IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ FIRST: Ok I love both these games and please remember that all of this is just MY OPINION. I personally think that Bayonetta has been the best game of this year and is way better than God of War. In fact, I think Bayonetta is in a league of his own, see my reasons below.

1. Lead Character: While Bayonetta goes as far as to pastiche gaming’s love of scantily clad women, God of War (GOW) chooses to have an angry bald man who screams a lot. To be fair Kratos’ does have a far larger back-story, killing his own family n’ all. The only problem is nobody cares, if you’re playing GOW chances are it’s to rip off someones arm and beat them to death with it. Kratos’ dialogue rarely comes to anything than screaming revenge fueled threats at his next target, if he were in any other game he’d be a bald space marine; generic, boring and oozing testosterone. Bayonetta may only be slightly better, but at least she has funny scenes such as those with daughter-like Cereza and weapons dealer Rodin. Hearing her tell a group of Angels to “flock off” before burying her heel in ones face may be cheesy, but it made me chuckle. Only a character like Bayonetta can spank an enemy before putting them through the guillotine. To put it simply you can play a game with an anatomically impossible female, cat-suit wearing, wise-cracking super witch OR you can play as a wannabee Vin Diesel…I know which one I’d choose, have you seen The Pacifier? Enough said.

2. Weapons: Ok so this one’s harder than I first thought. Kratos has dual wielding blades linked to chains that the gods themselves burned into his arms, so Bayonetta admittedly needs something rather special. The Blades of Exile (pictured left) isn’t Kratos’ only weapon, in GOW3 he sports the Claws of Hades, Nemean Cestus, and the Nemesis Whip. The only problem with these is that other than the Cestus these all feel quite similar. Though these other weapons do let you summon beasts and juggle enemies, the main use of them still has you swinging blades linked by chains, making them all (bar the brutally strong Cestus) feel far too familiar by the games end. He may have another weapon even during his Rage of the Gods, but this hardly makes up for the feeling of familiarity in GOW’s weapon set. While playing Bayonetta it’s more of a case of what weapon(s) to use. The game allows you to allocate two different weapon slots, one for hands, one for feet. This means you could have rocket launchers (bazillions) and a katana (shuraba), or ice skates (Odette) and nunchucks (Saifon). There’s over ten weapons and there’s a whole load of combinations, all of which change the combo lists, creating new moves. Don’t get me wrong the weapons in GOW are great, just not a touch on Bayonetta’s arsenal. Variety is the spice of life, something GOW falls short of.

3. Combat System: While Kratos can wreak chaos on enemies, swirling his blades and racking up over 100 hits easily, it never felt that fluid to me. If you start a move you best hit, because if you miss there’s no way of canceling it. Play against an enemy like the minotaur and certain moves won’t have a knock back effect, meaning that you have to be selective and careful with how you play. Bayonetta goes for a more frantic approach. Any attack can be interrupted by pressing the dodge button, allowing you to quickly evade oncoming attacks, meaning that you never feel like you’ve died cheaply. If that’s not enough you can even use the dodge offset, which throws out your wicked weave while evading enemy attacks. Not to forget you can transform into panther or bird form mid combat. While GOW builds up combos by throwing drones at you in numbers, Bayonetta encourages players to switch between enemies and combos flawlessly. In summary, GOW feels slightly too clunky in comparison to Bayonetta’s smooth combat system.

4. Finishing Moves: Right I know what you’re thinking here, surely GOW should win this one, have I not seen the infamous Helios head-ripping scene? Well yes I have and it was amazing, the only problem is these moments are too few. The ending to GOW3 was sufficiently brutal as well, but compared to Bayonetta’s transformations that finish EVERY boss, Bayonetta manages to just beat GOW. After beating each boss I’d eagerly await to see what random transformation my leather clad heroine would turn into. Sure, Kratos can rip a man in two, but can he transform into a set of fists to pummel his enemies into oblivion, or a giant bird that eats the opponent? If I’ve not swayed you, watch the following video.

