So when I first heard of Heavenly Sword I wasn't all that excited. Some chick beating everybody up. I wasn't a fan of old tv show Xena: Warrior Princess, and quite honestly that's what came to mind when I heard about this game. That is until I saw the first couple gameplay demos for this title. I was very impressed with the graphics and gameplay. My thoughts were "God of War. But better."

Anyway, when I heard about the HS demo coming out this week on the PSN, I was pretty excited and downloaded it right away. The demo consists of the action seen in one of the previous videos, so it wasn't anything altogether new, except this time I was the one playing it. I was able to play through it a couple times last night, and I must say, I'm hooked. The graphics are beautiful, and contrary to my gut predictions, this game is not the hack-n-slash-button-mashing type it looked to be. There is a considerable amount of strategy involved in fending off the waves henchmen encountered in the demo. I won't go in depth describing the combat system because it's more fun figuring it out on your own, but I will say that it is engaging, satisfying, and really something else to watch. The demo is considerably short, but it's worth replaying several times.

From what I've read on the forums, the shortness of this demo really frustrated a lot of people, but for me it really whetted my appetite for more of this game without giving away too much plotline. From the videos I had already seen I was pretty sure I was going to buy this game. After playing this demo my mind is made up. I'll be picking up Heavenly Sword on its release day. If you haven't had the chance to play this demo, go download it. It's worth your time.