(editor’s note: This is my first review. The review format you see below is what I’m going to use for my future game reviews. I welcome all constructive criticism). Some may call it a God of War clone. Others may call it a ripoff. I’d call orgasmic. When it was shown back in 2005, gamers quickly bite into a game that could have the potential to do to games what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragons brought to the cinemas. Bringing back some kickass kung-fu moves. Developed by Ninja Theory, Heavenly Sword is currently released and can be find in all game stores.

Story

The story of Heavenly Sword begins as Nariko and her clansman try to escape from the oncoming marches of King Bohan’s army. If you had watched the 5-part miniseries (found here), then you would know what led up the intro of the Heavenly Sword video game. But if you don’t want to watch the 5-part miniseries, here’s a quick recap.

1. Heavenly Warrior came down to Earth to fight the forces of darkness
2. Heavenly Warrior leaves back to Heaven, and leaves Heavenly Sword behind
3. People try to obtain the Heavenly Sword for its power, and destruction ensue.
4. Nariko’s clan take over the job of protecting the sword until the day the Heavenly Warrior returns back to Earth
5. When the prophesied day of the return of Heavenly Warrior came, it was Nariko that was born, not the Warrior.
6. Now King Bohan is after the sword, and is willing to kill anyone and anything in his way to get it.

That pretty much summarized the 5 part miniseries. Of course, it wouldn’t be dramatic if there wasn’t…drama. So, a lot of people in Nariko’s clan believe that she is cursed, and that it’s her fault that they’re being chased and hunted like animals for the sword. Without revealing much of the story, as you progress through the game, you get to meet Nariko’s father and tutor, Shen, one of her “sister”, Kai, King Bohan and his generals and henchmen.

The story is never rushed, and sometimes, you would find yourself rushing through the fighting just to get to the next bit of storyline. There’s a little bit of cliche in it, but overall, the story is pretty fresh as far as redemption goes. I must say though, that the characters of Heavenly Sword are probably some of the best character development and character acting I’ve seen to grace the interiors of video games. The motion capturing definitely proved that using Weta and Andy Serkis was worth the money. Not only are the character developed in non-cliche way, but the dialogs are so full of wit and dry humor that you can’t help but smile during the in-game cutscenes.

Presentation

Everything presented in Heavenly Sword has a slick and clean feel to it. From the way the menu works to the heavily motioned sensor cutscenes. You could tell that Ninja Theory really went above and beyond to make sure that the way they presented Heavenly Sword is above all other games on the market. For comparison wise, I would say the next game to come close to Heavenly Sword’s presentation style is Mass Effect. The game is broken into 5 chapters, and each chapters have individual subchapters that you progress through. The chapter selection is made through a slick interface where they are engraved upon giant pillars of the Heavenly Sword. The gameplay menu is quick to bring up, and going in and out of the option menu was quick and easy.

As I mentioned above in the story portion, the cutscenes in this game is, with all the pun intended, Heavenly. When the actors speak, their emotions are revealed through both their eyes, and their body actions. I don’t how much motion capturing went into making Heavenly Sword, but I must say, it was well worth it.

Graphics + Sound

Presented in 720p, Heavenly Sword’s graphics is, for the lack of a better word, pure awesomeness. Although there are occasions where the framerates seem to slip a little bit, most of the game the framerate holds up with smoothness. Especially during certain sequences where the depth of the battlefield is extremely far, and the enemies are literally numbered in the thousands. This game, by far, has one of the farthest depth of field I’ve ever played. When you shoot an arrow, it will keep going until it hits something that stops it. Nariko’s hair flow like water, and distant waterfalls has an organic feel to it. There’s a certain part where you’re walking down a path, and on both sides are cherry trees. As the camera pans from below Nariko to above her, you could definitely feel the beauty and mesmerizing look at the developer had given to Heavenly Sword.

Each character is designed with great details, and their animation is top notched. The details of the graphics are so great that there were times when I couldn’t help myself but be lost in Kai’s deep light blue eyes. Besides the heavenly graphic, the sound is also top notched. Swords shatter on shield. Wood splinters on contact. This game deserves to be play on 5.1 surround sound. When you throw a sword, and it’s flying, and then it hits a wall, you can actually hear the light sound of the sword colliding with the ground.

Along with great technical sound, the music soundtrack could not be describe in any other word except moving. One of my favorite track was the violin track that was used to convey Nariko’s sadness at the destruction that was caused to her land by King Bohan. There is great emotion in the music, and when used in combination with the near perfect acting, it’ll feel as if you’re in a AAA blockbusters. Almost every music piece feels right for the scenes they’re in. There are some slight ones that I do not like however. Certain battle tracks weren’t memorable, and one or two felt completely out of place. But overall, the music were fit for the moment.