5. Boss Fights: Again, this is a close one. How can Bayonetta win,  GOW has you fighting the freakin’ gods themselves! This is its downfall though, as fights are usually forced against a massive enemy and restricted to a singular platform. Poseidon and Hephaestus are just three examples of this. This doesn’t make the fights poor, just in comparison to Bayonetta, which features enemies just as large, but creates innovative ways to fight its behemoths. It may not be a massive change, but when fighting against bosses this size it’s nice to not be forced into fighting only one side of them, or be able to fly to new platforms without performing a quick-time-event (such as in GOW).

6. Level Design: To me this seems pretty simple, while GOW is a straight slasher with a few variants (flying out of Mount Olympus or the rare puzzle), Bayonetta has full levels that completely change combat. The level ‘Route 666′ has you riding round on a bike, taking down enemies and bosses while racing on a freeway. Another level has you flying on a giant bullet and these levels never feel out-of-place or outreach their welcome. Yes, again this is a case of variety, but GOW really lacks in this department. GOW may send you to hell and back, but Bayonetta sends you to heaven (literally).

7. ‘Challenge Rooms’:Challenge of Olympus or Alfiem Portals, whatever you want to call them, they’re essentially the same thing. While GOW took me an hour or so to complete its meager 7 challenges Bayonetta has twenty-one portals, choose a different difficulty setting and even the enemies change. Both games add variety by challenging players with special requirements, but GOW simply doesn’t have enough to compete.

8. Witch Time vs Rage of Sparta: This one was the hardest part of this post. While GOW’s Rage of Sparta looks so amazing, when entering the mode everything goes a bit Noir, with red blood and orbs creating a sharp contrast, it’s one of the game’s best additions. Kratos also brandishes a sword that can quickly cripple enemies. The only problem with this is that it makes the combat system completely different. It isn’t amazingly hard or anything, just slightly odd that when using your rarely built super bar that combat changes so much. On the other hand, Witch Time allows you to slow down time, dealing staggering amounts of damage to enemies. Cut an enemy in half and his blood and remains will even float about before time kicks back in. Witch Time is triggered by dodging incoming enemy attacks at the right time instead of GOW’s ‘Rage Bar. It’s a risk reward system that works incredibly well, if used properly it can be used almost constantly, mistime it though and you’ll take damage

9. Shopping Sprees:Collecting orbs or rings it doesn’t matter , it’s how you use them that counts. While GOW allows you to upgrade weapons and spells, this is all you can really do. Upgrading a weapon automatically unlocks a new set of moves. If you’re good enough you’ll be able to unlock most upgrades in a single play-through. This isn’t the case with Bayonetta. Extra costumes, new combos, upgraded weapons and a whole set of accessories are just a few of the things your hard-earned rings can purchase. Accessories can summon demons and items such as the Mahaa-Kalaa completely change gameplay, allowing for new ways to counter enemies. The amount available is staggering, shadowing GOW’s completely.

10. Replay Value: Ok, so both games are well worth playing through again. Let me put it this way though, upon completing GOW3 I unlocked a new difficulty level, costume and challenge arenas. While you can replay the game, earning new Godly Possessions, these only alter existing attributes (e.g infinite Rage of Sparta). Playing through Bayonetta again I realized that I’d missed many of the Angelic LPs (these unlock weapons) and had only purchased one weapon. Even after completing the game again on hard I hadn’t unlocked all the weapons. In fact only by completing the game on Ultimate-Climax mode can you unlock all the weapons, or alternate character Jean. On top of all of this Bayonetta’s trophy system means that you are always encouraged to repeat levels, something that I did straight away after my first play-though.

Conclusion: Now, before I get a set of fanboys attacking me, I love GOW. The game has a sense of scale and atmosphere that few games can challenge. Bayonetta simply blew me away. While GOW feels SLIGHTLY clunky with particular choices to combat, Bayonetta flowed and the more I played it the more I loved it;  something which is rare in hack n’ slash or action games. Now to conclude, the weirdest Bayonetta related video I could find on youtube.

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