I thought I would write a review of Heavenly Sword a PS3 game, that came out in September 07.

Heavenly Sword

Developer: Ninja Theory
Platform: PS3 Exclusive
Type: Action/Adventure/Fighting
Rating: T

Highs: First Rate presentation, Terrific Graphics, solid voice work, emotional and engaging story

Lows: Too short, not enough variety in the Gameplay, combat is a bit repetative.

Background: Heavenly Sword, one of PS3's earlier signature games came out in September of 2007 after 5 years of development on multiple platforms, starting with PC, moving to X-Box and finally PS3. The developer, Ninja Theory, is also well know for the Ninja Gaiden series. A lot of hype surrounded this title, especially when it was disclosed that the story line was written by Andy Serkis, best known as Gollem from the Lord of the Rings Films. Serkis would also play the main villian, King Bohan. Enthusiasm was further stoked by the fact that Weta studios, the effects studio responsible for bringing much of Lord of the Rings to life was involved with the production as well.

The Plot: The game centers around Nariko, a young, beautiful female warrior with distinctive flowing red hair. She is a member of a clan that is being oppressed by the evil king Bohan and his minions. The clan is the guardian of a sacred blade known as the Heavenly Sword, a weapon of great power. According to the clan's prophecy, a God was to be born into the form of man, claim the sword and lead the clan out of darkness. Unfortunalty Nariko was born instead. Her birth is seen as a bad omen and she becomes an outcast, mistrusted by the rest of the clan. Her only support comes from her father, Shen, the clan's leader and her young friend Kai, whom Nariko rescued and adopted years earlier( you get to play as Kai in different parts of the game) Cornered by Bohan and his army, with her father threatened, Nariko does the unthinkable and takes up the Heavenly Sword. According to prophecy any mortal weilding the weapon, gains great fighting ability, but is condemed to certain death as the sword slowly leaches away their life force. Nariko decides to use what little time she has left to live, to free her clan and destroy Bohan.

Game Play: This is a third person action game, the primary play consists of combat and some puzzle solving. Nariko's combat is a sort of Wushu style sword-play, lots of acrobatic moves. Once she aquires the Heavenly Sword, Narriko begins learning combos, some of which are quite spectacular to execute. At various points of the game, Nariko will go into "automatic" sequences or "QTE" in which the player executes a series of timed button presses to perfom the actions. The game also utilizes the motion control feature of PS3, with the ability to throw and guide objects. The other playable charater is Kai, she is armed with a crossbow-like weapon. Kai is not much for hand to hand but is used for sniping missions, the bolts can be steered via the motion sensitive controllers. Overall the combat flow is excellent, almost as if you are playing a high dollar martial arts epic. Narriko is indeed very graceful and quite fluid in her movements, a strong point in the game, Unfortunatly the AI varies little and gets to be a bit repetiious afterwhile, it takes a lot of frustrating button-mashing to get to those combos, but once executed they are indeed some of the most spetacular moves in all of gaming. The Boss battles are well done and spaced out nicely, for good pacing. This is also a game that makes rather good use of PS3's motion feature, and it works very smoothly, with good acuracy and ease of use. There are a few puzzles, unfortunately they are a bit too easy and a bit dull.

Graphics: The game really soars here. Fantastic motion capture, excellent facial models and near perfect lip synch, combine with detailed and breath-taking environments to make a true feast for the eyes. Hook this up to a really good HD TV with HDMI, invite your Wii owning friends over, turn down the lights and watch them leave, heads hung low. The lighting is rendered incredibly well, and of course being partially developed by Weta studios, the cut scenes would make Pixar downright jealous.

Sounds: Excellent work here, the music score is terrific and matches each chapter very well, a great mix of symphony and asian music. The sound effects are spot on. The voice cast led by Andy Serkis( no one plays a better evil pyschopath for the money) is outstanding. The overall sound balance is terrific and great through a set of speakers.

Replay: The game falters here, one there should be more of it, at 7-10 hours its a bit short, and there is not really much in the way of unlockable content. Hopefully this issue will be addressed in the sequel.

Kids Corner, This is a T rated title, although I think it squeaked by, there is a lot of violence, though nothing bloody or gory, its not nearly as brutal as God of War. Being in ancient China, curse words are not really an issue. Some of the female characters are a bit scantily clad and there is some suggestive language, but no actual scenes of a sexual nature, Serkis's over the top performance may be a bit disturbing to watch at times.

Overall: This game has a lot of promise, it does not live up to all the hype, but its a good indicator of PS3's potential, A sequel is in the works that will hopefully rectify some of this titles shortcomings, until then, bask in the over the top chop-suki action and enjoy.