Heavenly Sword is probably the biggest hyped game on the PS3 thus far. The game has an epic story and beautiful graphics, but does it live up the hype? After a few play throughs, I’m happy to say it does. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Heavenly Sword for the PS3:

Presentation and Graphics: Heavenly Sword is flat out beautiful. Period. The game runs at 720p natively and has hands down the best character modeling, especially facial details, or any game I’ve ever played. The motion capture for the game was headed up by Andy Serkis, who is most famous for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Andy also served as the dramatic director on the game, and it definitely shows. The facial expressions and emotions shown by the characters really come through. When Nariko furrows her brow, you can tell she’s angry. The little details that Ninja Theory put in the characters really does an amazing job of drawing you into the game. The environments are equally as beautiful, with terrific draw distance in all areas. If you’re standing atop a cliff, you can see everything happening for miles. There are a few framerate issues which cause some screen tearing, but they are minimal. Otherwise, this is the most beautiful game on the PS3 to date. 4.5 of 5

Sound and Music: Not only does the game look great, but Heavenly Sword sounds great too. Andy Serkis headed up the voice acting team for the game and again, it really shows. The dialog in the game really brings you into the story. Other sound effects, such as swords, arrows, and various other weapons sound amazing. The only issues I had with the sound were during some of the cut scenes. There is noticeable audio lag in a few early cut scenes and those where you’re brought back to the chapter selection screen. I’ve heard rumors that this was intentional, as those scenes seemingly take place in the afterlife. No official word from Ninja Theory on this, but it does mar an otherwise flawless audible experience. 4.5 of 5

Gameplay: Heavenly Sword is an action/adventure game in the God of War style. You control Nariko, a supposed reincarnation of a Holy Warrior, in her quest to save her tribe and father. As you start the game, you’re defending your camp from the evil King Bohan, who captures Nariko’s father. Nariko then takes up the Heavenly Sword, which she knows will kill her, in an effort to save her people. With the Heavenly Sword, Nariko has three stances she can use to fight her enemies. The standard Speed stance gives fast short range attacks with medium power. The Range stance allows the Heavenly Sword to act like Kratos’ blades and attack enemies from further away. The Power stance gives Nariko extremely powerful, albeit slow attacks. The way you use the combination of these attacks is key to determining your success in the game. Something that struck me at first was the lack of a jump button, but once you realize the power of Aerial combos and how to pull them off with the SIXAXIS controls, you forget that it’s not there.

During the course of the game, you get to play as Kai, Nariko’s cat-like sidekick. Kai has own set of moves, which are controlled in similar was as Nariko. Kai’s major weapon is what she calls Twing Twang, which is essentially shooting arrows out of a mini-gun. You use the SIXAXIS controls to aim the arrows, which works very well. There are quite a few instances in the game where SIXAXIS controls are involved, most in the same fashion as Twing Twang. You control the flight on cannonballs to take down catapults and you control throwing swords or hats to hit gongs to open gates.

Overall, the game’s controls are spot on. It’s very tough not to compare the game to God of War, and Heavenly Sword is a bit more linear than I’d like for the genre. There are quite a few invisible walls and very little exploration involved. Aside from that issue, I found the gameplay extremely enjoyable and am hoping for a sequel. 4 of 5

Lasting Appeal: You’ve heard it already: Heavenly Sword isn’t the longest game out there. I’ve heard some reviews stating the game can be completed in 5-6 hours, which I just don’t get. I’m sure it’s possible if you run past certain enemies and skip every cut scene, but then you lose the entire story of the game, which is terrific. In my two play-throughs, it took me an average of 10-11 hours to get through the game. There’s not a whole lot there to encourage replay as far as unlockables go, but the game does provide a good deal of fun should you decide to play through again. 3.5 of 5

Final Word: In the action/adventure genre, there hasn’t been a great deal of quality games in the “next-gen”. Sure, there’s been a few shooters in that genre, but nothing has really hit the big time since God of War 2. Heavenly Sword really steps up to the plate and brings a terrific gameplay experience. If you own a PS3, you should definitely pick this game up.

Overall: 4.25 of 5

1 = Not worth the bandwidth.

2= Demo is enough, not worth your money.

3= Game is good, depending on the price, seriously consider picking it up.

4= Worth your money. Should provide some good times for quite awhile.

5= Buy the game. Lock your door. Pick up a case of beer. This could take all night.