Bayonetta

Between Dante's Inferno and God of War this year, it would seem that all the good religions for stylish third-person action games had been taken up. The Greeks have Polytheism and Judaism is basically Christianity at a core level, so unless you want to try and tackle the politically incorrect nightmare that an Islamic videogame would be, then Abrahamic belief is out. Trust me, we don't want to go into the connotations of an Islamic videogame...
So really you're left with 2 options: Buddhism or Paganism and I'm somewhat unsure how a game like Bayonetta would ever manage to incorporate Buddhism at all.
 
The reason for all this talk of religion is that there is a very strong religious subtext in Bayonetta, but unless you're taking notes there's a good chance you won't really notice until about half way through the game. The basic set up is fairly simple but there's a lot going on behind the scenes that the game seems to shy away from expressing at first. You play as Bayonetta, a 10 foot tall Witch whose abilities include shapeshifting into animals, briefly slowing down time, entering parallel realities, firing four guns at the same time (two are strapped to her feet and God only knows just how she uses them...) and performing magic with her hair.
Remember a few years back, just before Heavenly Sword was released and we were all gawking at the fluidity of Nariko's hair? Trust me, Bayonette wipes the floor with our least favourite red head. She uses her hair as her clothes and in moments of extreme excitement lets her hair take on a form of its own in order to chomp, crush or tear enemies to pieces. Often the hair grows to absurd heights and lengths, dwarfing the already enormous monsters and so, in the most odd way possible, it becomes understandable that Bayonetta's own catsuit vanishes from her body with just enough censorship left to stop the game being banned all over the world. If nothing else, it's a sight.
 
Not that you'll notice so much when titanic enemies are having their faces chewed off by the hair monster[s] but Bayonetta is something of a technical marvel. The environments are lushly rendered and there's a vitality to the world even when very little of the aforementioned absurd action is taking place. That the game performs so well as you're fighting frantically through space whilst the camera spins at 100mph in the opposite direction that everything else is spinning in is a testament to the skill of the developers over at Platinum Games, who clearly intended for a dynamic and fluid experience, and Bayonetta is nothing if not fluid. The entire game moves consistently at it's own pace which although jarringly different from anything else you've ever experienced at first, eventually becomes comforting. It's nice to know that the plot doesn't really try and change too much at any point throughout the game. Instead, it takes the craziness it's already set up and continues to multiply it the nth degree.
This ultimately leads to a challenging experience that is reminiscent of the games that Bayonetta is looking to pay homage to (i.e. every Japanese/Sega game made pre'98). It's easy to ease yourself into the gameplay of Bayonetta on Normal mode, but by the end of the game, there will be beads of sweat as a result of attempting that one battle for who-knows-how-many-times. Either that, or there'll be cursing.
 
There's some mild puzzle elements here and there throughout the game but for the most part it's all based around the combat, meaning that it's rare for your objective to be much more varied than "Kill those dudes." which is probably for the best. Although some more elaborate puzzles would probably have not hurt the game, it's something of a relief to know that the guys at Platinum knew exactly what worked and stuck at that.
Also worth pointing out is the enemy design which takes a new spin on the notion of angels, taking them to disgusting and very unangelic extremes. Specifically, the boss encounters are an example of brilliant design work where most of their features have a specific purpose, and everything else about their mise-en-scene is there to just look messed up. There are a lot of creepy-ass child heads on evil ass colossi in Bayonetta. 
 As well as general enemy design the characters of Bayonetta feel wonderfully exaggerated in a way that only Japan seems able to muster. The dialogue is corny as all holy hell in a way that seems to reflect old B-Movies, a comparison which is only helped along by a number of cut-scenes which play out as a series of still images with voicework sounding over them. Each character has their own goals and feels like a pastiche of certain fields or nationalities. Enzo, Bayonettas helper is a typical New Yorker just trying to get through the madness but always screwing up, Rodin a shady weapons supplier who literally makes deals with the devil for our heroines gain seems awfully reminiscent of a drug dealer. But, ya'know, a good one. Luka is a well meaning journalist who seems to be tightroping the line between skill and luck, but will never back down from a possible scoop And of course, there's Bayonetta, a sexed up, fun-loving, hard as nails librarian themed go-go dancer, cum stripper with guns. On her feet. Having awoken from a 500 year slumber, she's out to find out just what happened to her, but that doesn't mean she can't have some fun along the way.
 
The game completely follows Bayonetta's modus operandi, always pushing towards the big reveal but having fun in the process. The action is like a series of LSD dreams stitched together and the result is technically familiar to Devil May Cry to the extent that it feels like Hideki Kamiya delivered DMC's spiritual successor.
Bayonetta is a unique and individual experience that everybody needs to check out at least once. Some people might find it too outrageous and some might find it too Japanese. Some might just love it. I know that I certainly had a lot of fun playing through once and I wouldn't trade my experience in for anything in the world. But having experience it once, despite knowing that I've not unlocked half of the abilities and items that Bayonetta has to offer, I don't particularly feel like I want to return to it. Although marvellous, Bayonetta is exhausting and if I never play another level of this game again, I'll be completely happy with my experiences with it. But there's no way I can deny that it was a hell of a ride.