Bayonetta Review

Take one sexy librarian-type witch, put her in a bondage-inspired costume, give her guns to shoot with, while at it, strap on guns to her heels as well, throw in magical abilities and insane God of War-like boss battles and you’ve got Bayonetta. Did we mention that the sexy witch uses her magical hair for clothes and occasionally gets semi naked when she has to use her hair to summon demons and perform other magical acts? No, we’re not making this stuff up. One things for sure – this game ticks off more male fantasy check boxes than most other games.

Add to all that an even more bizarre plot – the Lumen Sages and Umbran Witches are tasked to maintain the balance between light and darkness. The Lumen serve the god of Paradiso and control the power of light while the Umbra witches gain power from the demons of Inferno and control the power of darkness. A perfect balance between the two existed until an unfortunate event caused the two to battle. Now only one Umbra witch remains and her name is Bayonetta. As the titular witch, you’re tasked with bring down the forces of light with the help of your demonic, clothes-scattering powers.

If that bizarre storyline flew over your head, don’t worry. The game’s brilliance lies not in its ability to tell a great story but in the gameplay. In terms of gameplay, Bayonetta is very close to Devil May Cry, which isn’t surprising as Hideki Kamiya is the brain behind both titles. You’ve got five basic buttons – punch, kick, jump, fire gun and dodge. Using these buttons in various sequences leads to different combo attacks. The dodge feature is particularly impressive as you have the chance to go into witch time, slowing down everything around you, by dodging an attack at the very last second. Witch times comes in handy while solving puzzles and fighting difficult battles.

As the game progresses, more weapons and fight techniques can be purchased depending on the amount of halos you have collected – your opponents drop halos when they are defeated. Again, if you’ve played Devil May Cry, this sort of purchase system should be very familiar.

The gameplay is a mix of button mashing action as well as puzzle solving. Thankfully, the game stays true to its action pedigree and only dabbles in light puzzle solving every now and then. The action is where the game really shines. You’ll need the right combination of moves to take enemies down. Witch time comes in incredibly handy when taking on powerful foes. Special torture moves become available at certain instances during the fight if you have enough magical abilities. Your foes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – from winged angels to flying serpents. The only problem with the enemies is that they are easily forgettable.

The game’s graphics are decent great level design. The voice acting is decent but the sound track can get mildly annoying even though it does gel with the theme of the game.

While the game has a lot going for it, the best thing about the game is easily Bayonetta. She’s undeniable charming and incredibly sultry. Expect loads of sexual innuendos and occasionally clever banter. Even though the character is supposed to be able to control the powers of darkness, she’s not evil – in fact our glee matriarch seems more of a heroine than a villainess.

We do have a few gripes with the game and its mainly with the PlayStation 3 version. The PS3 version suffers from terrible load times and they’re everywhere. Load a level and it take a long time. Pick up an item and you’re stuck with load time. It can get really annoying but thankfully not enough to set you off the game. The Xbox 360 version does not suffer from this annoyance.

Bayonetta is absurdly brilliant – we love the gameplay and all its charm. If you like Devil May Cry-type action games, this one will not disappoint.