The blocking scheme works out fine on a one-on-one basis, but in mid-battle, stopping to wait for someone to attack leaves Nariko vulnerable to swipes from other enemies. It's better to just dodge God of War-style, using the right thumb stick on the PS3 controller.

Heavenly Sword goes traditional when it comes to fighting big bosses. Taking down Bohan and his cronies generally means fighting a group of generic soldiers and then digging in for the big showdown. Mostly this involves the bosses performing the same attacks over and over again until the player dies or figures out the strategy to beat them. While the visuals may be state of the art, this actual gameplay style feels a bit dated.

Timed-button mashing sequences a la God of War make their way into different parts of the game. Mostly there are used to help Nariko finish off big battles or pull off acrobatic stunts normally reserved for cutscenes. At times these sequences are hard to pull off the first time through unless you have lightening reflexes -- we usually found ourselves memorizing the pattern to get through them.

Other attempts at adding variety to the hack n slash fest also yield so-so results. At times Nariko must solve puzzles by tossing shields and pulling levels, and other times the focus switches to Nariko's worm-eating sidekick Kai, who specializes in long-range weaponry.

Kai's sequences revolve around taking down advancing enemies from afar. She can zoom in and shoot or press and hold the square button and then use the SIXAXIS controller to guide the projectile into her enemy. It's a nice idea, but the controller's reaction time feels slow and unwieldy – making these levels much more laborious than necessary. We eventually turned off the motion-sensitive controls and found shooting using the analog sticks much more intuitive.

In the end, Heavenly Sword is clearly a God of War knockoff, from the blades with a ranged chain attack to the lack of camera control (both games use the right analog stick for dodging) and emphasis on massive one-against-a-dozen battles. At least this game has the good sense to crib from the very best, and is a solid effort. But despite the strong presentation and excellent voice acting, Kratos and his mythological pals have nothing to fear from Heavenly Sword. The game doesn't quite match God of War's sense of pacing, character control and after plowing through another room of identical enemies, button-mashing until your thumbs are sore, you may eventually lose the urge to see what's around the next corner.