It’s been 4 years since we last saw a small glimpse of Bayonetta 3 at game awards in the form of a small teaser trailer. I am happy to report that Bayonetta is back in action and sexier than ever with new mechanics and over-the-top stylish action. After playing Bayonetta 3 for the first time I am excited to see what has changed. 

My time with Bayonetta 3 focused on a small section of the campaign with areas that flowed right into one another. I played as Bayonetta starting out inside a train taking out the new bioweapons called the homunculi. The demo quickly transitioned into a scene where Bayonetta transforms into the familiar infernal demon, Gomorrah Malphas demon and begins to slide down a building as the surrounding city is falling apart and enemies are attacking. 

As I continued to slide down what looked like a very long building that was almost transforming into a path, I was chased by giant homunculi, that would hurl broken buildings at me that I was able to hit back. As Gomorrah, I attached myself to four boats and began accelerating forward while dodging more attacks and falling buildings. I finished off the giant homunculi with Bayonetta's signature ability umbral climax to complete the first section of the level.

The new demon masquerade mechanic adds new potential to Bayonetta's arsenal of moves allowing her to summon infernal demons and control them for a brief period of time displayed on an energy gauge that would fill up over time from basic attacks. I absolutely loved playing around with demon masquerade during my playthrough and experimenting with different combos. Gomorrah had strong, powerful, hard-hitting attacks, making it easy to face multiple enemies. Occasionally, when an enemy was stunned, I could follow up with an additional attack called a torture attack, keeping the action fast-paced and never slowing down. 

I was able to combine the ability witch time that slows down enemies with demon masquerade to summon an infernal demon to absolutely obliterate multiple enemies. Additionally, Gomorrah and Madama Butterfly had traversal abilities in which Gomorrah could leap very high into the air and Madama could dash around the area at amazingly fast speeds which was useful for getting away from groups of enemies. Madama Butterfly was especially good at dashing far away from enemies as Bayonetta would be exposed when summoning her demons. I would have to say so far Madama Butterfly is my favorite infernal demon. 

The last area of the level featured combat with just Bayonetta herself with the demon masquerade summoning ability being temporarily disabled. Bayonetta's move set hasn’t seemed to have changed much from the other games with most of her signature kicks and punches and gun abilities remaining similar,  but as a nice surprise, Bayonetta herself had a new two-handed weapon that would deal powerful blows to enemies and could transform into a gun for powerful long-range attacks. 

My short but sweet session with Bayonetta 3, offered a fun look at how the game has evolved and how the new demon masquerade mechanic adds a unique and fun layer of strategy to the combat. Switching between infernal demons and Bayonetta kept the action fast-paced and I never felt like I was slowing down at all during combat. I am super excited to jump back into the universe of Bayonetta and experience all the new demons and quirky characters and I can’t wait to see more.