Gameplay

Let me get this out straight away. Yes, the game does play similar to the God of War series. No, there is almost zero puzzles (using hats to throw at gongs do not count). But two things set Heavenly Sword into its own standard and away from the God Of War shadows. First, is the ability to switch on-the-fly your combat stances. There are three in total. Speed (default), range (holding L1), and power (holding R1). I found myself using speed the most throughout the game, except for certain bosses and enemies that you would need power to get rid of. Blocking is done automatically by matching the color of the attack to the your stance. Speed blocks blue. Power blocks orange. Red is unblockable (although sometimes I was able to block it by using power). Heavenly Sword also incorporates a counter system, where when the enemy attacks you, and you successfully block it, if you immediately tap the Triangle button, you could perform a counter (which could sometimes be fatal).

I’ll have to admit. There were certain points in the game where all I did to beat the enemy was to use counter. That’s how fun it is. The animation is so smooth, and the counter so fun to look at, I would find myself standing in one place to let the enemy hit me so I could counter him.

The second thing that sets Heavenly Sword away from GoW is the aftertouch system. Basically, to throw something or shoot something, you press Square. If you hold it down, the item is thrown, but the camera follows the item, and using either the analog stick or motion control, you can guide where the items would go. There’s a sense of weird satisfaction when you guide one of Kai’s bolt into a soldier’s head, and see their body react to it. Another fun thing to do is grab the body of the enemy (usign X), and then using the aftertouch to throw the dead soldier’s body into the path of oncoming enemy. It’s like bowling…but with human bodies. Seriously, the aftertouch is so ingenious that it sometime makes the kinda repetitiveness of Kai’s side mission into a fun challenge as to where you can hit the soldier’s body. A good challenge is to shoot him in the leg, causing him to bend over, and then shooting him in the buttocks.

Ah yes, the gameplay does not entirely consist of just Nariko’s swordplay, but also Kai’s bowplay. There are certain parts in the game where you take the role of Kai, and she uses a crossbow to do her damage. You shoot through an over-the-shoulder camera angle (or zoom in if you wish). I like the distractions that it provided by not making Nariko’s swordplay to be repetitive, but I wished they could have given her more puzzles to do, and not just shoot a bolt through a fire.

As you perform your combos, you get style points. The more style points you get, the more ‘orbs’ you get. As you get ‘orbs’, you’ll unlock extras like artwork, and new combos. Unfortunately, the new combos that you unlock doesn’t really do any additional damages, so if you want, you can just keep sticking to one combo, and you’ll still be able to beat the game with it.

There is also the what I would like to call, deathblow. As you begin to deal damage, on the upper left, there are glyphs. There are three overall, and you unlock them as you earn the orbs. When at least one of the orbs is fill, you can then press the “Circle” button to perform a deathblow onto the enemy, which, a lot of the time, deals with wrecking the enemy’s crotch area. The more glyphs you have, the more area damage your deathblow can do. These deathblow animations are a sight to behold. Each stances have their own deathblow for each glyphs, so I highly suggest you guys try them all out.

Replayability

Unfortunately, this part is Heavenly Sword’s black sheep. You see, as you go through the game, you’ll continuously unlock new artwork, combo moves, and other extra items. Because of that, once you’ve beaten the game, there’s no incentives to go play the game again unless you want to try it on Hell Mode that’s unlock after the first completion, or try to get 3-orbs in all chapters and subchapters. There’s no new gameplay mode, or anything of that sort. I do not know if they ran out of time, or ran out of idea, but, it took me, from beginning to end, only around 6 hours to beat the game. I haven’t tried Hell Mode yet, or try to get all the orbs, but 6 hours is still pretty short for a game that’s being touted as a next-gen game (although it should now be called a now-gen game).

Final Score

The Good: Emotional storyline, combined with great acting, motion capturing, and involving music, and you have a tear-jerker on your hand. Gameplay is fresh, somewhat new. Three stances of fighting offers inventive ways on how to dispatch an enemy and the aftertouch is an ingenious touch that other games should try to incorporate. The dialogs are witty, the swordfighting is responsive, and the slick menu presentation is wonderful.

The Bad: Framerates kinda drop when there’s a lot of things going on. There are some moments when you could roll your eyes at the overacting. Lack of puzzles make this game a pure combat game. Not enough enticement to use earned combos because they don’t really deal more damage or anything. Kai’s mission could have use more variety besides just shooting.

The Ugly: 6 hour gameplay for $60 game. Some people might find that the storyline, and the presentation is worth it. Others might not.

Final Score: 16/20

(edit: I originally wanted to do a review out of a 20 scale, but forgot about it.  I made the change accordingly)