And it has nothing to do with your length, so you can breath again about that. But there are some other concerns that found its way under my skin and constantly cause problems for my well being as a gamer.

All spoilers are shrunk in order to preserve those who haven't played the game for one reason or another...mostly life failure.

Usually I am not a stickler for graphics or prettyness but you had some. Especially at the end with the king and raven coming together, that looked unbelievable and I thought I was looking at a real person. But when you are staring at beauty, epic scenes, and vastness of battlefields, it helps if you are constantly seeing the picture. Not once or twice, but quite a few times the screen gittered. This a framerate issue? You have stumbled and crawled here and there. The funny part is that this wasn't during the combat sections. It was when I was walking down a hallway or around a corner. What type of special corner was that?

You are quick with your stuff. Starting up and pre-load was just fine and everything goes at a really good speed, until I die (and it is hard not to). Of course there are a few times when I died you kicked me back into the game quickly but other times there is an annoying loading screen that is there too often. Maybe it is just me and I expect too much from the "pre-loader." I just assume it means no loading screens. But that might be asking too much.



My biggest beef is the main aspect of the game, the combat. Instantly Heavenly Sword screams "Goddess of War" or God of Ware Lite, but Ninja Theory was desperate to make you not seem like a rip off by changing the combat. There is one sword but it can change into three different types of weapons for quick, range, and strong attacks. It's pretty much like having three different weapons except no choosing which one to use. Well it is possible, but it was in my best interests not to do that.

Your fighting is based on blocking which is all sorts of irony since there is no block button, more on that later. Each attach is a different color. Match the colors to win. I am serious. See a yellow heavy attack, try to do a yellow heavy counter. Repeat with the blue and ranged weapons. I believe it takes away the strategy of combat and replaces it with "how fast can I react to colors." But to block I must do nothing? Don't attack to block. Such a simple concept but why does it seem to not work? On top of this, one of the attacking buttons (triangle) is used to counter a move by matching colors. In comes timing issues. Thanks to your set-up, if I poorly time the counter it is an attack and no blocking.


But the blocking is a huge issue with you. Now I am not upset that enemies can block, they have the same moves to make it "fair." My problem is the extent to this blocking which is all the time. Swing and swing and clink, clink, clink. This is especially irritating when you have me fight a boss who blocks and takes a lot of hits to kill. There is a strategy for every boss but sometimes it is just so frickin' annoyed waiting. It is an action game, I want action not suspense on what might happen next. Oh and I forgot about the red attacks the enemies (especially bosses) use. Those stupid reds...red means it can't be blocked. If the enemies get this move, why can't you?

The only way to get by the red attack is to roll out of the way with the right analog stick. Well that is just great except for your button layout. Triangle and Square are to attack and for some reason it just seems so far away from the stick. Seems like you really wanted a hard hit on the Triangle button like God of War even though it would be more logical to put the attack buttons closer to the stick. I mean X is only used to pick up items and actions, circle is used for....action sequences? Just seems button layout is not well conceived.


Despite these controls, I managed to beat you.Thankfully she dies at the end cause I don't want to see a Heavenly Sword 2, although I am upset that she wasn't burnt cause now she can be reincarnated which is not good for anyone. At some point you turned into an extreme button masher. No skill required and it was even harder to block the end since he was shrowded by blackness. The end became a test to see who can press the Triangle/Square button the most. I finally beat him but he won in the end by killing me multiple times and taking my prescious time that I could've spent killing zombies.

I don't know how the demo is but I can't recommend this title to anyone unless you can borrow it for free. The combat system just left me so frustrated. Heavenly Sword, you have become my first let down Playstation 3 game. You had some cool ideas and some of the characters were really likeable (the main chick was hot but she looked 2038 different races, which is the truth?), I even loved the sniping/arrow/cannon sections a lot. But in the end you are a fighting/action game that rubs me the wrong way with its fighting system. You should've just stuck with GoW's way of battling.


But behold, the real reason why gamers will play with you...






Not to mention she knows how to cock a cannon...