Nostalgia for the Relatively Recent
Whilst reading this, you will be in awe-mo.Published 24/11/2009 at 14:15 by Gamoc
The other day I got a heavenly delivery – you know, the kind that I would fight people off with a sword to enjoy. It was Heavenly Sword, as if I hadn’t made that painfully obvious, from Lovefilm.
Now, I should explain. Two years ago, I bought my (first) PS3, and along with it I got Resistance and Motorstorm. I then bought Heavenly Sword, because this was the game I wanted to play the most and one of the driving forces behind me getting the console in the first place (just imagine, if I didn’t see that fateful TV advert, I might not have ended up here, writing this…). I played both Resistance and Motorstorm a lot, enjoying the former more than the latter, but they still didn’t feel particularly brilliant. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but they still didn’t blow me away.
I should point out that I was playing on an SD TV due to not having a seat made entirely out of gold, nor did I use £50 note toilet paper. In fact, I had to trade in a PS2 and 13 games, a Gamecube and 4 games and pay £100 to get the PS3 in the first place. The only way I could’ve bought myself a HD TV would be to trade in my sister, which I wasn’t sure Game would accept. I’d probably be quite troubled if they did, really.
So I got Heavenly Sword and played it. For 8 hours. Straight. I stayed home from school to play it (which wasn’t particularly wise, really). Heavenly Sword simply screamed next-gen at the top of it’s metaphorical lungs, leaving me reeling as I run across massive ropes in what I like to describe as awesome-motion (it wasn’t in slo-mo, because it wasn’t slowed down, but it was in awe-mo). Even through my rather crappy SD TV, Heavenly Sword’s graphics blew me away. The detail, the backgrounds, the animation, the cut-scenes, it was all amazing. For Christmas, I got a HD TV, through which Heavenly Sword blew me away all over again. I was actually rather astonished at how big a difference between the two there was.
The game wasn’t all graphics, either, I really enjoyed the gameplay, the speed/ranged/power attacking system was pretty smart and fighting was both hectic but manageable. It was a great game. Oh, and on one level you fight over 800 enemies, all of which can be on screen at a single time. Oh, and the level following that? Well, I’ll avoid spoilers, but there are loads more than 800 enemies on the screen in that level.
So two days ago, when Heavenly Sword descended through my letter box in a pillar of light I immediately went and played it like my life depended on my putting that disk into my PS3 in awe-mo. The game doesn’t look as good as it did back then, mostly due to the fact that it’s two years old, but the backgrounds are still great. The gameplay? Well, since Heavenly Sword, I’ve played all sorts of games, including the God of War 3 demo, so it’s bound to feel a little dated, but it’s still a lot of fun. Short of a few questionably placed checkpoints, the game is just as great as I remember.
The biggest draw of Heavenly Sword these days, however, is the exceptionally good story and cutscenes. With Andy Serkis (Gollum, King Kong – not insults, he actually was Gollum and King Kong) helping with the direction and other such related things, as well as being King Bohan in both voice and motion-capture, the storyline and the acting is all wonderful. The story and its telling are all untouched by time, much like those creepy manakin-like connosieurs of plastic surgery, but in a less creepy way.
Heavenly Sword is a relatively recent game when you think about the usual subjects of nostalgia, and if I played it for the first time the other day I wouldn’t be anywhere near as in love with it now as I am. It took me this long to get to the point I wanted to get across: Games are not as good as you remember them. Remember how good Ocarina of Time was all that time ago? It’s not that good now. Remember how brilliant the first Crash Bandicoot game was? It’s not that good now.
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy Crash Bandicoot when I play it, but it’s not to the point where I’ll play it for hours like I would all that time ago – it’s just not that good anymore. If you used to really love a game a long time ago, I recommend you don’t play it again. Preserve your memory, you’re older, wiser and more experienced now, all you’re going to do is notice the cracks that weren’t there the first time around. If you don’t notice those cracks, you’re ignoring problems in a game just because you used to like it, and what does that make you?
Comments
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3shirts | 24/11/2009 17:29
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2486 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Remixed/HD remakes of the classics are a good way to get the best of both worlds. If done well you get the great memories and all the things you loved but the bugs, glitches, dodgy graphic details etc are cleaned up.
Of course there are plenty of ways to screw up a remake, which is sadly all too common
Quinlank | 24/11/2009 17:37
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661 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
HS was an okay game, but I never really liked the ‘feeling of impact’ you got from hitting enemies, it just didn’t feel very ’solid’ to me if you get what I mean, most especially when using the chain weapon. I loved the Kai levels though.
Shame Sony canned the sequel. There real potential for improvement there.
benny boy | 24/11/2009 18:21
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812 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I understand this completely. After hearing so many people say how amazing FF XII was, I downloaded it off the PSN when it came out but couldn’t play it for longer than hour. I’m sure if I had been a gamer and played it when it came out, I would have been hooked.
But I just didn’t enjoy it at all when I played it on the PS3. I couldn’t understand the controls, the graphics were almost unwatchable (probably just cause I’ve been spoilt by modern graphics), what I saw of the story was a bit rubbish and I found the gameplay to be really slow and boring. I know a load of people are going to reply saying how wrong I am but I’m betting in 10-15 years, people will be saying the same about Killzone and Uncharted.
DRCD1 | 24/11/2009 19:37
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911 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Where did you see FF XII in the PSN?
DRCD1 | 24/11/2009 19:35
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911 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I agree. I thought Uncharted 2 was great (it was superdoubleincrediblyextremelyawesome, to say the truth) the first time I played it, but then I started to see: that Drake gets his magazines from nowhere (in the first game he had magazines atatched to his holster), that there is a strange magazine respawn when you’re in cover on the left side of a door, holding an Assault Rifle/Sniper Rifle, and reloading then; and that the only language avaliable is English, in the UK version of the game (I’m from portugal and portuguese versions of the game can be played in lots of languages, but I bought the UK version because it’s 20€/25€ cheaper). Good old times when I was unable to notice the problems of Uncharted 2.
cc_star | 24/11/2009 19:41
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7852 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
O.o
Lorcan | 24/11/2009 21:15
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1248 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Excuse me, but I LOVED Crash Bandicoot then and I LOVE Crash Bandicoot now!
Still play it to this day!
arodmell | 25/11/2009 05:26
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216 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Yeah I discovered Heavenly Sword early on in the Bargain pre-owned part of Grainger games. I picked it up for a mere £8 and it proved to be the best £8 I had spent since.
Very enjoyable game….. that was unfortunately never given the release cover it deserved.
legalisemurder | 25/11/2009 19:50
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320 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I still play PS1 games on a regular basis.Metal gear solid is still a classic as are FF7 and 8.(6+9 not so much).GTA still has a certain charm.Heavenly sword was ok.Nothing special.Maybe if they were making it now they would have time to add a bit more depth.I suppose they were under pressure due to the lack of games.