Heavenly Sword Comments by Kristan Reed

Never thought I'd say it, but this might be worth a patch! What if Ninja Theory would patch the game online so you have an option to play using another combat technique set? (as in, you get that block button and some other combat tuning). Such a shame that something that is so (relatively) easy to fix is breaking a game that is otherwise so stunning!

>>"Actually, it has a 2 after its name ;) "
>>
>>Army of or Fable 2?Army of or Fable 2?

Killzone

You know, as pretty as it is, I actually found the visual style they used in the animated backstory shorts to be a lot more interesting. Would love to see a PSN/XBLA game with graphics designed to look like that.

NegativeZero: You're not alone there.

@ headbog

You buy a brand new console for £425 and then start complaining about the lack of games?

Perhaps your mother could have used the £425 on a late 'termination' instead. ;P

@headbog

"So if what Krudster says is right, and skiping the cutscenes cuts the gameplay down even further, it looks like this is little more than an interactive movie."

Erm, skipping cutscenes will ALWAYS reduce playtime.

good not great, fine by me. After all we're very early into the console's life cycle. If I recall correctly there wasn't much great games on ps2 that early neither...oh wait when did Jak and Daxter came out? ah well... let's see how Uncharted will do then.

"It took me about eight hours in total. Slightly below the 10-12 hour par you expect."

What?- the review? :p

What's with this "skipping the cutscenes makes the game even shorter" stuff? Of course it does, but assuming the game has a decent story, it's not like the cutscenes are filler.

I remember GameSpot's review of Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 slated it because they said that if you skipped all the cutscenes, you could beat the game in three hours or something. Well, yes, but you'd be MISSING THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE GAME.

Headbog

RE: BadBoyBonner

You're kidding, right? Practically all the development seems to have centred around getting the cut scenes to look amazing.

BBB> That is what I said. They have shown the highest quality levels in any interactive game’s cut scenes, which you seem to agree with whilst simultaneously ask if I am kidding. You seem confused – I mentioned nothing of the game itself.

You then added

Andy Serkis and Weta Digital happen to be the same duo involved in a certain CGI Charactor that covets a ring, along with a giant ape...

BBB> Erm, do you think that is fresh information to me? About the ring ,ape, Andy or Weta? Perhaps you need to do a little more research into leading edge CGI and Mo-cap technique's.

I'll let the developer speak for themselves....

"To put that in perspective, in Lord of the Rings when they captured Andy Serkis as Gollum they only did body. The face was all hand animated matched to video. When they did Kong, they did the body first, then Andy had to head match separately, then he overdubbed the voice on top. Because we shot all of our stuff out at Weta (Workshop) with Andy in New Zealand, with Andy Serkis as a dramatic director, when we shot out stuff Weta developed new technology that took it from those three separate elements to all of them together and multiple actors as well. So that was certainly groundbreaking...."

"Put simply, it feels like it's trying too hard to be different for the sake of it, and throws all manner of good, well-established ideas out to its detriment."

Exactly.

Still getting the game though. Don't want to miss out on all that inspired art work.

Tomonobu Itagaki was right then, eh?

Sorry, I really couldn't resist!

/expects negative things

Actually, it has a 2 after its name ;)

Killzone?

One thing's for sure!....It's a good game! Now we'll see how good a game it is when we finally get our hands on it.

I thought this was meant to be really bad? Or was that just anti-sony propaganda?

Another decent exclusive... I may have to buy a PS3 fairly soonish...

@ headbog

I'm sorry if you thought I was attacking you...I was simply pulling your (third) leg.

...

Soooo, school starts soon. Have you polished your new shoes? ;)

I think ratchet will be great....
I feel that the concept of the beat em up adventure, is essentially flawed.

lair got 4.9 on IGN...

Warhawk gets an 8 and people love it, Heavenly sword gets a 7 and people say its a flop??? confusing. Tis a good review and sounds like a good game, will pick it up and no doubt enjoy it. If you think 7 is a shit score and it will be a shit game all you have to do is not buy it..........then drink a lot of drain cleaner.

