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Bayonetta 2 Hands On Preview

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Bayonetta 2 is an upcoming action game exclusive for the Wii U featuring the sexy Umbra Witch Bayonetta and her quest to rescue her friend Jeanne from the Inferno. I got about 10 minutes worth of game play from the behind curtains demo at Nintendo’s booth which gave me a pretty good feel of what I could expect from the full game when it launches on October 25th.

The fights in Bayonetta 2 are on a whole ‘nother level of crazy to anything I have seen in a game before. The 10 minute or so demo featured a small tutorial followed by a battle against angel like centurions on a plane flying through the city with characters being launched into the air, being slammed with a fist or getting thrown into a skyscraper. The bosses you fight are all very imaginative and all have an idealistic religion type of design. The final fight took place in the air with Bayonetta growing a pair of wings so she could keep up with the giant dragon I was now fighting before it drained the last bit of my health bar.

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The combat was extremely fast paced, varied and satisfying. Bayonetta moves around the screen shooting, kicking, striking and evading all over the place with great precision. When you get hit by an attack in game the fault is definitely your own as the controls are very tight and precise. Bayonetta can perform light strikes, heavier kicks, shoot her gun from a distance and jump to perform midair attacks. All of these can be strung together to form combos of which there are many.

The only issue I had with the game was that with all the frenetic action happening on screen it was very difficult to know when the enemy was actually performing an attack. This issue was most prominent during the giant flying boss section where the boss was taking up a large portion of screen space and the attacks he was making did not have very obvious tells leading to Bayonetta taking the hit and eventually dying. In this day of moderns games where players are spoiled with visual cues such as enemies glowing red at the exact moment we are meant to counter or block their attacks, Bayonetta 2 does not seem to have a similar system. This was my first time playing the Bayonetta series and I’m sure with practice and repetition it is an issue that will become smaller the more you spend with the game.

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Visually the game is impressive especially considering the amount of action on screen, but could do with a bit more anti-aliasing as some times the graphics look a bit rough. This was especially notable with Bayonetta in the downtime between enemies however she does great during cut scenes. Enemies have great designs and Bayonetta moves like a graceful gymnast wielding a gun with plenty of smooth animations to make the combat look even better. The demo I played did not suffer from any frame drops despite all the crazy action that was going which was impressive.

Bayonetta 2 is the best action game I have played in a long time and is definitely one for fans of the first Bayonetta, fans of the action genre or even fans of a challenge.With the entire first game being included with the physical release this is one very tempting title. We recently covered the Bayonetta 2 Nintendo Direct in depth so if you’re keen to find out all the information that was revealed there please check out that article that also contained a brand new trailer for the game. For all our other coverage of this years EB Games Expo please follow the link.

Nathan Farrugia
Nathan Farrugia
Nathan Farrugia - Editor at Capsule Computers.Raised on a Super Nintendo playing Donkey Kong Country, I'm a gamer who loves consoles and handhelds. Also a massive Dragon Ball fan and competitive Pokemon player. Don't be afraid to leave comments on my articles, I love to read them and reply!