Heavenly Sword: Part Deux

[andyroo]

I finished Heavenly Sowrd last night. As expected it was a short game. It was also quite easy but I haven't tried hell mode yet.

The graphics, sound (including voice acting), presentation and story are really great. The voice acting and cut scenes are truly outstanding. I thought the gameplay was quite good but I didn't find it great. It just seems to be lacking something compared to other games in the same genre.
Overall I'd give HS 7.5-8/10 (would have been higher but for the shortness of the game)

A few spoilers below regarding certain aspects of the gameplay:

Spoiler

I liked the battles later on against Roach, his pets and Flying Fox where you can't just button bash and you have to use the combat system as I imagine it was intended to be used.

Also, a quick question: When you defeat Whiptail for the second time and stab her through the chest, you next find yourself in prison. Did I miss something in between?

Are there any plans for an add-on via PSN? I'd love an arena mini-game similar to the one in Devil May Cry 2 where enemies would just keep jumping down and you have to kill them all before the next lot jump down. You coud also mix things up by having the bosses jump down at certain points and try to get Kai involved somehow.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the game, great work Ninja Theory and I hope it sells enough for Sony to give the green light on HS2

 

[deepbrown]

if you play the game there is is aliasing throughout... especially when scaled back... i dont knowthe level of AA but its not universal sometimes its sticks out. this is clear on both my 46" LCD and on my 106" projector. I bought the game so have I no reason to either hate on it or to laud it unnecessarily.

The only reason I said so, is because I'm playing the game right now - and what I was impressed by was the lack of aliasing. I keep on looking for jaggies, and not seeing them...especially on rocks, steps, all the buildings. I found it impressive after playing games like Skate etc. It looked so smooth. I am playing on 32inch...

Where do u see aliasing, because I think this has some of the best AA in a game - can you mention another that has better? Well maybe you can mention one - but there aren't many games with 4xAA 0 and I think it shows....I just can't see where your seeing aliasing. Oh and the AF in this game is amazing...just looking at the stone floors as they move into the distance, still keeping a sharp look. Wow.

However I would say that it doesn't seem to give you quite the level of control over your moves as a God of War or DMC type of game. Maybe I'm triggering combos but since it auto-blocks and you can manually jump, it seems the attacks it does aren't as precise as in those other games.

Or doesn't give you the sense of control.

But the moves seem more insane.

Well I think it does let you be out of control...but as the game has gone on, I've learnt the combos and methodical button presses give you the combo you want - and I know feel very much in control. The game just caters to button mashers, and hardcore players - I'd like to think I'm pretty hardcore now, Nariko only does what I want her to do...aeriel combos, huge long combos, changing stance to end with a finishing combo....she counters when I want her to.

Maybe just keep practicing and think about the combos - and don't press the buttons too quickly!

 

[Betanumerical]

Where do u see aliasing, because I think this has some of the best AA in a game - can you mention another that has better? Well maybe you can mention one - but there aren't many games with 4xAA 0 and I think it shows....I just can't see where your seeing aliasing. Oh and the AF in this game is amazing...just looking at the stone floors as they move into the distance, still keeping a sharp look. Wow.

I have a large 720P tv (60") and the aliasing in HS is worse then in R:FOM.

Not to say its a bad game, because it isn't. It looks awseome, but meh he asked.

 

[uumai]

I completed the game in about 6 hours but what a great game.

The visuals were pretty hott, except for stuttering here and there. The puzzles were also very simplisic and felt very pointless.

Loved the final boss battle though, great fun. Have started playing through in Hell Mode - Much harder...

Well done NT, Deano, Nao... Hope to see some kind of sequel or something from you.

 

[DeanoC]

Hello DeanoC,

Can you tell us if Heavenly Sword streams textures from the HDD?

Yep, as you play one area, texture and geometry are streamed from the HDD.

 

[DeanoC]

It doesn't LOOK like 4xAA except in cutscenes. So...

Every opaque renderable in the game has 4x RGMSAA using Marco's funky colour (AKA NAO32, funky colour space being our internal name for it lol).

Your running at 720p I assume? Any other resolution has potentially odd effects as you will be geting a post scale operator of the final framebuffer.

 

[djskribbles]

I have a large 720P tv (60") and the aliasing in HS is worse then in R:FOM.

if you're going to say theres aliasing issues, compare it to a game that actually has bad aliasing. i think RFOM uses 4xAA too and doesn't have any noticeable jaggies. if you think its a little worse than RFOM, then i'd say theres minimal aliasing.

again, i can't argue until i get the game, but from the videos i've seen, i have a hard time believing the aliasing is bad enough to list it as a negative point. i think you guys are just looking too hard.

 

[deepbrown]

I have a large 720P tv (60") and the aliasing in HS is worse then in R:FOM.

Not to say its a bad game, because it isn't. It looks awseome, but meh he asked.

I did ask! lol. But I guess I'll go and play through bits again...just saying that it's one of the things that struck me...how smooth and clean the edges were. Maybe I was looking at the wrong edges!

 

[Betanumerical]

if you're going to say theres aliasing issues, compare it to a game that actually has bad aliasing. i think RFOM uses 4xAA too and doesn't have any noticeable jaggies. if you think its a little worse than RFOM, then i'd say theres minimal aliasing.

again, i can't argue until i get the game, but from the videos i've seen, i have a hard time believing the aliasing is bad enough to list it as a negative point. i think you guys are just looking too hard.

The aliasing isn't to bad, its not bad enough to list as a negative. I believe R:FOM uses 2xQAA.

The reason I'm seeing aliasing is most likely due to the size of my TV, I have yet to see a game without aliasing on my TV.

 

[hey69]

isnt 60inch tv actually exagerating aliasing in every game? thats like a real big screen for 720p

 

[djskribbles]

^ thats true. i would compare it like when you use a resolution lower than your PC monitors native resolution, everything looks more jagged because everything is blown up.

 

[fallguy]

Ugh, cant beat the last boss for the 3rd time. Played him about 8 times now.

Spoiler

Cant seem to block and send back the blue bolts. I can the orange ones, but never once have I sent back the blue ones. Holding down L1, and hitting the triangle, cant do it. I do well on the ground, then when he goes in the air, its all over. Hits me with 4-5 bolts in a row, and Im done for.

 

[Betanumerical]

isnt 60inch tv actually exagerating aliasing in every game? thats like a real big screen for 720p

Im confused, are you saying a 1080P screen of the same size with a 720P source will have less jaggies?.

Also please not that in resistance, I would have seen maybe 5/6 jaggies in the whole game lol.

 

[soylent]

This type of game, for me, stands or falls by how well the combat system encourages skillful behaviour over cheap button mashing as the difficulty is ramped up and whether the difficult can be ramped up high enough for there to be some challenge.

 

[Betanumerical]

This type of game, for me, stands or falls by how well the combat system encourages skillful behaviour over cheap button mashing as the difficulty is ramped up and whether the difficult can be ramped up high enough for there to be some challenge.

I beat normal without knowing much, but I am finding Hell much harder, even with knowledge of the combo's.

 

[fallguy]

Beat it.. finally got past the last boss. Once I figured out at to do, not too hard. Except the last bit of button pushng. Going to play thru in Hell mode, as I enjoyed the game a lot.

 

[MJP]

About the aliasing...it looks to me as though sometimes things aren't AA'ed when there's alpha blending involved. It's hard for me to tell on my TV since 720p is upscaled to the native res of 1366 x 768. However this screenshot from GameSpot seems to show what I'm talking about.

EDIT: Just wanted to mention...regardless of the alpha-blending thing the game looks fantastic! The 4x MSAA really shows throughout, and goes a long way in making HS stand out when compared to other PS3 games.

 

[Hector]

I've finished the game right now (bought it on friday), and all I can't say is that it's totally amazing! Sometimes the shadows are a little distracting, and some minor tearing, but everything else is great!

 

[Jesus2006]

Is it possible to select a harder difficulty from the beginnig, without playing the game through once?

 

[avaya]

Have to say the rag-dolls are very satisfying when you slash them with the sword using power stance.

Very satisfying.

So I bought this at release, hadn't had time to play, did so yesterday. Got to the final part of the final fight, first time I lost, will probably have another go tomorrow.

Just want to say good job to nAo and DeanoC. Has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, if a tad short. Will replay on hell mode after I finish up.