Heavenly Sword – First Impressions

The demo weighed in at 996MB and I watched as every byte crawled its way from Sony’s Playstation network down to my PS3. This was a game I’d been looking forward to. I was one of the thousands who gawped in wonder at last year’s E3 at the gameplay trailer on show and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and try it out for myself. Over a year later and my wait is finally at an end.

Having played most of the launch titles and the immediate release list looking barren, I was hoping for a demo that would give my PS3 some life whilst I wait for the deluge of ‘Fall’ – that’s autumn in English – releases to turn up in my post box. How disappointed I was.

The opening cut scene is beautifully shot with colours and pastel-shades glistening in all their high definition glory. A press of an X-button later and I’m leaping from guy rope to guy rope performing somersaults and all manner of acrobatic feats before a quick tap of the square-button saw Nariko – our heroine – scissor kick the closest enemy in the face before landing in style with all the poise of a Nureyev.

I now found myself poised on a narrow precipice surrounded by at least 10 enemies. With a multitude of combos at my disposal I got stuck in. It is here that the game really begins to feel like God War. Not that that’s bad thing in itself but it doesn’t seem to have added anything new to the combat. One could argue that the array of moves Nariko can pull off and the amount of baddies on the screen at once is a step up from the last generation, but I would call it a step sideways. This sentiment was cemented by the fact that I dispensed of everyone on the cliff on the first time of asking in under 3 minutes by tapping triangle and circle at the same time.

Another cut scene ensued and before I know it I’m surrounded again. This time I’m in a market place and barrels and stalls smash into pieces as the enemies fly from my spinning sword attacks and deadly counter moves. Another 3 minutes later, Nariko surrounded by slain bodies barely has time to think as three more armed-to-the-teeth guards burst through an otherwise locked wooden gate. I hold down R1 to ready my powerstance, grip the controller tighter and...

...then it ends. That’s it.

So after a couple of play-throughs I managed to play through the whole demo in under 5 mins. I went into the options menu to add the six-axis camera tilt but that just seemed like another wasted use of motion control.

So after waiting so long Ninja Theory wave the chocolate cake under this starving man’s nose and pull it away again before I could get a proper mouthful. The morsel that I did taste however was delicious, although nothing about it set it apart from the other cakes out there. Anyway, before I get too hungry I’ll say this: The Heavenly Sword demo is a woefully short and an all too familiar single player experience. If Kratos could actually die he’d be turning in his grave. All that being said and done, I did have a ton of fun, which is what playing games is all about, isn’t it?