Nariko - The hottest thing since Lara?

The suggestion that the PS3 is simply a glorified movie player may seem a tad harsh, but for those owners feeling rather glum, having forked out a grand, it's been a bitter pill to swallow as they watch plethora of platform identifying titles being released on the competitor's side (Bioshock, Halo 3, Gears of War in particular). In the scheme of things though, it's still early days in the life of a console that should shine given the opportunity, and that's been proven by the recent release of Heavenly Sword. Pushing aside the mountains of hype surrounding the title (it's been long touted as showcasing the technical brilliance of the console, and bringing strength to what's been a sore lack of quality titles on the system so far), PS3 owners won't have all their prayers answered with this one, but it does go a fair way in showing off the impressive quality we can expect from the console and its development gods in the near future.

Heavenly Sword's story is, not surprisingly, based around a sword, graced by the heavens in the final moments of an apocalyptic struggle against forces of Evil. Predictably, once it's in human hands, every butthead capable of holding a sword wants the new blade for himself, and a succession of strife ensues across the land. Sick of the rampant and never-ending feuds for the sword, along comes a clan of peace loving nosey types intent on protecting the weapon until the prophecy was fulfilled. That is, when the clan's leader, Master Shen, fathers mankind's saviour against the return of Evil - King Bohan, a thoroughly nasty bastard and the main antagonist in the game. As expected, nothing ever goes according to prophecy and Master Shen sires a daughter - Nariko, not quite the almighty male warrior promised to lead them to a brighter future. The clan takes this as a portent of doom, with Master Shen heartrendingly agreeing with the sentiment, resulting in a tense relationship between father and daughter (or rather, master and student). Not to give the men any satisfaction, Nariko digs deep and find the strength within herself to resolutely take up the mantle of saviour - but more importantly, to lead the fight on her own terms, ignoring prophecies altogether. With her beautiful curves mesmerizingly half-hidden by a small amount of clothes and topped off with blood-red flowing hair that would make Medusa hiss in envy, Nariko takes the prize as the best looking babe to ever grace a gaming screen – and I mean ever.

So far the game's premise wouldn't strike anyone as noteworthy - it's just another stock standard, domestic type fantasy story with the perfect but tragic hero(ine) battling on two fronts: one within herself, where she must protect or use a special object, while also battling the stereotypical baddies - all the time surrounded by your typical number of lieutenants, who want what she's got, no matter the cost. The game's saving grace comes with the delivery of the narrative that turns this game into something altogether different, something that forces you to throw that faithful grain of salt you've dearly held onto for years over the shoulder and take the entire story more seriously than you'd ever expect.

Or maybe this guy is?

With the game's pace driven by King Bohan's dogged pursuit of Master Shen's clan with the majority of the action focused around Nariko, it just so happens that the game's regular trail of in-game cut-scenes is the perfect vehicle to deliver what is the most outstanding display of facial animation seen off (or for that matter on) any big budget theatrical release. This goes beyond cinema. This is what virtual reality will surely be based on in years to come. This not only raises the bar, this blows the roof off of current expectations, cinematic or gaming. Every muscle on the face moves with shocking realism, as does the lip-synching and the very fluid body movements. This level of detail is particularly intriguing in how it adds another layer of emotional complexity and believability to the assembled cast of characters. If there was a game just begging for a film adaptation, this is it.

It's obvious a lot of attention was placed into portraying the characters with previously unheard of depth and detail through motion-capture technology so it's not surprising to find Gollum, err, I mean Andy Serkis performing as the vocal and motion capture actor of King Bohan, as well as being overall Dramatic Director within the game. One character that has to win the award for gaming's all time's cutest supporting role is Kai, Nariko's adopted sister. Moving with feline grace, Kai is the type of character you wish you could hug the crap out of for ages, but at the same time slap silly for being so damn, well, cute! This is possibly the best example of the depth of characterisations and emotional engagement found within Heavenly Sword.

On top of all that, the graphics are the best I've seen on any platform, let alone being the best looking game on the PS3. Within the game's six chapters, you'll be captivated by some incredibly picturesque landscapes and Babylonian styled edifices. Best of all is the manner at which the objects explode or buildings fall apart in glorious precision. This one's best viewed on as big a screen as possible.

