Heavenly Sword (Playstation 3, 2007)

read more reviews @ http://blog.graduategames.com

Heavenly Sword is a hack and slash action game similar to God of War, but more heavily focused on the action aspect. It has beautiful graphics and is an amazing start to a franchise despite its missteps, the biggest of which is the brevity of the game's story and single player campaign.

Gameplay: 8/10
Pros: 3 different stances with some great combos and transitions, engaging story, exciting and chaotic action gameplay.
Cons: The ranged stance is almost entirely useless, only 2 attack buttons, not enough puzzles, and an extensive overuse of "aftertouch" (tilt controlled) aiming /firing missions.

Graphics: 9.5/10
Pros: Absolutely gorgeous with a fantastic art direction and amazing character design and animation. Cut-scenes are gorgeous. Impressive number of characters on the screen. A truly technical feat that exemplifies the PS3's power.
Cons: Repetitive enemies, and some questionable character design choices (Roach?)

Sound/Music: 8.5/10
Pros: Great voice acting, epic score, and excellent weapon twings& twangs. AAA music/sound fx.
Cons: Not a fan of the retarded girl sidekick Kai, though in the end her story makes it better to swallow. Flying Fox is the most annoyingly voiced character in recent memory...he's terrible. Roach is also a little cliched...though voicework is good.

Lasting Appeal: 6/10
Pros: Extremely entertaining from beginning to end with a very engrossing story which comes to a satisfying conclusion.
Cons: Practically no replay value...repetitive gameplay and earning new artwork and combos is not enough for me.

Average: 80.00%
Tilt: +/-: -5.00%

Heavenly Sword was a very enjoyable and engaging rental. I beat the game in less than 2 days and had fun doing it, but I didn't even come close to playing it nonstop. The game can really be flown through. It's a shame that there wasn't more depth in the combat or harder puzzles (and possible backtracking) a la God of War to lengthen this game out. I like the variety of missions, even if some are not as crisp as the main combat ones. The monotony of the gameplay is decently broken up to get you through the game and story, but a game that is over so quickly is definitely not worth $60.

Verdict: 75%