Nariko is controlled by using the left analogue stick for movement and the right for evasion. [L1] and [R1] enable you to adopt the Range Stance (using the
God of War-like chains) and the Power Stance (with your sword getting heavy and BIG) respectively, while using neither puts you in the Speed Stance. From there it's your shapely buttons for attacks and pick-ups of various kinds.
The system, unfortunately, is not without its flaws. Holding down the shoulder buttons to maintain a stance can be annoying. What's more annoying, however, is that [L2] and [R2] will tweak the camera in either direction, and a misplaced shoulder tap in the heat of battle will leave you staring off at a wall. Rotating the Sixaxis will also find the camera swivelling irritatingly, so enthusiastic gamers beware.
The combat system was, initially, a bit overwhelming. There's a goodly number of combos available, to the point where my addled memory failed a few times and left me button mashing. Since I didn't get to start at the beginning, however, I'm going to give Ninja Theory the benefit of the doubt and assume there's a bit more tutelage available than just digging through the options menu and trying to lodge them in one's grey matter.
Once properly strung together, however, the combos are rewarding. When you slip out a Superstyle attack (achieved by kicking ass beautifully to build up style points then hitting [O]) the camera will zoom in close and play your move in slow motion (immense fun, when your move involves smashing a downed enemy in the groin with your giant sword, even if the gore effects are a bit lacking). Nariko, I discovered, has something of a penchant for wrapping her lovely thighs around her foes' heads in order to do them damage. I was awed at the benevolence of her killing moves.
Similarly, there are a few nice touches like being able to control thrown objects in mid-flight with the Sixaxis and being able to deflect arrows with a range attack.
The enemy AI is solid, although the volume of nasties attacking you can turn it into a frenzied slash fest. They will, however, do things like rank up and attack in unison, while others will take advantage of your back being turned to take a pop from the rear.
The build I saw was glitchy in places. At one point I vanquished all the enemies atop a natural column of rock. Once all my enemies were dead, the game should have enabled me to complete one of the interactive cut scenes, toppling the column towards the next batch of enemies to be dispatched. Instead, it left me stranded on the column, unable to even commit suicide by jumping off. There were also a couple of points where the game froze up entirely, forcing me to excruciatingly turn off the PS3. It was not without graphical glitches, either. As I've said before, however, this is preview code played on a debug unit.
Progression through the area I played was fairly linear. It consisted of melee combat in various set pieces, interspersed with interactive cut scenes and, as you'd expect, a reasonable helping of puzzles. They tended to revolve around throwing an object then holding [X] to guide its path and hit gongs to open doors and the like. These were entertaining, if not overly complex or challenging. Since this is par for the course for a hack-'n'-slasher, however, I'm not holding that against the game.
Overall,
Heavenly Sword's shaping up into an excellent game. It's not going to define next-gen gaming in terms of gameplay, but it does provide a solid, fun experience. Where it really shines is in the graphics, presentation and characterisation. It's the best-looking PS3 game I've seen in action, and the animation, scripting and voice acting are a definite leap forward.
