supports it. Why won’t Sony smooth out those infamous jaggies? It would make the game look so much better in the end.
Heavenly Sword’s focus on combat puts you in situations where you are always in motion, but there are platforming moments that the control needs a higher level of precision than the current control scheme provides. It’s hard to take small, precision steps. It would be helpful if the folks at Ninja Theory would adjust the analog controls so that you can more easily tip-toe and spin around a full 360. Other than that, the controls are very solid. The game does have a high difficulty level which will be tough on the kiddies, but they shouldn’t be playing this bloodbath anyway. The engine also takes a lot of practice so that you can gracefully start to connect moves and rack up corpses.
Outlook
People call this the female God of War. That’s high praise, and it’s also probably true. The game is turning out to be Sony’s holiday killer app, and that is a big compliment considering how good PS3 is looking coming out at E3. It’s a pure gamer’s game. It looks good, plays great, and has longevity. Heavenly Sword is poised to be a killer app this fall.
