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Heavenly Sword (to be released) is a video game in development by Ninja Theory for the PlayStation 3 console. Is expected during the first quarter of 2007. It is a martial arts action-drama game with a free-style combat system.

On another note, this game was nicknamed “Goddess of War” by various game critics at E3 due to its similarities to the game “God of War“.

Graphics

Heavenly Sword employs state-of-the-art technology and gameplay to take players through a roller coaster of emotion and action that truly exploits the potential of gaming as the new artistic entertainment medium.”

Emotionally charged, stunningly beautiful and delivering unprecedented dramatic character performance, Heavenly Sword showcases the power of PLAYSTATION 3. A dramatic tale of revenge sees Nariko.

Andy Serkis, the world’s leading CG actor, famous for his roles as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong”, was heavily involved in the creative process. As well as starring in Heavenly Sword as the villain, King Botan, Andy was a major contributor to the character development, writing, casting, directing and performance capture for the PLAYSTATION 3 game.

Storyline

The story builds around the ancient Heavenly Sword which once belonged to a powerful deity. It can never be wielded by a mortal without it draining their life-force, killing them within hours.

A girl named Nariko with a fiery red-haired heroine, who only have a few days left to live who embarks on one final act of redemption against a king and his invading army.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Heavenly Sword seems to resemble a martial arts game focusing on both melee and ranged weapons. The main character has one weapon that can transform into various weapons. Revealed so far are a chainlike weapon, 2 separate swords, and one big sword. Wide Range of Objects and Weaponry – Including multi-skewering spears and devastatingly explosive bazookas.

The Heavenly Sword itself can Transform into Three Distinct Stances – Players can switch between on the fly allowing players to create their own fighting styles.

The Combat Engine can Scale Up – From sophisticated one-on-one encounters to one-on-many, where enemies employ intelligent squad-based dynamics, right up to combat against battalions pushing real-time gameplay and AI to unprecedented new levels.

Physics-based Combat – Players can sweep debris against opponents, kick tables to halt an oncoming surge of fighters, smash the enemy into the scenery or throw bodies into other enemies using aftertouch controls.

The game will have reaction commands; wherein the symbol for a certain button will appear on screen, and when pushed the game will enter a controllable-cutscene where the player must push the different combination of buttons on the screen. From the demo seen, it appears to have a rotational camera angle. While using a throwing attack on an enemy, players can rotate the PS3 SIXAXIS controller to different angles: making the camera point in the direction the user wishes, though the angles will be static when entering a Q.T.E. Another notable element is that it will be possible to pick up and throw objects in the environment; the player can use the main character to pick up and throw enemies with her chain. In the demo Nariko picked up a small shield and threw it, at which point the game went into first person. From this, it appears that the player will have some control over the object in that mode.

Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre: Action/adventure
Rating ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release date: March 6, 2007 (US), March 15, 2007 (AU), December 2007 (EU)