Weighing in on Darksiders and Bayonetta

I'll admit right up front that I finished neither game, and that I played both on the PS3, which I heard the load screens were significantly longer for Bayonetta on the PS3, though I, myself, don't have anything to compare them to.

Wanna hear what I have to say?  After the jump...
 In the few hours I've spent with each game, I have to say I was disappointed with both, and in the case of Bayonetta I think the disappointment may be with myself.  I've never been a fan of the Devil May Cry series, so I feel like I just can't get into these games.  Bayonetta included, I feel like all I do is mash buttons constantly while a wave of enemies invades the screen to a point where I wouldn't even be able to tell where my character is if I didn't know she was in the middle.  I've read that the boss fights require strategy and take her moves to a different level, and the two bosses I fought I see this clearly.  These were the moments while playing this game that I felt everything started to click and the action flowed smoothly.  These were the moments that I was finally enjoying myself.  Unfortunately, directly after that, I would again be forced to watch a too long cut-scene with over-the-top dialogue and ridiculously sexed-up action (and I liked MGS4!!)  Again, I feel a little disappointed in myself since the reviews for this game were so good, as well as the Devil May Cry series, but I can't see why.  Bayonetta is a button-mashing game filled with caricatures involved in a barely comprehendable apocalyptic plot.  Having said that, there are a few brilliant moments that show me what the game could have been.

Darksiders is a different kind of disappointment.  There was nothing wrong with the game per se, but while playing I found myself wanting to play something else, namely God of War III.  Darksiders provides much better pacing than Bayonetta, and the characters, while not exactly well-rounded, are at least not offensive stereotypes.  War himself is cool-looking and Mark Hamill has a part!  Alas, this game is pretty much God of War-lite (just look at the character's name).  You collect souls as currency for upgrades, open chests filled with different colored souls (green for health, blue for currency, yellow for skill power), and carry a big sword.  The fighting itself is very well done,actually, and, unlike Bayonetta, flows naturally.  This is all fine, of course, except for a few little things that make this game merely something to hold you over until GoW3 rather than its own game.  When you've beaten down a larger enemy, the "O" icon appears over their heads (probably a "B" on the X360), signaling for you to hit that button to grab onto the character.  I thought, "All right, a cool, violent, mini-game that'll end up with me pulling out some kind of organ."  Unfortunately, that's as far as it gets.  You hit the button once and watch War pull off some pretty cool, not too detailed moves to kill the baddy after hitting hitting only the one button.  To sum up, Darksiders is decent game and there's probably a lot of fun to be had, but it just left me wanting the real deal.

I'll have to wait for that.
-dp