Kotaku
I have a confession to make: I never got a chance to play Heavenly Sword at E3 last year. It was on my list, definitely on my list. I really liked the way it looked and watching other people play it, it seemed fun, but the lines were mammoth for that particular game, so I gave up.
So this week was first chance to get my hands on the game, which was running two new segments from E3. The playable bits included a new cinematic intro that featured the main character and her side-kick, a cute pixie of a girl dressed in a leather cat outfit. The demo started out with a scene very reminiscent of God of War, with the player having to press the right button sequence to pull off some special moves, in this case running along ropes the width of a car and then landing among some enemies.
The fight was very button-mashing heavy, at least for me, it seemed to lack the finesse I was hoping this game was going to have. I felt less like I was engaged in a back-and-forth duel with swords and more like I was just sort of flailing wildly. After taking out the bad guys, the game had me do another short button matching sequence and then dropped me in amid some more bad guys.
Again, I didn't feel like mixing things up in the battle, between my three stances, was really necessary. I tried pulling off style moves and aerial attacks, but only seemed to succeed when I wasn't trying to do them.
I suspect I will end up liking this game, but I'm less sure than I was before I had a chance to play through a chunk. For now, the gameplay seems too generic to make the game fun. But I don't think it's easy to assess a game like this with just a few minutes of play.
