I just installed it and played it today. I also just got Motorstorm today but ill go into that in a moment.
So the game so far is 'decent' at best. As far as fun factor goes, ill put it only sightly above LAIR (knowing how most of you feel about LAIR)
It does this bad split up the combat segments with these not very well tuned shooting segments. If you thought LAIR's controls were bad, you will think the shot 'aftertouch' bit is HORRIBLE...basically pushing square will fire cannon shots, crossbow bolts, etc...but if you press and hold square, you get a projectile cam view ride and the ability to tilt the sixaxis control to control the shots curve. Im expecting there to be enemies later in the game where you have to use this to place prescision shots hitting their weak-point etc...
The good:
+ fun dual stick combat
+ great animations, HAVOK implimentation, camera work, etc...
+ excellent counters and super moves
The bad:
- Mediocre graphics (from what I have seen so far playing up to the 4th 'stage')
- BAD, I mean BAD shadows - the shadow on her face from her hair looks like channel 00 TV noise....
- so far the combat stage areenas feel a bit like PS2 game detail stages...in fact this game feels like a PS2 game running on a computer with better textures and GPU based FX turned on
- vsynch tearing on some scenes like its bad on that stage where she defends the fort with the cannon.
- character animation framerate drop at times
These are just my initial impressions tho. AND I feel that the game could have been overshadoed by the fact that I also just got and played MotorStorm today. I had only played the demo before - and MotorStorm so far was way more fun than playing Heavenly Sword.
Ill post more as I play it more and form a more full opinion.