Bayonetta

Review - Import: Bespectacled bewitchment

Ceaselessly pursued by the forces of Heaven after waking from a mysterious 500-year slumber, the eponymous Bayonetta is a shape-shifting Umbra Witch battling to regain lost memories across the fictional European city of Vigrid. Clad in a figure-hugging bodysuit made of her own raven black hair, this skilled mistress of the dark arts prowls between the astral plains in Purgatorio, ever ready for conflict with twin weapons attached to hands and feet, the ability to manipulate Witch Time, and an unnerving penchant for both lollipops and torturous punishment.

At first viewing, Bayonetta appears to be nothing more than a shallow exercise in linear hack-and-slash, a polished but still largely unimpressive Bullet Witch eager to emulate the Devil May Cry series while hurling envious sideways glances at God of War 3. Furthermore, a pitiful two-button combo system promotes an immediate sense of unstoppable mash-happy progress through the game's sporadic waves of angelic foes. It also points to a worrying lack of innovation on the part of developer PlatinumGames, which is compounded by a whiffy camembert narrative that involves cheap celluloid flashbacks, confusing snippets of self-discovery, and a cliched desire for revenge. At first viewing, Bayonetta really isn't very good at all.

However, those willing to look closer by pushing through a mundane and mediocre first hour, will discover in Bayonetta an action game with its tongue firmly lodged in its cheek and a gameplay structure that, while tipping its hat at fellow genre entrants, stands tall by straddling the twin pillars of depth and strategy. Moreover, the game's seemingly linear environments hide branching challenges that must be actively sought out, while the simplistic attack system is a control masterstroke offering astounding variety and versatility. And, perhaps more importantly, arbitrary button mashing is mercilessly punished as players are continually encouraged to assess onrushing foes and apply the appropriate combo solutions in order to escape the clutches of death.

Helmed by Hideki Kamiya (the force behind Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe), Bayonetta clearly takes its inspiration from the legendary director's earlier work with Capcom, but sets new yardsticks of quality in almost every respect by breaking apart the clearly defined 'Japaction' mould he helped create. And, in eschewing the limited audience appeal of Devil May Cry's laughably straight-faced gothic melodrama in favour of Bayonetta's flamboyantly camp and cheekily suggestive overtones, Kamiya has produced not only his best game, but also his most widely accessible.

In Bayonetta herself, we're treated to a playfully arrogant and fearless English heroine who's always ready with a disarming taunt, a wry smile, and a cocked eyebrow to complement her similarly cocked arsenal of destruction. And, with flanking cut-scene support from Italian-American sidekick Enzo and gruff African-American bar-owner-cum-demonic-weapons-dealer Rodin (seemingly inspired by Leo Getz and Marsellus Wallace), it's clear from the outset that Bayonetta is a game seeking to cross the genre divide and lure a much wider (Western?) gaming demographic. Yet, while that chasm leap is certainly possible thanks to an equal parts kick-ass and saucily sensual lead witch, a cast of similarly likeable secondary characters, and an initially perplexing plotline that eventually pays dividends, the central pivot point of Bayonetta's success rests squarely on the shoulders of its core combo-based gameplay.

To that end - and while running the risk of upsetting fans of complex combos utilising all of a controller's face buttons in conjunction with both bumpers and triggers - the simple fact of the matter is that Bayonetta's two-button attack system is utterly peerless. Of course, such a brazen outburst may seem like something of an ill-informed exaggeration for those combo purists presently eyeing Bayonetta with thinly veiled scepticism while stroking their chin beards with the ominous thumb and forefinger of suspicion. Hopefully the following examples and explanations will help alleviate any niggling doubts amongst our more unshakeably strident readers.

With a basic upper body attack mapped to the triangle button, and a lower body attack mapped to the circle button, various configurations of both during play result in the creation of wildly imaginative on-screen combo strings that change completely depending on the weaponry set Bayonetta has equipped at any particular time. Once in flow, the player can smoothly segue between chained moves by holding the square button to launch a volley of hot lead via a straightforward gun attack, before then applying a fresh sequence of triangle and circle inputs to unleash the next devastating combination. Although perfecting the necessary timing to pull off a steady stream of deadly moves isn't easy, doing so can result in the player clearing areas of enemies in a blur of motion without taking a single hit, which often prompts a wave of glorious self-satisfaction the game's performance-based medal system is unable to match.