Heavenly Sword is some of the most fun I've had with a game this year, despite its numerour critical flaws. I have repeatedly said that if reviewing it, I would give it no more than a 6 or 7, because although I may recommend it, that recommendation will come with a list of caveats and qualifiers.
I said the best thing about the game is that it put Ninja Theory on the map for me. I will be watching what they do next.
I think above all else, the major flaw with Heavenly Sword, and the flaw that was a contributing factor to most of its other flaws, was that Ninja Theory bit off more than they could chew as far as technology goes. The game looked great in screens, but between the shadow glitches and the framerate slowdown, a lot of its majesty was lost in motion. Also, the focus on blatant envelope pushing meant that asset creation had to focus on high resolution everything, and technical wizardry, and that sort of focus really limits how much content you can get in a game.
So we have a game that was supposed to be a justification for the PS3, by a dev that didn't have a rep for making high tech games. Because of the focus on tech, the game shipped without much content or polish, and was riddled with technical issues?
But the combat, the combat was great. It was its own take on the fancy fighting genre. Since it's a very reaction, counter-based system, it may be a little slow for, say, the Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry set, but I found the combat cool looking and very satisfying. It had just the right amount of depth. The bad part of the combat? The game's slowdown and technical issues required the difficulty to be simplified, since all that slowdown could fuck with the player's conception of timing windows. I can't really criticize a game for being forgiving when it comes to difficulty, but it could have stood to be a bit more difficult, especially what with how little content there was.
Also, the game's got killer presentation in cut scenes. Some of the best voice work in gaming. Whoever was responsible for putting the story together made something pretty interesting out of a typical story, and the voice acting and superbly animated cut scenes helped seal that deal. It's also worth mentioning that the game is a nice twist on the fantasy setting.
I liked Heavenly Sword a lot, and I was fairly sure I would hate it after the demo. It was one of my most memorably gameplay experiences of the year.
