There is so much to heavenly sword to like and there is so much promise.
Heavenly sword is one of the first big titles to come out for the PS3 and was on a mission to showcase the power the PS3 can do.
And by looking at this game boy, it can do a lot.
The big battle scenes are some of the biggest you would have ever seen in a game with 1000s of troops on the ground with you hacking your way through them.
The environments are full and colourful and beautifully designed.
The design of the game fits together nicely and the movie style play submerges you into the story.
This is truly a beautiful game, but when you get into the game play there are some problems that are truly a shame to see.
Most of the game you will play as Nariko using normal swords first and then later the heavenly sword.
The controls for this is very responsive. once you start with the heavenly sword you will have 3 fighting styles Power attacks, short quick attacks and medium distance attacks.
This gives some variation to the game play with this character and you have to learn what works against the different troops.
there are also combos to learn which produce different moves for each stance. So there is a bit of skill involved but sometimes it can also turn into a bit of a button masher.
The other playable character is Kai who uses a crossbow for ranged attacks. in different parts of the game the story will move to her, so its good to keep the game fresh. although she only has the ranged attacks and anyone who gets near she can only stun and then run away from.
the other weapons control is the sixaxis for any shooting weapons like Kai’s crossbow or cannon balls that you'll use in different parts of the game.
By tilting the controller you can make the projectile move up/down, left/right as its flying through the air. when in this mode everything else is moving in slow motion which is handy otherwise the thing would be too fast to do anything with.
The controls I listed above are great, the part where they fall down is in the cut scenes where you have to press a certain button at a certain time to execute the next move.
It can be a little frustrating when you have to site through the same cut scene 20 times before you get the timing right.
It really would have been better if they Haden bothered in some places as it does have a bit of a Dragons Lair feel to it.
Despite the issues with the cut scenes the rest of the game is so fantastic that it could be forgiven. however this is the one other issue with the game....its too short.
its nice to know the game is so good that you don't want it to end, but unfortunately this end comes a little sooner than you think.
there are 3 parts that make the game short.
1. the obvious one is game time....if your good, you could complete this is 5 - 6 hours. average players like me will take a little longer.
2. there are only really two major scenes in the game. the main encampment where you start and Bohan's castle .
don't get me wrong, these are big, BIG scenes with either of the environments broken up in different chapters.
3. and this is the bad one is the boss scenes....there should be a rule in games that when you face a boss, you should only face them once in one chapter. for some reason you have to fight Flying fox twice in the game after he runs away at the end of the first fight.
And the fights with the other bosses Whiptail, Roach and Bohan take 2 - 3 chapters each. this does make the game feel repetitive at times.
Despite all this it is a really good game and I'm glad I have it in my collection. It has a magnificent story and the main characters have depth to them that make you want to see what happens to them.
This really is a work of art.
The PlayStation 3 may not have been the strongest generation for Sony, but there were still some diamonds in the rough that deserve a revisit as PS5 remasters.
Even if they could just remaster and put on PSVR2, some would still look great as VR titles and could do a whole lot to bolster the headset w these exclusives! I'd imagine the investment of reworking these titles into VR would be way less than building new games from the ground up, and they could be amazing experiences, and VR often makes flat games feel fresh again. The Resistance and Killzone games are particularly what I want to see!!
I played killzone 3 in 3d and it really changed the game per being immersive.
In vr, that would be even more awesome.
Funny you mention that... my son wanted to play some PS3 games in 3d on my PS tv and he was blown away by how good KZ3 was. It really was a great addition to the game. Im surprised there have not been more 3d games from that era being ported to the PSVR/VR2.
resistance 1-3, killzone 1-3, uncharted 1-3, uncharted golden abyss, folklore, socom 4 , motorstorm, twisted metal, MAG, heavenly sword
Killzone 2+3
Sly Thieves in Time
Crack in Time
God of War Ascension
Motorstorm
Modnation racer
Infamous 1+2
Killzone trilogy in VR would be amazing bonus points if they offer shadow fall.
There was a psvr1 Killzone project that supermassive was working on at one stage which wasn't up to scratch and Sony brand it back in house I was hoping we would see that on psvr2 eventually.
Personally I'd love to see some more love or acknowledgement of psvr2 from Sony in general it was a expensive headset and Sony barely acknowledge it's existence
The amount of work needed to remaster these games wouldn't be beneficial on a financial and business sense.. MGS4 would probably be the best bet as it would need the least amount of work!
The time is perfect for a resistance fall of man game campaign coop multiplayer
The resistance series is str8 trash to me. Socom 3 I would welcome. Or killzone MP.
Resistance was ok but Warhawk and Starhawk was better and kept me coming back for almost a decade of fun and petty revenge on the loud mouth unskilled players 🤣
Edit I loved capture the flag dropping the pot on the flag carrier was extremely satisfying as well as transforming your plane in bot form and stumping them to death 😱
In this interview, we will delve into the creative process of David Brochard. Behind the scenes with concept artist David Brochard, showcasing his creative process in gaming industry from Call of Duty to Dark Souls 3 and Star Citizen. Discover how his passion & skills bring immersive worlds to life.
Grab your katana, and slice your way through this list featuring the best hack and slash games the PlayStation 3 had to offer.
Dante's inferno... an excellent GoW inspired game. So sad the sequels will never be.
I recall enjoying it well enough at the time, but it wasn't a patch on God of War 3 which came out around the same time I think.
I own it and fired it up on my PS3 about 6 months ago and time hadn't been particularly kind to it although it still very much nailed the atmosphere and it is a cool as he'll setting and universe.
Dante's Inferno needs the GOW treatment. No cut camera, with a real hellish depiction of the 9 circles and a story as dark and as serious would be amazing.
Still pretty amazing there was a PSP version that was actually pretty good. I remember playing it 10 years ago. I had the PS3 version when it first came out and loved it.
Yup, I remember being blown away with Heavenly Sword. I remember holding out hope that they would go back and add trophy support as a incentive to go back and replay the game, but I don't think they ever did?
I couldn't beat the final boss though! Spent several days trying but eventually gave up, lol. Still enjoyed it though.
heavenly sword was such a short, but amazing game. that game should be prime material to be made into a download only remaster.
I really enjoyed Castlevania, but struggled to get into it again reattempting it a few years back. I still think it does another of things well; story, presentation, level varietily and art style at least. Gameplay maybe has not stood test of time unfortunately which makes it a chore to get through.
the game had excellent production values and was very engaging.