7 is of course by no means a bad score, and I'm glad people are 'realising' that, but the double standards of some posters who would ravage a 7-scoring 360 exclusive review makes me chuckle.

I can't believe people still put so much emphasis on the score at the end. I'd like to know if these people, having kittens about a 7, have actually read the words. It all makes perfect sense if you do. It's a good review for a good game. It explains everything you need to know. Gah!

UmUmUmUm another AAA bites the dust...

"The problem is, when your spending £425 on a games system, you expect it to have games that justify that expense. "

Also, if you're shelling out that amount of dosh, you should know, or at least research, what the system has in its near future, and should never assume that any game is going to be AAA status just because the system cost £425.

For that way lies bitterness.

Gears of War 2, dudes!

Discuss it here!

:oD

I didn't pay £425 for a games console.

I paid £425 for a sexy black box that sits under my 1080p TV and does everything I want a box under the TV to do. And play games.

"I'd like to know if these people, having kittens about a 7,"

Nobody in this comments section has said it's a bad game or that a seven is a bad score. Can't people be disappointed that the game isn't as good as they hoped? People wanted (and lets be fair where promised by NT and Sony) a game to rival the likes of Ninja Gaiden, DMC3, and the GoW's, but instead we're simply getting something good, and I'm sorry but I don't want to play good, i want to play exceptional.

@the_dudefather - Twing Twang's obviously bow and arrering, Kai's speciality. Think of the noise that firing a set makes. :)

It looks like, from this description:

"I might add - the unlockable Hell mode's a different story, in as much as it'll kick your arse if you don't know exactly what you're doing)."

that you could use the Normal mode to learn the mechanics and stuff before potentially learning a very painful lesson, if you hadn't been concentrating the first time! When you go to play Hell, which from the sounds of things would make the game last longer, as you try to play with greater flair, all motion picture style.

Are there puzzles in it?

None in the traditional sense. You fling a sort of frisbee and guide it (in first person) to pressure pads a few times in the game in order to open gates, but that's about the extent of puzzling.

Someone should say this, if only to get it out the way and seeing as I'm in a trolling mood...........

6-8 hours? Isn't that the length of time Gears of War takes to complete? And weren't all the card-carrying SDF members crowing over it, pointing out how the brevity of the game was due solely to the limitations of the optical medium the 360 went with?

Let's see, both games have excellent graphics, both are 6-8 hours in length, both are totally linear game environments, Heavenly Sword has loads more enemies on screen at once but Gears of War has multiplayer and hop-in-hop-out co-op.

Seems to me that both games are kind of on a par, technically-speaking.

So what benefit, precisely, has the multiple-capacity-of-DVD Blu-Ray technology brought to Heavenly Sword that would not possibly have been achievable on the 360?

Anyone?

/skips off merrily to watch from afar.

And it may just be my poor playing, but I'm sure Gears took longer than 8 hours to complete. I'd personally say it was near 12.

@tonnynibles
+1

40W2000 here, what did you got?

@bioreit

You can't really use one game as an example, in this case the developer run out of time or money to make the game longer (at a guess)

BD is offering an advantage EPIC have stated that UT3 on PS3 will have more content on the disc then the 360 version

It's not too difficult to spot the trolls.

They all seem to have 'Bio' at the start of their usernames.

It's even easier when they say "seeing as I'm in a trolling mood".

7 is not bad all, just enough to satisfy my action/adventure needs (which is very hungry).

But the 6-8hrs linear gameplay is a turn-off. But I would advice ps3 owners to give it a whirl.

From playing the very short demo of heavenly sword, it was apparent to many that the combat was pretty much a button masher. Like many I looked for the block button and when Nariko would occasionally block, I thought I had stumbled upon it (only to get pasted seconds later when I tried to use the button again!).

The review seems spot on to me. The game feels epic in scope but crappy in implementation. They obviously played God Of War so why the hell didn't they notice the way it rewards you new power moves for weapons and allows you to nick the boss weapons too.

