Bayonetta

This week's review is Bayonetta, the new sexy over-the-top action game from developer Platinum Games.  Director Hideki Kamiya, the man who created Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, described the game as "non-stop climax action," we shall see.

Needless to say this game is rated M for Mature.

Story

The back story is 500 years ago there were two factions, the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages, followers of darkness and light receptively. Both factions oversaw the passage of time in the world.  At some point a great war broke out between the factions with the Umbra Witches being hunted down by Lumen Sages and regular humans alike. 

Flash forward 500 years.  The Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages have all but vanished off the face of the earth, with statues and ruins all that's left to mark their ever being here.  Bayonetta wakes up in a coffin at the bottom of a lake with complete memory loss.  The release of magical energy of her awakening kills the innocent diver that found the coffin.

Flash forward another 20 years.  Bayonetta is tracking down leads to help restore her memory.  These leads bring her to the city of Vigrid. and this is where your adventure begins.

Controls

There is actually two sets of controls for this game, depending on what difficulty you set it at.  The levels are Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and "Non-Stop Climax."  For the Very Easy and Easy levels you can use Very Easy Automatic mode where you can play the game with just one hand.  The game will automatically place Bayonetta, all the play has to do is pres a button for the action.  You can play those levels with normal controls if you wish to.

The normal controls are fixed, meaning you can't reassign the buttons if you want to.  This was a bit of problem for me since the lock-on button was the right shoulder button, it felt awkward there for me.  I would have like to reassign it to the left shoulder (which is assigned as the taunt button).  Otherwise the controls were very good and tight.  I tend to be a button masher, but even I was able to reel off combos and other various forms of damage pretty regularly.

The game also has quick time events where you have to hit the matching button as they flash on the screen.  Some of these pop up at the most incontinent time, like say in the middle of a combo.  That said, when I did get to pull them off they were very rewarding.  Whether they were torture attacks (involving everything from guillotines to iron maidens) or climax moves (where Bayonetta summons a demon to finish off a enemy) they were always a big rewarding action.

Gameplay

Bayonetta is a straight up third person action brawler of sorts.  Yeah you have guns, but you'll find yourself fighting it out more often, just for the fun.  There are tons of combos you can pull off.  One really cool thing they have in the game is that during the loading screens you can practice the combos.  There is even a list of all the combos you can scroll through that shows you how many times you have pulled off that combo.

The levels are kind of linear and you can only explore so far before you run into a wall, visible or invisible.  Even so there are rewards for exploring what there is.  Hidden treasures, bonus levels are scattered about for players to find.

Gaphics and Sound

The graphics are truly gorgeous, sexy even, but then again I think that was on purpose.  Kamiya did state that he wanted the game to be fashionable and sexy.  He even admitted that Bayonetta was, in many ways, his  ideal woman.  Now I played the Xbox 360 version, it has been reported that the Playstation 3 version graphicly is not as good, that it looked a bit muddy.  Platinum Games only developed the 360 version, they handed the code off to Sega for porting to the PS3.

Sound-wise the game is really spot on.  The voice acting is great and the music is a very catchy pop-jazz of sorts.  I'm half tempted to find the soundtrack. 

Overall 

Bayonetta is sexy violence, that's the first thing that popped into my head when I got into the first big fight.  The way they set up her actions, it's almost like she's dancing.  Kamiya wanted to create a sexy, but powerful female lead character and he succeeded.  I think I've said "sexy" a lot in this review, but it fits.  The game oozes it right along with the action.  If John Woo and Quentin Tarantino ever teamed up and made a game this would be it. 

The story is a little hard to follow, especially when they are telling it during fights early on, but eventually it comes around.  Plus one of the hidden goodies you find is a series of journals that give the history of the Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages.

Bayonetta gets a 4.5 out of 5.  The only things holding it back from a 5 is the slight control issue and the awkward quick time events.  Really I had fun with this game and still am since you can go back through levels to improve your score or find the things you missed.  I hope they make a sequel.

Bayonetta is rated M for Mature for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes.