So i m half way through the enslaved.It's a good game.a bit cluncky gameplay but one thing was question for me.

Why in the hell heavenly sword (a game that this studio made 3 years ago) looks much better than their new title??is the engine different?

don't get me wrong Enslaved is a decent looking game but when you pay attention to details it lack a great deal compared to heavenly sword.

I guess i was expecting more from them.

I believe they used Unreal Engine 3.0 on Enslaved as opposed to their own engine for Heavenly Sword which remember, was optimised for a single console rather than for multiplat development.

When you're working on multiple platforms the disadvantages of both consoles will add up.

Because it's multiplatform, that's why.

Because it doesn't use the Wii's untapped potential.

nostalgia

Couple of things:

1 - Enslaved is multi-platform developed on Unreal 3 Engine

2 - Heavenly Sword was developed on custom engine (I believe) built specifically to PS3 architecture

3 - Enslaved is based around full 3D freedom of movement

4 - Heavenly Sword is more like a God of War title where the camera is not fully 3D at the view is theirfore more controllable by the developers

In short, you're talking a custom engine developed on one platform vs a developer getting to grips with a middleware engine that is both multi-platform and rarely looks as good as it could when used by anyone other than Epic - the engine's developers.

No big surprise.  I'd note they're using the same engine for DMC - that should be interesting, as I personally think the U3 engine may not best suit the traditional fast paced - and camera locked - DMC gameplay style.  I'll be curious to see how it goes, but I'm expecting it to be slower for sure.

Other possibilities :

incompetence

lessened budget

spite

laziness

Enslaved OTTW looks grate to me but then I am not a Graphics Whore. 

and Enslaved OTTW is UT3.

now that i think about it even the combat is shallower than HS.(the hack and slash part of monkey)

Enslaved is multi-plat and there is less optimization.