The strange thing is that the heavenly sword story lends itself perfectly to this type of progression. The sword feeds on the deaths of your enemies as well as your own life force so why doesn't that power it up? Perhaps stances could have been earned by spending captured souls etc. etc. Imagine a cut sequence where the sword morphs to grow chains for the ranged stance or elongates ahd grows heavier for the power stance. There was so much potential here.......

You know.. are all those 2000 hours cut scenes and Bluray gimmicks really necessary?

http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthr...

Castle Crashers seems to do the same thing as HS but in 100 MB ;) and probably better. I wonder if, in a way, PS3 has been cursed by Bluray as devs feel obliged to create games filled to the brink with beautiful hours of nonsense.

Warhawk seems to be a good example of a great game, that doesn't aim to justify Bluray. Ironic no that it seems to be the best game on PS3 this year and you can just download it from PSN. Reminds me of the first few years of "CD-games". All junk, in a vain attempt to justify the medium.

"8 for a £19 game that will last for more than 6-8 hours and doesnt rely on cutscenes to pad it out is far, far better than a £40-50 game that relies on the latter. "

Im sure the 8 took into account it was a budget game. I bet had it been 40 quid it would not have recieved an 8.

Think im in the minority but i actually enjoyed the demo. Admittedly i was shocked at the length and it took a few goes before i started enjoying it. However after playing through it a few times im quite excited about the game. Frame rate is a bit of a worry mind.

@ bioreit

>So what benefit, precisely, has the multiple-capacity-of-DVD Blu-Ray technology >brought to Heavenly Sword that would not possibly have been achievable on the >360?
>
>Anyone?

About 11 different audio versions? Will boost sales.

Im still deciding which way to go on a new system. Currently i have a PS2 and like the PS3 (brother has one) however price is abit to high for me to justify. I do like the media hub bit and would def take advantage. Played on a friend 360 and liked that too plus its cheaper. Think ill wait a bit longer, probally till the new Pro comes out.

I think I'll wait for this to be a second hand buy.

Lair didn't get a very good review over on IGN (4.9). So I guess I'll be sticking to my 360 for the most part this Xmas.

Loving Hack and slashers like this, a 7 is a buy for me. Good stuff.

From the review this seems like another game to pickup. What with Warhawk and then this coming out, good times. I imagine these sort of beautiful action adventure games will appeal to the PS2 owning market looking to upgrade too. Indeed, PS3 is developing a nice range of games across the board.

It's not a poor review! It's a 7!

Anyway, I like hack-and-slashers, and based on this review, I would definitely buy Heavenly Sword if I had a PS3. But I don't, and this isn't going to make me buy one.

That's kind of what a 7 means to me.

@Gnort

My thoughts exactly

To Red Moose, Warhawk pisses all over every other online FPS? I don't think so. Obviously you've never played Battlefield 2 or 2142 on PC! Warhawk is a poor man's version of these games and after playing warhawk for 1 hour I was bored! Its maps are crap compared to the diversity found on BF2 and 2142 and the flying is poor! The PC is where you find the best online FPS experiences the consoles can't come close! I own PS3 and Xbox360 but really the only game that I think delivers a good online experience on console is Rainbow 6 vegas.

so maybe i missed it in the review between the bitching about the combo system and jammering about a missed frame, but was it a fun ride?

FUFFUX ACHE

SINCE WHEN DID 7 OUT OF 10 = A SHIT SCORE?

"FUFFUX ACHE

SINCE WHEN DID 7 OUT OF 10 = A SHIT SCORE?
"

FUFFUX ACHE

SINCE WHEN DID ANYONE SAY A 7 OUT OF 10 = SHIT SCORE?

By the way you Caps lock is on.

Dear Gingernathan,

peew971 "ouch!"
Steroyd "Uh Oh a Seven which is somehow a shit score, and... I'm out."
Bionick "Sevenly sword, I see what you did there... oh well another PS3 flop."
lockload "UmUmUmUm another AAA bites the dust..."

Love, Steev X!