Bayonetta Review

Buy Bayonetta Now

Bayonetta is the masterpiece we have been expecting from the director Hidiki Kamiya, ever since his triumph with the bar-raising Devil May Cry. This single-player, third-person, hardcore, action game delivers at the speed of light. The action is nonstop, frenetic, crazy, over-the-top and super-violent, with probably the best combat on offer in the gaming world. Developed by Platinum Games and published by SEGA, Bayonetta was released on the 8th of January 2010 and is available on PS3 and XBOX 360.

The plot, which is just as mad as the action, revolves around the cat-suited, bespectacled witch Bayonetta, who awakens from a five hundred year sleep. Her memory is blank, but returns over time. Initially she has few clues to her past, apart from her magical powers. We, however, are treated to a flashback, which shows Bayonetta fighting Angels in a pan-European war between the Lumen Sages (men whose power is drawn from the heavens) and the Umbra Witches (women whose power comes from Inferno). Ouch! Back in the present, Bayonetta is soon wiping out Angels, before teaming up with a couple of friends, and heading for the city of Vigrid, battling Angels from a crashed cargo plane on the way. In the city she exists in a different dimension, which renders her invisible to the normal residents but not to Angels. As well as fights with Angels and a two headed dragon, there’s a bit of a romantic interest, before the city is consumed by lava from Inferno.

After escaping from the flames she meets a young child, who claims that Bayonetta is her mother, but is really her own younger self. She also learns that her mother was an Umbra Witch and her father a Lumen Sage. 

In a story that is becoming increasingly surreal, she meets her father, who is aiming to reunite the different realities, by means of a resurrected Jubileus, the God-like creator. Bayonetta realises that her father has been using her: they fall out and fight. Her memory is restored and her younger self returns to the present. 

Wilder and wilder it gets: a tower crumbles to reveal a missile that shoots off in to the beyond, a magical motorcycle is ridden along the surface of a missile, Bayonetta fights Jubileus, who is enclosed in a magical sphere, and death is followed by resurrection. It’s all surreal, quasi-metaphysical and wonderfully mad.

You control Bayonetta as she battles the hordes of sometimes super-sized enemies in a veritable orgy of violence. You can punch, kick, double jump to gain height, back flip and even, with an unlockable transformation, morph into another creature. Initially she has four guns, one attached to each of her limbs, but you can earn many other weapons. Her hair, a conduit to the power of Inferno, can be transformed into fighting demons. Bayonetta also has a unique weapon, Witch Time, which when triggered slows down time, giving her an advantage in combat. 

The action is relentless, with the boss fights seeming to come as quickly as normal combat set-pieces: you complete one boss fight only to find you are confronted with another. But this repetitive action is far from boring: each boss fight demands a special combat technique, and the difficulty seems to increase as the game progresses. 

There are five levels of difficulty, if you choose Very Easy or Easy, then you have possibility of an Automatic mode, which can be played using one button. There are Normal and Hard modes, and believe me Hard means hard. And then, if you are a top gamer, there is the Non-Stop Climax mode. 

The game is divided into chapters, which in turn are sub-divided into versus. At the end of each verse medals of different values are awarded, and when a chapter is completed the medals are translated into an award. Fighting Angels in minigames earns points that can be exchanged for Halos.

The main campaign will occupy you for fifteen to twenty hours. There are loads of unlockables available, which can be purchased with your accumulated Halos. But here is the rub: a single play though on Normal will not allow you to gain enough Halos for many of the unlockables. So you can replay or move on to Hard or Non-Stop Infinite Climax, if you dare!

The visuals are stunning, (the next bit PS3 fans won’t want to hear): particularly on the XBOX 360 where they are brighter and more colourful. And you may be surprised to find that the cut scenes actually provide a very welcome breather from all the frenetic action.

Even though I have described Bayonetta as a masterpiece, there are perhaps a few criticisms: some might find the action too over the top and the puzzles rather weak. Others might detect hints of sexism. But without doubt Bayonetta gives you great value for money. The action is amazing and it is very, very repeatable. It is an absolute must have for fans of the genre.