Tech News on G4'Heavenly Sword' cuts right to the actionOctober 16, 2007By Adam Swimmer - G4 Canada |
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You play Nariko, a great fighter, daughter of a warrior clan's chieftain and curse upon the world. Essentially the backstory is this: Her clan believes that in ancient times, a warrior came down from the heavens to protect them from evil. Once he defeated the threat, he returned to the heavens and left his magical sword behind. Over the centuries, many tried to used the sword to attain great power but the sword eventually killed each and every one of them. The clan had sworn to protect it until the prophesied rightful male heir would be born. But the female Nariko was born instead and the world plunged into darkness. Now the cursed warrior must protect her clan and the fabled sword from the clutches of the evil King Bohan who rules the land. And so she chooses to wield it herself knowing that it lead to her aforementioned demise. (The game is played in flashbacks.) Heavenly Sword is a mixture of hack and slash as Nariko fights her way through Bohan's countless minions and target practice as Nariko's tree-dwelling companion Kai, who's armed with bow and arrows. But both are far from the standard fare.
In the target practice sections, both Kai with her arrows and Nariko with her cannons and rocket launchers, the projectiles are controlled in the same way. Though, you're dealing with longer distances so it requires a little more finesse. It's enjoyable except when you have to engage in close range combat withKai, and not just hide in the trees and pick people off, as it's harder to shoot someone with an arrow when he's hacking at you with his sword. The game's graphics are breathtaking. Whether it's the fluid fight scenes, the waterfalls in the background or the cinematics themselves, I'd say you'd be hard-pressed to find a game that looks better. And some of you will surely be drooling over the countless overhead shots of Nariko as you try to stare down her low-cut top at what no one bother rendering.
Berkoff, who although a prolific actor and writer, is probably best known as drug smuggling art dealer Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop, gives a whimsical performance as he taunts Nariko and Kai in fight scenes. But it is Serkis (the man who gave humanity to Gollum and King Kong) that steals the show. His hysterical fits of apoplectic rage as he watches his army constantly fail to kill Nariko are hilarious. His voice rises to a shrill, cartoonish level that I haven't heard since Christopher Lloyd screamed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, “Remember me Eddie? When I killed your brother. I talked just like this!” Bohan also makes the odd reference to his genitals for no apparent reason. It's amusing but kind of disturbing at the same time. But genitalia aside, what's important is that the game is fun to play. I quite enjoyed hacking up all the baddies, setting off explosives with arrows and throwing corpses around willy nilly. And the gameplay changes up often enough to keep you from getting bored. The game has some drawbacks: extremely long load times, the inability to skip certain cutscenes and a couple of downright annoying boss fights, namely the one with the king's mentally and physically deformed son Roach (who looks like a fatter, though slightly less repulsive Sloth from the Goonies in turtle shell body armour) and against Bohan himself. Still, it's easily the best title to come out for the PlayStation 3 so far.
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What better way to start off an action game than by throwing the protagonist into hordes of enemies who she must fight until the enchanted weapon she wields drains all her life force and she dies? Well, that's exactly how Heavenly Sword begins.
With Nariko's variety of combos, at times, the moves seem more elaborate than fighting titles, such as Tekken or X-Men vs. Street Fighter. You can even pick up random objects from the ground, such as shields, weapons, dead bodies, and throw them at enemies. While in flight, you can control these objects' trajectory with the motion sensor on the SIXAXIS controller. It doesn't take to long to learn how to manoeuvre them. And this is coming from someone who got frustrated with Flow quite quickly.
Unfortunately, most of the acting is somewhat hollow. Only Andy Serkis as King Bohan and Steven Berkoff as one of his henchman, Flying Fox, put any kind of energy into their parts. And that's because they both ham it up to no end.
Heavenly Sword
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G4 Canada (formerly TechTV Canada) launched in September 2001. G4 is the one and only television station that is plugged into every dimension of games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes. Owned Rogers Media Inc., the channel airs more than 24 original series. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite. For more information, see www.g4tv.ca.