Title     Bayonetta Developer    Platinum Games Publisher    Sega Platform    Xbox360/Playstation 3 Genre    Hack and Slash Release Date    8th January 2010

Next to ‘First Person Shooter games’, I have to say that ‘Hack and Slash’ is definitely second in line for being my all time, favorite genre.  Titles such as ‘Devil May Cry’, ‘Ninja Gaiden’ and ‘God Of War’ have a bloodthirsty effect on me that doesn’t seem to lower at all until every single thing I can kill on the screen has been sliced up into little chunks,  so Bayonetta was always going to be one of my most eagerly awaited titles.

This title has been created by the same mind behind ‘Devil May Cry’, so I knew in my heart that the gameplay would be the same, top-notch hack and slash which I have come to love over the years. What I didn’t expect though was the sheer psychedelic crazy Jpop-ness of the story and how trippy it all is, so make sure you are comfortable and have some sort of beverage to hand as I am now going to take you on an interesting trip, that will probably leave you pretty confused by the end.

You play Bayonetta, an Umbra witch who has lost 500 years of her memory. When the game starts, you are conducting a funeral for a guy who works for the devil.  After the last rights have been administered, a load of angels suddenly come from the sky and you have to kick seven shades of crazy out of them with guns which you both wield and have strapped to your feet.  I know it sounds pretty damn weird, but you can’t say that I didn’t warn you.

This poses many questions – why are you fighting angels? Why are you conducting a funeral? And why oh why have you suddenly stripped all your clothes off and in turn, your hair has made you a nice, skin-tight cat suit? I have completed the game and some of these questions still baffle me. However, if you concentrate on the other questions, such as ‘why has she lost her memory?’ and ‘what is an Umbra witch?’ and accept the basic ideas of heaven, hell and purgatory which are portrayed in the game, it becomes quite an enjoyable story.  So take it from me, when you play this just stick to the basics of the story and you can still enjoy it.

One of the things that did annoy me slightly about this game is the character of Bayonetta herself. I am going to say it bluntly here: she is a slapper!  Her taunts and the things that she says are just over the top and a bit crude at times…things like: “Do you want to touch me?”  It’s definitely one of those moments where a guy would just start backing away slowly before making a run for it.

For me, the greatness of this game boils down to the gameplay; all hack and slash fans out there will love this title, I am sure of it. It has the  fantastic variety of moves and combinations from the likes of ‘Devil May Cry’, mixed with some nifty quick-time events. Not only that, but ‘Witch Time’ is a godsend when you are being bombarded by hordes of enemies.  If you hit dodge in time when an enemy attacks, you will slow down time for a few seconds, letting you combo the hell out of all available enemies on screen.  Something about crushing enemies in that way is deeply satisfying.  Another neat little trick available to you is walking up walls. In fact, every time the full moon shines down upon you, your Umbra Witch powers are awakened and you can walk up walls and across ceilings. This ability allowed for some pretty epic boss battles, though sadly this power can only be activated when the moon is out and the moon only conveniently pops out when the level design needs it too.

What I really did love about this game was the fact that not all of the levels were ‘hack and slash’ based.  There were levels for example where Bayonetta is riding a motorcycle along a highway which was being destroyed,  so there is a nice variety of gameplay here – believe me, you’re not going to get bored too easily.

The character upgrade system is pretty much along the same lines of Devil May Cry, in that you have a shop where you can spend Halos to get new moves and combos, health and magic upgrades and weapons.  Halos are collected from all angels you kill throughout the game, so if you off enough of them, you will have a plentiful supply. Also there are chests scattered around the levels which contain broken Witch hearts – get four of these and you will obtain a health upgrade. The same thing goes with Moon Pearl shards as well but they upgrade your magic instead of your health.

As with all good games there are going to be some cons; I mean, no game is perfect but what really stood out like a sore thumb for me was the camera angles. Hack and slash titles don’t tend to nail the camera angles perfectly and Bayonetta isn’t much different, sadly. I recall the camera sometimes getting stuck in walls while I was trying to pound the hell out of some tough enemies.  Speaking of enemies, I feel that this is a good point to mention the Bosses of Bayonetta.  Back when I first played Devil May Cry 3, I used to spend hours a night trying to defeat the likes of Cerburus and Nevan,  I would find myself cowering  in a corner and hugging my knees due to the fact I would be on my fiftieth try of killing said boss and still failing. Bayonetta only did this once for me; now, I do wonder if it is because I am a seasoned DMC player or that the difficulty of these bosses is, well, not that difficult.  In most cases I found bigger generic enemies harder than bosses, which I thought was a tad weird.

The soundtrack, I thought, was a bit strange. To be honest, when I am going into battle I expect the heavy industrial musical stylings of the Devil May Cry 3 and 4 battle music, so when I go in brandishing my ankle guns to the jazzy tunes of some trippy pop ballad/ J-pop, I can’t help but stop and think, ‘this really isn’t killing music’. This is something which isn’t helped by the fact that one of the battle tunes is a J-pop rendition of Sinatra’s’ classic, ‘Fly Me Too The Moon’;  I admit I did eventually catch myself singing along to it while slaying Angels, but at first glance it did feel a bit disjointed.

Voice acting on the other hand was top notch.  Even though the story confused me to hell, I did enjoy listing and looking at the characters; Luka for me was a brilliant side character, his mannerisms and just general attitude were pretty damn cool.   None of the voice acting, for me, felt out of place or strange.  Ok, granted the little kid was annoying after a while but, other than that, the voices and characters (other than the Smut-Witch herself) were pretty good.

For me, this a brilliant hack and slash game.  Even though the story is a bit crazy and the main character is a bit slag-tastic the gameplay really does shine through. Definitely a must play for all hack and slash and, indeed, ‘Devil May Cry’ fans out there.

Pros

Brilliant Hack and Slash game play
Varied levels to keep it fresh
Good replay value
Not a generic Hack and Slash title

Cons

Bayonetta is a bit too smutty for my taste
Story is good but it did lose me a tad
Camera angles could be tightened

Summary

Bayonetta is a great addition to the hack and slash genre. With its varied levels and, quite frankly, stunning graphics it is a title that will make any Hack and Slash fan feel like slaying angels until the cows come home.

The soundtrack and the overall look of the game may take you by surprise at first but, believe me, when you get down to the nitty-gritty of this title and really get stuck into it, you will not be able to put the controller down – well, if Hack and Slash games are your forte of course.

With smuttiness and a scary Witch-woman protagonist aside, I can safely say that this title will not be leaving my Xbox collection any time soon. Even though there are a good deal of titles out there that I do eventually want to get my hands on, this baby is going to keep me gaming for weeks to come.

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