Heavenly Sword is one of those frustrating games that comes close to being amazing but is held back by a few critical flaws in the game design. Heavenly Sword is one of Sony`s big titles for the holiday season and Sony was hoping that the title would help move hardware. I`m not sure that Heavenly Sword will move hardware but it is a title that you can use to show off your PS3 as the game features some of the most mind blowing graphics and character models that have ever made their way to a video game but we`ll get to that in a minute.

Heavenly Sword tells the story of Nariko, the daughter of the chief of a warrior clan. This is a bit of a problem as the Nariko was supposed to be the male heir that would lead the clan to their rightful place in heaven. This creates some tension within the clan as they assume that there`s no way the tall, red-headed woman is going to take them to the promised land. There`s also the issue of the Heavenly Sword, the item that is supposed to take the clan to the promised land. In traditional sword fashion it has two edges. The first is that the sword is pretty kick as and can kill people in new and different ways. The second is that the sword slowly kills the person wielding it which is kind of a bummer for Nariko as she`s stuck wielding the thing after her clan is attacked by Bohan and his merry men.

Bohan is the big bad guy of the game or as I like to call it, the last guy you fight before the final cinematic. What separates Bohan from every other bad guy out there is that Sony plunked down the bucks to get Andy Serkis to do voice over and motion capture for the character. This immediately transforms what would have been your standard C list bad guy into one of the best villains in recent video game history. Andy Serkis brings the same gravitas and weight to the character as he did to Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movie. Of course he has a band of subordinate bosses that you`ll have to deal with. While the gang does seem to have some of the same of the same inter-gang politics that plagued Skeletor and company they are some of the most vile villains in recent memory. I can`t tell you why without spoiling parts of the game but General Flying Fox will have you yelling at your TV late in the game. I don`t think I`ve responded so much to one villain and from talking to other people who`ve played the game I know I`m not the only one.

It doesn`t hurt that the boss battles are tough and feature some of the best combat sequences in the game. Sure the bosses are a little predictable and feature the seemly standard God of War mini-games to finish but they also feature some of the best dialog in the game. I`m not talking your standard cheesy one liners but actual, good dialog between the combatants that adds to the story.

It`s hard not to compare Heavenly Sword to God of War but after playing through the game the similarities are much limited to the button pressing mini-games(which are all the rage now a days), the involvement of twirling bladed weapons, and the excellent use of cinematic camera angles. Other than those things the games are very different. Nariko lacks Kratos magical abilities and bloodlust Due to it`s T rating Heavenly sword doesn`t feature nearly the blood and gore that the God of War games do. It is a bit odd to see so little blood with so many bladed weapons but it doesn`t distract that much from the game.

Nariko has three different stances: ranged, normal, and strong. Pressing Square and Triangle actives a normal account which can be modified with L1 to unleash a ranged attack and R1 to unleash a strong attack. The system works pretty well and once you get the hang of the controls you can string together some pretty amazing combos and moves. My personal favorite is to run at an enemy and then unleash a strong attack that has Nariko using the Heavenly Sword to launch her self into the ...