Every once in a while a game comes along that succeeds in becoming the standard barer for an entire platform.  That game is the embodiment of the buzzwords and bullet points bandied about by corporate executives to define their particular platform’s special sauce.  Sadly, Heavenly Sword isn’t that game.  Sad, because the game shines as a graphical showpiece but falls ever–so-short on so many other levels that it fails to become the platform defining experience that it could, or should, have been.

A Slice of Heaven

Like its redheaded protagonist, Nariko, Heavenly Sword is a real looker.  It will easily be “that game” you pull out to impress your friends.  The story unfolds in drop dead gorgeous CG cutscenes.  Nariko was born into a clan whose duty it is to protect a powerful, but cursed, sword of legend, the Heavenly Sword.  However, when attacked by King Bohan, Nariko is forced to wield the cursed Heavenly sword in order to save her father and clan leader, Shen.  All of the acting within the cutscenes is top-notch. 

In fact, Andy Serkis, of Lord of the Rings fame (you know, everyone’s favorite precious: Gollum), provided the voice and motion capturing for the evil King Bohan.  The only weakness in the cutscenes, besides a smattering of overacting, was poor lip-syncing.  In two separate play-throughs I encountered a few seconds of lag between the voices and animations during multiple cutscenes.  No, it doesn’t entirely ruin the experience, but it’s such an essential element that it really takes away from the scene.

Progression through Heavenly Sword’s levels is very linear, typically moving from one arena like encounter to another.  To spice things up, every so often you will switch from playing as Nariko to her “a-few-arrows-short-of-a-full-quiver” friend, Kai. Kai’s interspersed levels offer a welcome reprieve to Nariko’s sword based combat.  Armed with only her crossbow, Kai is all about sniping, or as she puts it—“Twing Twang”.  

Switching back and forth between Nariko and Kai is good fun, giving Heavenly Sword a Tarantino-ish vibe.  Typically, you’ll play a level as Nariko, then switch to playing as Kai during the same timeframe of the previous level.  It’s a shame that the developers didn’t include any co-operative gameplay with one player as Nariko duking it out arena style and another taking the role of Kai providing covering fire…er ‘twing twangs.’

Twing-Twang!

It would be a crime to not give Kai her due.  To put it bluntly, Kai’s sniping levels offer the best integration of sixaxis motion control into conventional gameplay yet (caveat: on the PS3).  Called “aftertouch”, holding down a button after firing an arrow will allow you to guide the projectile to its target by tilting the sixaxis controller.  “Aftertouch” really livens up what would otherwise be very rote, “by the books”, sniping missions.  Of course, Nariko can also use “aftertouch” when hurling objects, but the experience isn’t quite as refined, or enjoyable,  as it is with Kai.

Clink-Clank?

While Kai’s “aftertouch” powered sniping romps are a definite bright spot in Heavenly Sword, Nariko’s “heavenly” swordplay is by no means a dim bulb by comparison.  Heavenly Sword does an admirable job walking the line between wanton button mashing and combo-rific strategery.  While it would be possible for someone to make it through Heavenly Sword without paying heed to all of the possible button combos, the rewards for taking a slightly closer look at the combat system are fairly substantial. 

Enemies telegraph their intentions by taking on a peculiar glow just before they attack giving you the opportunity to block or counter their attack.  Successful counters reward you with some particularly bad%#@ animations and an instant kill.  Unfortunately, the combat system loses efficacy in boss battles, which, for the most part, devolve into exercises in pattern memorization capped off by preset animation sequences which are advanced by hitting the correct buttons that flash on the screen.  Sure the animations are spectacular, but having the control taken away from you is jarring, and the on-screen button flashes happen so fast that you’ll most likely be concentrating too hard on hitting the right button to appreciate the animation.

Better Than A Butter Knife?

Putting together a blockbuster title is tough work for any developer.  But it’s an especially tall order when your only other release is a quasi-obscure original Xbox party game (Kung Fu Chaos).  As a sophomore effort Heavenly Sword more than impresses, but when the most memorable element of your game is the fun, but one dimensional, sniping (with “aftertouch&rdquo escapades of the secondary character you have to admit that something is amiss.  Heavenly Sword is good, it’s even “pretty” good, but great? Not quite. But, if the guys at Ninja Theory can keep ratcheting up their production values at the current rate, their next title (safe money is on a Heavenly Sword sequel) should be sharp as knife.