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Sony's Fall 2007 PS3 lineup shows one obvious characteristic: it's composed of a lot of new IPs. With the exception of Singstar, Hot Shots Golf 5, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Warhawk (which is a rather obscure game from the PSone anyhow), there are no other major first-party releases coming from established IPs.
With Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm behind us, Sony's moving on to establish a number of new IPs in Lair, Heavenly Sword, FolkLore, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, The Eye of Judgement, and LittleBigPlanet.
The most anticipated of which in the near future is arguably Ninja Theory and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Heavenly Sword. The game made its debut at E3 a couple years back and has since then garnered massive interest from publications. A lot of coverage has gone into the title's high production levels, no doubt bolstered by the fact that Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings' Gollum) is serving as both animation director and acting in the game himself, as the antagonist King Bohan. WETA Workshops also played a large part in providing the technology that went into the game's art.
This game is being hyped as Sony's first major title for the fall, highlighting the first set of releases from August to October including Lair, Hot Shots Golf 5, FolkLore, Warhawk and The Eye of Judgement. A lofty task for a brand new franchise from a rather obscure developer, especially when Sony absolutely must kick their software lineup into high gear if they want to have a decent holiday.
Heavenly Sword tells the story of Nariko, a woman hellbent on vengeance. She was born into an ancient tribe tasked with guarding the Heavenly Sword, a blade crafted by and made for gods. Legend tells of a boy who will be born into the tribe with the ability to take up the blade, and who will lead his people to a new promised land. The time of the prophecy comes, but the tribe's chosen one is born a female, and looked upon with shame and disgrace. Nariko is seen as a curse upon her tribe, and in her adulthood, her people are slain and enslaved by the evil King Bohan, and she is blamed. Nariko takes up the Heavenly Sword, knowing full well that it will eventually kill her, ready to take revenge and murder Bohan.
After a few tense weeks of anticipation, the demo was released today on the PlayStation Network across the world. Does it live up to the task?
The first thing you notice when you start playing this game is, obviously, the production values. For a jumpstart franchise, Sony's definitely put a lot of money and work into making this game presentable. And it certainly is. The artistic composition is top-notch, blending western and eastern styles in its fantastic character work and environmental design. The music, while subtle in these early parts of the game, is exotic and beautiful. The voice work, while minimal in the demo, is acted extremely well, and the motion-captured animations, both movement and facial, are a spectacular sight to behold. Despite seeming a little bit jerky at times, movement and combat is extremely well animated. Shadow of the Colossus certainly comes to mind when you see Nariko running around.
Next up are the controls, which are solid and easy to learn. The biggest skepticism the game received from me for the longest time was that the game looked like a God of War clone. After finally getting my hands on it, it would appear that the game is nothing like Sony's other massive action-adventure epic. Now, the game does control similarly in the basic levels. Square and Triangle for attack, right stick to dodge, etc., but that's where any similarities end. For one, you don't jump in this game. Two, combat is more defense-oriented than offense-oriented. Everything in this game comes down to blocking and countering, and while it may seem odd that Nariko blocks attacks automatically, it's actually quite challenging. She can't block an attack unless she's in the right stance.
Which brings us down to stances: the game features a default "Speed Stance," a "Ranged Stance" triggered by holding L1, and a "Power Stance" triggered by holding R1. The titular Heavenly Sword alters its form to accompany each stance, and each stance features a wealth of different ground and aerial combos. Switching stances to match with your opponent is the key to surviving battle, and they can be changed on the fly to mix up your combos to a satisfying degree. When in the right stance, blocking is done automatically as I mentioned before, but counters can be performed. A regular counter can be used as an enemy is attacking you, but if you time it right, Nariko will perform a "Kill Counter," a marvelously portrayed act of overzealous violence initiated by the counter. There are quite a few of these for each stance, although there were reused animations once or twice throughout the time I spent with the demo. Either way, they're awesome to look at.
Combat features a few other additions to make it an all-around deeper experience, such as "Style Points" seen in most action games, which can be expended with the Circle Button to unleash a devastating super attack on your opponents. In addition, combat isn't easy (thank god). It's not about button mashing like God of War (all respect to Kratos). In fact, button mashing will get you killed. The AI's smart, and they actually attack you, instead of standing there waiting to be pummelled.
Unfortunately for anyone looking forward to spending some quality time with the game before its September 4th release, the demo is short. Ridiculously short. LUDICROUSLY short. It's all over in about 5 minutes, actually. There's a cutscene introducing the lovely heroine Nariko, explaining her conflict with the jerk-ass King Bohan, and talking about "twing-twang" or something with her oddball adopted sister Kai (who is also playable at some point in the game). You run down some ropes in style, land on an oddly placed platform, take out some enemies, destroy some stuff, take out some more enemies, and BAM. It's over in an instant. This was an extremely disappointing thing to behold, but that's only because I was loving the game. I played it a few times over again just to get a feel for the more complex nuances, such as Kill Counters and Aerial Combos, which really helped me appreciate it all the more.
That said, it's still unknown if Heavenly Sword can be the killer-app to kick off Fall 2007 that Sony needs it to be. The story sounds fantastic, the art direction is superb, and the gameplay is solid and exciting. The question is if Ninja Theory can mix it up like SCEA did, and provide a varied gaming experience like God of War offers, even if the two games play very differently. Combat is loads of fun and the game is obviously story-driven, but it could end up a lot less realized if the battles are all there is to it. We've seen a few puzzles in action in some of the latest videos, so hopefully there's enough of it. But seeing as how everything so far is turning out very well for Heavenly Sword, I have faith that it will indeed be a fantastic title, which will certainly be known for its groundbreaking production values and art direction, backed by solid and fun gameplay.
With Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm behind us, Sony's moving on to establish a number of new IPs in Lair, Heavenly Sword, FolkLore, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, The Eye of Judgement, and LittleBigPlanet.
The most anticipated of which in the near future is arguably Ninja Theory and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Heavenly Sword. The game made its debut at E3 a couple years back and has since then garnered massive interest from publications. A lot of coverage has gone into the title's high production levels, no doubt bolstered by the fact that Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings' Gollum) is serving as both animation director and acting in the game himself, as the antagonist King Bohan. WETA Workshops also played a large part in providing the technology that went into the game's art.
This game is being hyped as Sony's first major title for the fall, highlighting the first set of releases from August to October including Lair, Hot Shots Golf 5, FolkLore, Warhawk and The Eye of Judgement. A lofty task for a brand new franchise from a rather obscure developer, especially when Sony absolutely must kick their software lineup into high gear if they want to have a decent holiday.
Heavenly Sword tells the story of Nariko, a woman hellbent on vengeance. She was born into an ancient tribe tasked with guarding the Heavenly Sword, a blade crafted by and made for gods. Legend tells of a boy who will be born into the tribe with the ability to take up the blade, and who will lead his people to a new promised land. The time of the prophecy comes, but the tribe's chosen one is born a female, and looked upon with shame and disgrace. Nariko is seen as a curse upon her tribe, and in her adulthood, her people are slain and enslaved by the evil King Bohan, and she is blamed. Nariko takes up the Heavenly Sword, knowing full well that it will eventually kill her, ready to take revenge and murder Bohan.
After a few tense weeks of anticipation, the demo was released today on the PlayStation Network across the world. Does it live up to the task?
The first thing you notice when you start playing this game is, obviously, the production values. For a jumpstart franchise, Sony's definitely put a lot of money and work into making this game presentable. And it certainly is. The artistic composition is top-notch, blending western and eastern styles in its fantastic character work and environmental design. The music, while subtle in these early parts of the game, is exotic and beautiful. The voice work, while minimal in the demo, is acted extremely well, and the motion-captured animations, both movement and facial, are a spectacular sight to behold. Despite seeming a little bit jerky at times, movement and combat is extremely well animated. Shadow of the Colossus certainly comes to mind when you see Nariko running around.
Next up are the controls, which are solid and easy to learn. The biggest skepticism the game received from me for the longest time was that the game looked like a God of War clone. After finally getting my hands on it, it would appear that the game is nothing like Sony's other massive action-adventure epic. Now, the game does control similarly in the basic levels. Square and Triangle for attack, right stick to dodge, etc., but that's where any similarities end. For one, you don't jump in this game. Two, combat is more defense-oriented than offense-oriented. Everything in this game comes down to blocking and countering, and while it may seem odd that Nariko blocks attacks automatically, it's actually quite challenging. She can't block an attack unless she's in the right stance.
Which brings us down to stances: the game features a default "Speed Stance," a "Ranged Stance" triggered by holding L1, and a "Power Stance" triggered by holding R1. The titular Heavenly Sword alters its form to accompany each stance, and each stance features a wealth of different ground and aerial combos. Switching stances to match with your opponent is the key to surviving battle, and they can be changed on the fly to mix up your combos to a satisfying degree. When in the right stance, blocking is done automatically as I mentioned before, but counters can be performed. A regular counter can be used as an enemy is attacking you, but if you time it right, Nariko will perform a "Kill Counter," a marvelously portrayed act of overzealous violence initiated by the counter. There are quite a few of these for each stance, although there were reused animations once or twice throughout the time I spent with the demo. Either way, they're awesome to look at.
Combat features a few other additions to make it an all-around deeper experience, such as "Style Points" seen in most action games, which can be expended with the Circle Button to unleash a devastating super attack on your opponents. In addition, combat isn't easy (thank god). It's not about button mashing like God of War (all respect to Kratos). In fact, button mashing will get you killed. The AI's smart, and they actually attack you, instead of standing there waiting to be pummelled.
Unfortunately for anyone looking forward to spending some quality time with the game before its September 4th release, the demo is short. Ridiculously short. LUDICROUSLY short. It's all over in about 5 minutes, actually. There's a cutscene introducing the lovely heroine Nariko, explaining her conflict with the jerk-ass King Bohan, and talking about "twing-twang" or something with her oddball adopted sister Kai (who is also playable at some point in the game). You run down some ropes in style, land on an oddly placed platform, take out some enemies, destroy some stuff, take out some more enemies, and BAM. It's over in an instant. This was an extremely disappointing thing to behold, but that's only because I was loving the game. I played it a few times over again just to get a feel for the more complex nuances, such as Kill Counters and Aerial Combos, which really helped me appreciate it all the more.
That said, it's still unknown if Heavenly Sword can be the killer-app to kick off Fall 2007 that Sony needs it to be. The story sounds fantastic, the art direction is superb, and the gameplay is solid and exciting. The question is if Ninja Theory can mix it up like SCEA did, and provide a varied gaming experience like God of War offers, even if the two games play very differently. Combat is loads of fun and the game is obviously story-driven, but it could end up a lot less realized if the battles are all there is to it. We've seen a few puzzles in action in some of the latest videos, so hopefully there's enough of it. But seeing as how everything so far is turning out very well for Heavenly Sword, I have faith that it will indeed be a fantastic title, which will certainly be known for its groundbreaking production values and art direction, backed by solid and fun gameplay.
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