Bayonetta Review

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight. Bayonetta is not a normal game. It may be normal in the sense of it’s genre (hack n’ slash) and takes a lot of it’s gameplay influences (slick looking combos and moves) from Devil May Cry (Hideki Kamiya’s previous title) but the plot, characters and style are just not typical. It is very different from Devil May Cry, presenting a different story, a much different setting (The bulk of the game takes place in Vigrid, a fictional European city) and you play the role of Bayonetta, a beautiful, kick-ass Umbra Witch with pistols attached to her high heels, demons that come out of her hair and a sidekick dealer called Rodin who sells her various items to help get her through her numerous battles. These items range from lollipops that heal health or increase attack damage, to special items that can give you an ultra boost in combat.

Basically, throughout the story you go around killing strange angels and massive bosses in crazy ways using Bayonetta’s hand-made weapons, coupled with great combos and her hair to summon demons. That’s the general aim of the game in a nutshell. Even inbetween all this slaying demons there is a fancy little progress screen where a Bayonetta doll gets shuffled around the map corresponding to where you are in the game. Not a major feature, but a nice touch that I enjoyed. And also an Angel Attack mini game which isn’t the best but allows you to earn extra halo’s for use in game.

The actual story behind Bayonetta’s life and her childhood is a complex plot to follow and you may not keep up all the way through. It involves two clans: The Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages, and a lot of fighting, history and war between the two. Bayonetta’s nemesis is a Lumen Sage named Jeanne, and without giving much away, they’re constantly at each other throats in epic battles that’ll have you stringing together insane combos to try and best your almost equal opposite. There’s also a journalist that tags along for the ride that Bayonetta nicknames “Cheshire”, real name: Luka. And a lot of twists and turns throughout the game. There are two types of cutscene within the game that try their best to convey the story and the situation Bayonetta finds herself it, yet these are a mix of styles and the latter feels slightly rushed. There are cinematic cutscenes which have good looking graphics and actually help you to get an understanding of the game. On the other hand there are sepia styled cutscenes with still frame shots. Which aren’t the best and you can’t help but feel that they game would look and feel a lot better with all the cutscenes being cinematic, it’d make the game flow a lot more too. The still shot cutscenes don’t involve the player greatly and so you feel like an outsider watching them.

Now, Bayonetta’s graphics are very impressive and the bright angels look extremely holy yet very menacing amongst the backdrop of a great looking Vigrid. Bayonetta herself is a well constructed and presented character with the hot geek chic going on with her glasses and English accent, she is even stripped almost fully naked when she summons a demon! Which further presents the games graphical capability as Bayonetta is a great looking, if not digital woman. The only place where I think Bayonetta’s graphics are let down is during the otherwise amazing Demon attacks. These attacks occur when Bayonetta is facing a boss and summons a Demon from her very hair, which also makes up her suit. See, not normal! These attacks are very impressive and on a huge scale, but not graphically brilliant, they have the hair effect going on but it just didn’t work for me. This is a great selling point of Bayonetta though, with it’s odd Demon and Torture attacks (less powerful but not less satisfying than the Demon attacks) it stands out from the crowd greatly by just not being typical.

The story mode took me around 14 hours to complete on Normal difficulty and not without it’s challenges. The standard enemies aren’t much of a challenge but the special enemies that you encounter upon the way are. The game throws immense bosses at you, which get bigger and weirder every time you face them, each with their own stand out feature and way to kill them. So every new boss is a new challenge. There are also two higher difficulties to contend with if you think you’re Witch enough. The one thing that isn’t quite there is the camera, sometimes the camera can have issues with angling and so it sometimes it can be a bit of an annoyance, but this is just minor.

Bayonetta does not have any multiplayer options, in fact the only LIVE feature it has is leaderboards so you can compete with your friends on who has the best time on a run through of a level, this isn’t a great feature as searching through leaderboards can take longer than it should. However, you won’t buy this game for it’s leaderboards feature, which again is just a minor negative, you’ll buy it because of it’s wacky styling and it’s well designed world. Which is a great selling point. If you look close enough, there are also various Easter eggs scattered throughout the world, which are interesting little things to find.

So, apart from a few minor, and I mean minor gripes with the game, it’s a fantastic hack n’ slash experience that should not be missed. The crazy demons, great combo system and graphics make the game a fun game to play and a great addition to your collection. It truly is what the back of the box says it is: ‘Eye- meltingly beautiful’.

Review By Daniel Brookes