Review: Heavenly Sword (PS3)

A great deal is riding on Heavenly Sword and being published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe who hyped Killzone, Ghosthunter and similarly have financed this wannabe epic during its incubation period.  It is not an enviable track record, and with SCEA struggling in the face of fierce criticism of Lair, more than ever the PlayStation 3 needs a AAA release to boost its appeal beyond merely being a blu-ray player, with an excellent upscaler.   What originally promised to be a technical tour de force and potential action epic ahead of its time has emerged behind the competition.   God of War has cleaned up and offered a decent sequel, while only now we get our hands on Heavenly Sword.   Nothing short of a miracle is required and unfortunately Ninja Theory’s vision cannot match lofty expectations.

That’s not to say Heavenly Sword is a total write off - far from it in fact - more along the lines of a Ferrari body with the engine of a Fiesta.  What may look like a next (current) generation release has the game play firmly entrenched in the last century.  The two components never really gel together and offer the performance that you dreamt of.   Truthfully this is a real shame as so much effort has gone into the production, storyline and voice acting; the game play in comparison has been left on the studio floor.

If there were two words dreaded by most Gamestyle staffers it is ‘dynasty’ and ‘warriors’ although to be fair this reviewer is a little more accommodating.  Heavenly Sword fails to offer basic distractions such as upgradeable weaponry that kept Drakkengard interesting.  The sword comes complete with no real need to worry about how to channel its potent abilities; instead wave upon wave of identical character models must be dispatched in order to reach the next stage.  While this style of game will no doubt go down well in Japan, the combat system is nothing more than a rudimentary button bashing exercise.  New combinations can be unlocked as you progress, yet given the reliance on multiple opponents from all sides it is far more effective to quickly dispatch foes and move on.   Only during boss encounters do you feel the need to embellish your attacking prowess, as these single confrontations suit the system and facilitate some graceful moments.

Avoiding the Dynasty pitfalls is difficult enough without relying on two other elements that often spell video game disaster.  The first is the inclusion of a second character, which offers unique abilities and large amounts of game time during the adventure.  Here Heavenly Sword offers Kai who is a fine marksman although her missions will test the patience of any experienced player.   She serves the dual purpose of introducing a break from the tiring hack n’slash focus of Nariko and showing off the motion capabilities of the sixaxis controller.   Gamestyle does wonder if it is a decree of all first party titles that ‘thou must include the option to jiggle the controller’ as a sideshow rather than the main attraction.  Heavenly Sword manages to integrate the dynamic to good effect, as you can guide arrows with reasonable success or launch counters through your actions.   

The second element is the quick time events first made popular by Shenmue and expertly administered by Fahrenheit.  Their inclusion here feels like a last ditch attempt to inject some badly needed variety into what is a linear and average experience.  Such a feeling persists throughout the whole adventure with boss encounters failing to live up to the glitzy presentation.  Often after an interruption you’ll face the same boss again, who will only offer the same attacks but in quicker succession.  Really, with all the production flair on show here, Gamestyle expected a little more than learning a few patterns when dealing with King Botan’s henchmen.

The polish is slightly marred by the variable refresh rate, which was quite noticeable when playing the game in Heavenly Sword.   For a title that has been such a long time coming we would have expected such an issue to be banished, especially running at 720p.  Despite this flaw, we often found ourselves taking in several stunning viewpoints during proceedings, even those they are nothing more than static backdrops.  The cut sequences really do stand out by offering new levels of detail, a strong audio mix and allowing the charismatic personalities to shine through.

The storyline that is key to the limited enjoyment in Heavenly Sword is surprisingly not fully realised.   While the six chapters offers a reasonable challenge (more in frustration than skill), the background story is only really tackled through the unlockable extras, which come in the form of animation shorts that have appeared on the PlayStation Store over the past few weeks.   Without having watched these via the store you are relatively clueless about the history of the sword, the prophecy or the background of King Botan who is superbly voiced by Andy Serkis.  Such knowledge was one of the reasons why Gamestyle pushed on through the mindless violence and one-way level design.  Each short is only unlocked through sizeable progress or extremely efficient execution and even then you’ll have to duck out of the game to view such content.  Some clues are given initially in the game manual yet the feeling persists that more could have been done to allow players to connect with the storyline.

Ninja Theory has bundled a huge range of unlockable extras in this title that highlight the work and artistic talent that went into producing this tale.   You can even unlock a challenging difficulty mode if you really want to go through it all over again, but for such a long gestation period six chapters is not enough; especially when you consider that numbers one and four are quite short.   Ultimately very few players will wish to repeat the experience and for such a high profile release questions have to be asked just what went wrong.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Jason Julier