The loading time problem is gone now. That means an already great PS3 game is nearly perfect now. Go get it.

User Rating: 9 | Bayonetta PS3
Bayonetta is an action game along the lines of Devil May Cry, in which you control a superhuman protagonist wielding exotic weaponry against supernatural hordes in over-the-top combat. In this case, you are a sexy, glasses-wearing witch wearing a skin-tight obsidian outfit magically formed from her hair, who is capable of equipping weapons on both her hands/arms and legs, and she does battle against twisted looking "angelic" beings. With tight controls, amazing visuals, great voice acting and a fluid combat system, action gamers would be doing themselves a serious disservice skipping over this title.

Bayonetta is one very well-designed character. She's extremely sexy but doesn't pull this off in the simple way that past so-called "sexy" game girls do, like having oversized breasts or wearing a ridiculously skimpy outfit. Bayonetta stands out because she has a great persona, delivered in a sultry British accent, with a strong balance of sharp wit and humor, and it doesn't hurt that she's designed to have a perfect figure wrapped in a skin-tight black outfit--and wears glasses. Her antics are as enjoyable to watch as her comments are to listen to, though some of her taunts go a little too far ("You want to touch me?").

Bayonetta's story is largely an afterthought to me, but it goes something like this: she's the last of a clan of witches called the Umbra Witches, she lost her memory, and uses dark powers. The "angels", or the beings of Paradiso (e.g., heaven?), want her dead. She gets her gear from Rodin, an agent of Inferno (a.k.a. hell I guess) and she does battle on "earth" or Purgatorio, the world between light and dark. But all the player really needs to know is that Bayonetta's got a lot of butt to kick while figuring out the mysteries of her past. The story is told through both real-time scenes and film strip still scenes, both with voice acting, and it's pretty entertaining. But the most important thing about Bayonetta is the gameplay, which rocks.

If you ever played a third-person action game from this or last generation, the interface will be familar. You control Bayonetta in real-time in 3D environments, you control her attacks with face buttons and other maneuvers with the shoulder buttons and D-pad. You can rotate the camera, lock onto enemies (not always needed) and execute defensive dodges, etc. Nothing all that strange, but it's the way it plays out that makes Bayonetta so engaging. She attacks with combos using fists and feet, swords, claws powered with fire or lightning, a whip and more, and you can decide how her weapons will load out, whether she'll have weapons on her arms or legs, and all of this radically changes the combat. Every weapon seems to be extremely effective, so like Devil May Cry, it's up to the player to decide which weapons will best serve a situation.

More to the point, Bayonetta's actual attacks are quite crazy. She slashes a sword several feet ahead of her, snags enemies out of the air with her whip, leaves explosive energy in the air with her fire claws, kicks and adds extra punch when the shotguns are attached to her legs, breakdances and whirls around blasting everything around her from all fours before stopping with a pose and a camera snap, and that doesn't even get into the Torture Attacks (which are exactly what they sound like) Wicked Kicks or Climaxes (using giant sized heels and monsters summoned from her hair to brutally punish opponents, which comes off of her body and transforms during intense battle). She even uses her magical hair to lift and hurl cars and garbage dumpsters and statues. Everything that goes on is so completely ridiculous and over the top that you can't NOT have fun fighting every battle.

Bayonetta's defensive options are simpler. She really has one way to protect herself from harm (aside from killing goons before they get her), and that's by dodging attacks. Dodge at the last second and she activates "Witch Time", which temporarily slows down the action while allowing Bayonetta to move at normal speed. Mastering this is the key to surviving combat because the enemies are brutal and hard-hitting.

Not all of Bayonetta's action is so well-designed though. There are more than a few quick time events during the game that can take the player by surprise and require pinpoint timing to get through. One slip up and you die, have to continue or quit and suffer a penalty to your end-level bonus points. I feel they are a cheap way to add difficulty to an already challenging enough game. Sometimes the chapters feel like they go on a little long and there are a lot of them.

I like how Bayonetta is designed. It rewards the player for getting better at the game, but also doesn't block out players who want to make the game easier on themselves. There are healing items, the difficulty level can be changed between chapters and earlier chapters can be repeated at any time if the player wants to go back and obtain more halos (the game's currency) in order to upgrade Bayonetta's health, magic or skills.

And most importantly, there has been much talk of the loading times in the PS3 version, but with the patch released on 1/28/10 that allows data to be installed to the PS3's HDD, that problem has been all but eliminated. Now there's no excuse. If you like intense action games and want to see a different kind of protagonist, and you only have a PS3, you've got no reason to skip out on Bayonetta. Highly recommended.