I was recently lent a book by one of my work colleagues along with the warning not to read it on the bus because people will stare at me. Or for that matter on the tube because we all know people will read over your shoulder and they may be grossed out. The book is called ‘Never Suck a Dead Mans Hand’ and runs through some of the more interesting tales of a real CSI agent.

I personally find it tries to use shock tactics (such as a showy title) to sell really quite mundane and obvious stories of the dead. It fills some otherwise dull moments but is by no means the horror that I was envisaging from the reactions of others. Clearly they choose to judge a book by its cover.

In a rather random leap of thought processes, I feel I am doing something similar with Heavenly Sword.  I have wanted this game for a long time, and have pieced together how it will play from clips and videos. I did not get the demo because I do not like demos of games I am definitely going to get, incase they ruin things for me. And although I have read some threads about it the game in general I have avoided actually trolling through the reviews.

I was all set for it to be a dream game, playing as if it was reading my deepest wants and needs and serving them for up me as it went along.

I had only played about thirty minutes into the game when I became so disappointed that I had to turn it off. It seemed that I could fight a whole army by simply standing in the centre of them and pressing only one button repeatedly. The game even had the cheek to inform me that if I did get knocked down I could recover quicker by mashing the button even more. So, top tip for playing Heavenly Sword: mash the triangle button like there is no tomorrow and you can’t lose.

Also in my thirty minutes I managed to encounter two shooting sections. The first one was annoying to aim, and it didn’t seem to matter how many enemies escaped.  The second came too quickly - just as I was getting my teeth into the fighting, learning how to stop button bashing and start pulling off some excellent-looking moves. 

I can’t complain too much - variety is the spice of life - and the controller tilt used to direct your projectiles is pretty good fun.

My problem is clearly a judgement issue. I had judged Heavenly Sword to be the best thing since sliced bread, and it didn’t quite live up to that.  Now after playing for only a short time, I have judged it again to be a failure. I need to step back and give it a genuine chance without any preconceptions.  To do this I am giving Heavenly Sword a break, which on the plus side makes time for Bioshock - a truly beautiful game.