Heavenly Sword First Impressions

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Watching Nariko grab an enemy's incoming punch, wrap her leg over his arm, twist him to the ground and snap his neck; or admiring her grab an enemy's leg, lift it up with a twist so his groin's exposed, and then plant a painful kick to boot him 15 feet, it's probably important to remember that these are everyday, vanilla responses. We've not tasted cherry yet.

Because there's no suggestion Heavenly Sword will do all this and nothing more. In which case, being able to counter easily - often resulting in a cool zoom-lens view of Nariko contorting to snap someone's back or neck, or hurl them into an abyss - and segue into aerial combos at the touch of a button could be a boon rather than a bust.

We're also rather taken with the "aftertouch" system. Nariko can use the X button to pick up objects in the environment and hurl them at her enemies, using the (optional) Sixaxis tilt to affect their trajectory with an accompanying camera close-up. I happily played through the demo half a dozen times simply playing with boulders. Call me simple (which is probably on the cards, given today's premise), but I can handle more of that sort of thing.

Once enemies are dead, you can grab their swords and throw them. It's clunky, but could become cool.

On top of that, there's the pinnacle of Nariko's arsenal, the Superstyle moves. As you fight, the little spots in the midst of her health bar in the top-left of the screen start to glow red. There are three, and each represents another level of Superstyle. Filling up more means the difference between a beautifully unpleasant big-sword to the groin killing sequence - once again framed-up gratuitously by the invisible cameraman - and a violent, wide-reaching chain attack that takes out half the enemies in the area.

Elsewhere, the wistful aura that Ninja Theory's seen fit to conjure in cut-scenes has taken a backseat to complaints about the fact it's only in 720p, and slows down on top of the cliff. This is entirely to ignore the way that Nariko's lips quiver as the narration contemplates the suffering of her father, or the developer's breakthroughs in marrying facial movement to speech convincingly. Or the fact that Kai is the most convincingly animated head-case our addled brains can remember. Good face-paint, too.

It's true that you begin as the game struggles to articulate itself - so many waterfalls cascading into the gorge, mingling with wafting blossom, Nariko's dancing locks, swaying flowers and acres of scenery and causing a bit of a logjam in the RSX department. But as you proceed into battle it flattens out in the right area, animation is consistently logical to the point of being able to pick out incoming attacks in a seas of limbs, and it's all drawn up to a rumbling soundtrack that never over-reaches, twinkling occasionally.

An older shot of Nariko's face. When you see her in-game, she really comes to life.

Granted, we've seen games that are as impressive to behold, but they weren't exactly slouching among the also-rans when they were.

Overall, though, whether you appreciate the demo or not seems to be a question of where what we're seeing fits on the game's scale. You can argue all day about how it sits within the context of its peers, and it's hard to fault a lot of the reasoning. But looking beyond that, as Ninja Theory surely must have been, and viewing this as a precursor to their bigger picture rather than the endgame, there's reason to be cheerful. Or at least cautiously optimistic.

Either way, with just over a month to go and a new preview build set to rain down soon, it won't be long before Ninja Theory's work has to stand up to a sterner examination, and we'll be waiting. Bring it on, Gollum.