Sega's Bayonetta is certainly an interesting game, one that knows its place and makes no qualms about what it is: an over-the-top third-person action game.
Think Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe or Ninja Gaiden. If you played the first two of those three, you will be right at home with Bayonetta because they share the same director, Hideki Kamiya.
Bayonetta feels very much like a culmination of the action-game genre. It doesn't introduce any new elements; rather, it tries and largely succeeds in perfecting the tried-and-true game mechanics for a third-person action game.
The controls are tight, responsiveness is top-notch and the combos are easy to perform. The bosses are at times huge hulking monstrosities that are extremely intense to fight. This isn't just another bad guy with extra health. The player is often tasked with locating a weak point, exploiting it, and executing combos and magical attacks with near-perfect precision. These encounters are a welcome return to how boss battles used to be, something absent from a lot of modern games.
The soundtrack is lively and upbeat, and it complements the game's action sequences well.
The levels of difficulty are well balanced, allowing players to turn it down all the way to the one-button-does-everything setting, or crank it up so hard that even veteran action-game players will struggle. This allows for a decent amount of replay-ability, and because Bayonetta is roughly just a 10-hour game, this is definitely a good thing.
There are lots of unlockables, challenges, achievements and more to concentrate on for the second time around.
Now let's talk about what Bayonetta isn't, which is serious. This is a game in which the heroine has magical hair attacks, guns strapped to her shoes, blatant in-your-face high-school sexuality and a throw-away plot.
This is a game that takes itself lightly, focuses on the action and perfects the control system. It does all these, but it doesn't make stomaching the painful cut-scenes any easier. I'm convinced that the actors and writers tried their hardest to include as many corny one-liners and stereotypical characters as possible.
Overall, for third-person action fans, Bayonetta will be somewhat of a been-there-done-that experience, but it's a highly polished and fast-paced version of what you've played before. For any casual fans of the genre or anyone not experienced with fast-paced action games, I would recommend a rental first.
And although it takes a certain type of fan to truly enjoy it, this is definitely one of the most polished and well-executed games Sega has ever published.
