Heavenly Sword – Hands On Impressions
Sweaty palms and farting in public places should be punishable by death. *Rant over.* After waiting in line for about thirty minutes I was finally able to get my normal, non-sweaty palms on the PS3 controller to play Ninja Theory’s third person slash ’em up, Heavenly Sword.
First let’s talk about the feel of the controller and how it differs from the regular Dual Shock. First, it’s a lot lighter, I’ve heard some criticism that alleges it makes the pad feel more like a cheapo gaming peripheral, not true. There’s a difference between cheapo plastic and mui bueno plastic, thankfully Sony sprang for the latter. The next thing you’re likely to notice is that the L2 and R2 buttons have been changed to triggers (good thing). The addition of trigger buttons actually makes the pad easier to hold and a little more comfortable, I do hope they increase the tension in the triggers as they’re a little soft at present. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to try out the tilt technology as that mechanic was unsupported in Heavenly Sword, apparently the only development house to know of the technology was Incog Inc. who built it into their Warhawk control scheme (more on Warhawk and how well the tilt sensor works later). Come to think of it, we porbably can’t call it the Dual Shock any more can we?
The segment we were allowed to play consisted of a one level demo set in the familiar gladiatorial arena you’ve probably all seen in the various screenshots and videos. Control was mapped to the Circle button for grabs, triangle and square perform attacks with your sword, the “X” button allowed you to grab items in the environment (barrels, plates etc), you could then toss them at enemies and the camera would enter first person mode following the path of the projectile and allowing you to influence its flight… very cool. Lastly there as the option to hold down the L2 button, this allowed you to swing your swords around on chains creating sweeping scythes death. Not a very powerful attack but useful if you’re surrounded and in a tight spot.
If you’ve played God of War you’ll probably have a very good idea what to expect from the gameplay. The combo system appeared quite similar and at the end of the demo there was a final boss that you had to finish off using a timed button pressing mechanic similar to what’s seen in God of War and Resident Evil 4.
Visually the game looked stunning despite the fact that it’s far from complete, beautiful faux HDR drenched the characters in white hot sunlight, every surface was mapped with beautiful textures and impressive shaders that accentuated the game’s unique art style. The animation was awe inspiring, characters reeled in pain and struck with deadly force in a manner that was just beautiful to watch. A quick chat with the developer revealed that this demo displayed only combat on a small scale, eventually they’re looking to put 2-3,000 characters on screen at once (eek!)
Stay tuned to QJ as we’ll be getting back to you with more videos, more pics and some hands on impressions of Resistance: Fall Of Man and Warhawk both for PS3, we’ll also have the skinny on Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and Killzone Liberation for the PSP. (Yeah, I know how lucky we are!)
Sweaty palms and farting in public places should be punishable by death. *Rant over.* After waiting in line for about thirty minutes I was finally able to get my normal, non-sweaty palms on the PS3 controller to play Ninja Theory’s third person slash ’em up, Heavenly Sword.
First let’s talk about the feel of the controller and how it differs from the regular Dual Shock. First, it’s a lot lighter, I’ve heard some criticism that alleges it makes the pad feel more like a cheapo gaming peripheral, not true. There’s a difference between cheapo plastic and mui bueno plastic, thankfully Sony sprang for the latter. The next thing you’re likely to notice is that the L2 and R2 buttons have been changed to triggers (good thing). The addition of trigger buttons actually makes the pad easier to hold and a little more comfortable, I do hope they increase the tension in the triggers as they’re a little soft at present. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to try out the tilt technology as that mechanic was unsupported in Heavenly Sword, apparently the only development house to know of the technology was Incog Inc. who built it into their Warhawk control scheme (more on Warhawk and how well the tilt sensor works later). Come to think of it, we porbably can’t call it the Dual Shock any more can we?
The segment we were allowed to play consisted of a one level demo set in the familiar gladiatorial arena you’ve probably all seen in the various screenshots and videos. Control was mapped to the Circle button for grabs, triangle and square perform attacks with your sword, the “X” button allowed you to grab items in the environment (barrels, plates etc), you could then toss them at enemies and the camera would enter first person mode following the path of the projectile and allowing you to influence its flight… very cool. Lastly there as the option to hold down the L2 button, this allowed you to swing your swords around on chains creating sweeping scythes death. Not a very powerful attack but useful if you’re surrounded and in a tight spot.
If you’ve played God of War you’ll probably have a very good idea what to expect from the gameplay. The combo system appeared quite similar and at the end of the demo there was a final boss that you had to finish off using a timed button pressing mechanic similar to what’s seen in God of War and Resident Evil 4.
Visually the game looked stunning despite the fact that it’s far from complete, beautiful faux HDR drenched the characters in white hot sunlight, every surface was mapped with beautiful textures and impressive shaders that accentuated the game’s unique art style. The animation was awe inspiring, characters reeled in pain and struck with deadly force in a manner that was just beautiful to watch. A quick chat with the developer revealed that this demo displayed only combat on a small scale, eventually they’re looking to put 2-3,000 characters on screen at once (eek!)
Stay tuned to QJ as we’ll be getting back to you with more videos, more pics and some hands on impressions of Resistance: Fall Of Man and Warhawk both for PS3, we’ll also have the skinny on Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and Killzone Liberation for the PSP. (Yeah, I know how lucky we are!)
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