Now Playing: Bayonetta

Bayonetta is a game that just keeps on giving. Just when you think the game has run out of ways to surprise you, it takes a sudden turn and pulls another rabbit out of its hat. I kept wondering if the game would eventually fall flat. It couldn’t keep this up, could it? But, with confidence and style, Bayonetta surpassed all my expectations, providing a thrilling ride from start to finish.

Bayonetta is a third person action game developed by Platinum Games. I never played it upon release. It was only recently after completing Vanquish again that I thought I should really give it a spin. And within only the first 20 minutes or so, I was already in love. Bayonetta is sheer joy to play.

Bayonetta, as a character, is perfect. She takes such pleasure in what she does that her enjoyment of every moment is infectious. It’s rare that you’ll find a video game hero quite so in love with what they do. Her visual design and animation is outstanding and her VA is spot on. She’s a fantastic character, not just to play, but simply to watch. And, perhaps surprisingly, she’s a character with real emotional depth.

I was expecting the story of Bayonetta to be somewhat forgettable nonsense, and although it’s as bonkers as I expected, it’s also rather engaging, as Bayonetta embarks on a journey to uncover her past. Whereas other Platinum titles such as Vanquish or Metal Gear Rising were arguably more style over substance, particularly in terms of story, Bayonetta not only provides a deep and fantastically stylish gameplay experience, but a deep narrative and character experience too.

I played through Bayonetta on the Normal difficulty, which is the highest available to start, but once completed it unlocks an additional Hard mode. It took about 10 hours, which is a fairly substantial campaign and all the more impressive considering how tightly designed everything is. Completing the game unlocks a New Game + of sorts where you can replay any chapter on the various difficulties whilst retaining your items, weapons and abilities.

It’s amazing how much I missed the first time through. There’s a lot of hidden extras to find, and the battle ranking system lends itself to a great deal of replay value. You’ll be ranked on time, damage taken, combo score and items used. There’s a nice variety of weapons in the game, all of which handle differently and provide a unique set of attacks. The combo system is refreshingly simple and responsive, but has real depth. Once you get the hang of chaining together attacks, you’ll be juggling enemies in the air like a pro.

The way the various weapons are incorporated into your fighting style is fast and fluid – but you always feel in control. It’s a game that takes time to learn and master, and with the ability to combine various weapons and different techniques, there’s a lot of scope to experiment with different combat styles. There’s a slow-motion ability which triggers upon a dodge. There’s also charged special moves to deal massive damage to an opponent in a particularly brutal ‘torture’ animation. Some enemies drop weapons you can pick up and use, providing another twist to combat.

In short, the combat of Bayonetta is fantastic. There were many fights I just didn’t want to end, because I was having such fun tearing my way through enemies and chaining together combos. It’s something I never grew tired of, especially with the ability to instantly switch out my weapons to a new set and an entirely new way of fighting.

But that wouldn’t mean very much, however, if the game didn’t provide a good selection of enemies to pummel into submission. But Bayonetta has this covered, with a variety of enemy types both large and small. Their design is fantastic, especially the bosses. Bayonetta has several boss fights, all of which require a different approach. These are a little more mixed in terms of quality, but all of them provide a unique challenge.

Outside of the combat, you also have some simple environmental puzzles and platform challenges to mix things up. And I loved the way the environments would sometimes shift during combat, meaning you’d have to be on your toes – not only aware of the enemies you’re fighting, but also of the changing environment around you.

There’s a great variety of environments, and the game is always throwing something new at you – a new location, new skills, new weapons, new enemies and entirely new gameplay mechanics. Just when I thought I’d seen everything, I could suddenly transform into a panther. Or run up walls. Or ride a motorcycle. Or control a missile tearing through the sky in an After Burner style sequence. Bayonetta is a game full of wonderful surprises. It never stops.

Are there flaws? Sometimes the framerate can suffer when there’s a lot going on, which means you might take a cheap hit. Some of the cinematic QTE moments are a little unforgiving and result in an instant death if you miss one, which doesn’t feel very fair. And…yeah, it’s hard to really think of anything to be critical of.

Bayonetta is a fantastic game, and I really can’t believe I didn’t pick it up sooner. It has a sense of fun and adventure about it that you don’t see very often. It’s a game that expertly balances humour against a more serious tone. It has the style and the substance, both in terms of narrative and gameplay. It’s video game joy at its purest. It doesn’t get much better than this.

9/10