Heavenly Sword - Playstation 3 Review

There were a handful of games I picked up when I first bought my PlayStation 3, and Heavenly Sword was among them. The trailers I had seen impressed me while reminding me of the first God of War game - which was a title I was very fond of. I recently played this again, and thought I would put down my thoughts now - since I was not blogging when I first played the game.

Graphics - 7:

This is an older game now, at least when compared against other games of this console generation. Still, the visuals hold up pretty well for me. It blew me away then, and while I have seen prettier games since first playing Heavenly Sword, I can't say I was disappointed in my second tour. Character models generally look good, the environments look colorful and show good variety. Some of the battles have very high enemy counts without any slowdown.

Music & Sound - 9:

I remember really enjoying the music and voice acting before, and that has not changed. The sound effects are varied as well, which is a huge plus in a game that can have so many repetitive moves used in all that combat.

Gameplay - 7:

This game tries very hard to emulate God of War, and overall it does a decent job - certainly better than a lot of other games. Still, it lacks the precision and weight of God of War's combat. It's good, but not great. Combat is still fun, but it can get repetitive, as mentioned above. It is rescued a bit by some of the small side-objectives help break up the potential monotony. Like Folklore, this game used the six-axis controls, which was a new experience for me then. Now? The novelty has worn off a bit.

Intangibles - 5:

One of the flaws in emulating God of War's formula is that the game is not very long. With no multiplayer of any kind, there is limited reason to keep playing once you win. There are no trophies either, for those who enjoy collecting those. There are some unlockable items you can acquire - again much like God of War - but they are only marginally interesting past a single viewing.

Overall - 7:

This game reminded me of a summer blockbuster. Lots of quality bells and whistles, some short, relatively mindless fun but not much reason to come back to it. There are somewhat frequent quciktime events, which are not my favorite - I've documented that before in the past. I enjoyed the game, but for me it's a borrow or a rental - not much reason to buy it unless you are really a diehard fan of this genre.

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