Heavenly Sword is definitely an AAA title for PS3, but as a killer app, it’s still undecided. The game focuses on Nariko’s quest to defend her father’s honor and protect the Heavenly Sword, even as it’s killing her.

The game starts at the end of the story, ironically. You’re thrown into the Final Battle, where Nariko is up against literally thousands of enemies on screen at once. This happens in more than one occasion throughout the game, and the fact that the game can handle this is amazing. During the opening, Nariko is overcome by the power of the Heavenly Sword, which takes her life. You then are taken back to begin the story of how it all went down.

Heavenly Sword as six chapters, with each taking about 1-3 hours to complete with each varying in length. This isn’t the longest game ever, but with the terrific storytelling and amazingly intense cutscenes, the game is worth every penny. Ninja Theory did an amazing job with bringing in Andy Serkis to head up the motion capture and dramatic acting. This game sports THE best character acting, voice over, and facial animations of any game to date. Hands down, without question. The characters really do draw a lot of emotion from you as you watch the nuances of their facial expressions change during the conversations.

The game is completely linear, so don’t go in expecting a lot of exploring. The gameplay is very solid, with the controls feeling comfortable and familiar. Everything looks to have been spruced up from the demo that was released earlier. The graphics are crisper and look fantastic and the sound is great, especially with surround sound cranked.

Personally, I think Heavenly Sword is worth the purchase. Sure, it’s not going to give you 60 hours of gameplay, but it will deliver 8-10 hours of amazingly cinematic gameplay experience. PS3 owners, make sure you play this game. I’ll have a full review coming soon.