Even though the combination of superb dialogue, perfect voice acting and some mesmerizing locations leads to some great gaming experiences, the overall stylistic interpretation of Heavenly Sword is slightly inconsistent. There's no denying the Eastern artistic direction of the game, with influences coming from the likes of Akira Kurosawa and his tendency for epic warfare, subdued levels of colour on large canvasses. This is placed together with the Asiatic features of Nariko and the clan while they speak in English accents. Then mix in an overwhelmingly western plot line with the majority of the bad guys carrying Caucasian features (dare I suggest a sub-plot here...) while the overall musical flavour expresses a Middle Eastern air and you have an innocuous yet slightly jarring experience.

Heavenly fighting sequences

Where the game disappoints is its chronic emphasis on finger-aching button mashing against an enemy AI whose main fighting methodology is via strength in numbers rather than complex routines. Without going into too much analysis in the button mashing, Heavenly Sword's fighting system is purely focused on hitting the right sequence of buttons in hope to make Nariko perform a range of standard blocks, attacks and special attacks. The end result is inevitably a mixture of yawn inducing moves and jaw-dropped, eye-bleeding visual spectaculars. It's based on how well you can remember which buttons to press when, based on the three available fighting Stances, Speed Stance, Range Stance and the more powerful, Power Stance. With progression comes increased difficulty and new unlocked moves, with the main attention to difficult encounters reserved for fighting King Bohan's small number of interestingly vile sub-lieutenants. The amount of button mashing in Heavenly Sword is interesting in that part way through the game, you tend to forget about the why and focus on the how, focusing on trying to stay alive through some annoyingly inane boss fights. In some instances, you'll feel strangely disconnected from the intricate nature of the fight, preferring instead to monotonously churn out those harder combos, running on pure instinct rather than any rational thought process. For some unadulterated, mindless fighting, Heavenly Sword has it in spades and then some.

Although taxing on the poor fingers, the game's few puzzles seemed implemented solely to break up the continuous fighting sequences rather than for story's sake. Coming across the occasional blocked path, it takes no brain power to figure out what is what, even without the helpful visual clues. Lastly, expect a few scripted instances where action sequences are managed by hitting the right button at the right moment.

Now and again the game allows you to take a breather from the endless button bashing, allowing you to engage in some enjoyable set pieces. In these breaks you'll be able to pound the hordes of enemies and larger targets such as large enemy catapults with a hand cannon or rocket launchers playing as Nariko, or fire arrows from a very strange crossbow-styled contraption when playing as Kai. Now normally we'd be happy with aiming fired projectiles in the normal fashion of lining up targets at various angles and then simply hitting the 'fire' button. In this instance and what has to be the best implementation of the SixAxis motion control ever, you have the ability to directly control projectiles with a feature called "aftertouch'. Firing said projectile then holding down the L1 button immediately places you behind the moving object, which also initiates a form of slow-time in the wider world. While it takes some time in getting used to the controls, it's pure joy as you weave the object in half-precise movements, hopefully resulting in being able to hit the required target. Without revealing too much, one section had you playing as the lovable Kai, trying to 'protect' a slowly moving object on a bridge from possible harm. This resulted in some beautiful moments as I weaved arrows into incoming enemy troops coming in from both directions, hitting sections of the body which under any circumstance would result in permanent injury, if not instant death. It's a perfect control system which should have been included in more instances during the game, rather than just acting as an adjunct to the more mindless button mashing.


Concept art from Heavenly Sword showing the beautiful landscapes from within the game

This game shouldn't be judged on what it doesn't do well, such as the lacklustre combat system but rather what it does very, very, well and that's the compelling amount of depth within the character portrayals, the beautiful emotional complexity and the immense levels of cinematic immersion. In most moments of the game you'll feel like it's a movie, rather than a game. It's a hugely entertaining hack 'n' slash action adventure game that's filled with memorable moments and stands to be a shining light within the desolate expanse that is the range of decent PS3 games. If anything, it does show that redheads do have the most fun.