Max Deville – Special to the Southern News
Fight and lay waste to the hordes of heaven and infernal legions of hell with wicked witchcraft as the stylish, gun slinging, and cat-suit wearing witch Bayonetta is back for round two in Nintendo’s latest WIIU release: Bayonetta 2.
Bayonetta 2 starts off in true style: players begins as one of two ancient Umbran Witches fighting on falling rubble against centaur-like angels while a narrator gives detail to the creation of the game’s universe, but then this vision of the past transitions to a modern New York-esque city. Here our heroine, the angel hunting witch Bayonetta, is doing some shopping when a jet from an aerial show goes haywire and starts hurtling towards her.
As only Bayonetta would she heel-kicks the jet into the air and is accompanied by her sister-in-arms Jeanne as the pair find angels are responsible for the malfunction. As their fight draws to a close Bayonetta’s demon summoning goes awry and kills Jeanne, condemning her soul to Inferno. With her sister’s eternal damnation on the line Bayonetta sends herself on a mission to the fabled mountain of Fimbulventr to find a gate to Hell, so she can rescue her sister’s soul.
The visuals are absolutely stunning on the WIIU’s hardware as the environments range from bright colorful cityscapes to underwater ruins, and even the pits of Hell which don’t bring a realistic feel, but give instead a sense of awe as to the creativity and work put into each of these environments.
This is only accompanied by one of the best soundtracks heard in modern games (the soundtrack contains five CDs) as every song in each fight and environment adds to the experience and are also just enjoyable catchy songs to listen to.
The combat as well holds up and it feels very similar to the first game in many respects. Players are able to pull wicked combos with Bayonetta’s arsenal and lay down a ton and a half of beatings on any enemy Bayonetta may face. The combat is smooth in this respect as Bayonetta can easily bounce from one enemy to the next hitting them and building up combo after combo.
To accompany the combat you need enemies, and there is a whole new cast of angels to destroy, as well as demons which must now be fought. Something the game does bring back though are the torture attacks which brutally kill your enemies in creative ways, and when perfectly dodging an attack players are able to slow down time and deal extra damage to foes.
With the WIIU being a somewhat handheld console with a touch screen, the game makes use of this by allowing players to fight and traverse the game through the use of the touchscreen interface.
This fails though as your fingers block the screen and it ruins the point of the combat, which is mash the buttons so fast and hard you either break your control, or your fingers start to hurt. The latter of which is very possible given the WIIU’s controller shape makes it uncomfortable to button mash, whereas in the first game the organic PS3 and Xbox controller made it a little more comfortable.
That aside, what makes the game what it is, is the main character: Bayonetta. Bayonetta, unlike most video game heroines, she commands and demands respect from everyone in the game, even the player, but she also is able to freely express herself. Not to mention she does not care for what anyone else thinks of her or what she does. She is a character completely confident on herself and adds an unseen level of complexity.
All in all what this game does best above all else is being a game that is meant to be fun. The absurd situations, humor, but balanced with a good story and developed characters make Bayonetta a game worth every cent and minute. Final verdict: 5 out of 5
Photo Credit: Jasohill
