Usually, new editions don't itch me a bit. Even good games don't have to be played twice, especially not years after their release, when they already have deep wrinkles. But there are exceptions. And if these appear in a double pack like Bayonetta and Vanquish, I will strike!
4K resolution and 60 frames per second – that's it with the innovations for both games. Gameplay improvements? Nope. Downloadable content? There wasn't then. Any other bonuses? Please keep going. Wait, you get a cheeky extra when you buy the Bayonetta & Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle: a background for the PS4. Although it is static, it looks pretty thanks to the nicely drawn graphics for both games.
The two classics Bayonetta and Vanquish are returning to PS4 and Xbox One for the 10th anniversary.
That may seem a little bit to you for a price of 40 euros. To be honest, at least in the beginning. At the time I loved both action games, but that was ten years ago. Therefore, there were definitely doubts whether I should have a look again – or rather refrain from doing so and run the risk of ruining my good memories. But ultimately had to be for work.
No, of course that's nonsense. As soon as we had the PS4 code, I jumped on it with a big grin. Why the subsequent download of two actually full camels took up 40 gigabytes of hard disk space remains a mystery. But free, because now I want to know: is the bundle cool or can it go away?
Vanquish – then and now
Vanquish is put to the test first because I liked it even a little bit better than Bayonetta. In the third-person shooter, cover shootings, slow-motion use and the fast sliding with a combat suit combined for an ingenious ride. It reads as if it didn't go together: pace and slow motion? Slip quickly and crouch behind cover ?! But it was precisely the enormous dynamism and the constant change between the actions that made Vanquish stand out. The story, on the other hand, was just an accessory: Supersoldier Sam has to fight bad guys on a space station. Oh well …
Unsurprisingly, the story has not gotten any better. That's why I'm just pushing the cutscenes away today because I want to get to the next shooting quickly. Because the action is still great! All I need is the first level to put myself back in and use weapons and combat suits properly.
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Shortly thereafter, I swept back and forth between small and large robots thanks to buttery 60 fps, fired at tin heads with assault, shotgun and machine guns, focused on the weak spots of huge runners in slow motion and then quickly covered behind a cover to reload briefly. The short breaks between the combat areas are used to stock up ammunition and improve the guns.
I shouldn't look at the levels too closely, because even a 4K resolution can only partially hide the folds. Okay, even then Vanquish wasn't a graphic bomb. But it is more than obvious that apart from resolution and frame rate nothing has really changed. Acoustically it bangs, rattles and crashes from all directions. In addition, the Marines, with whom my fighting machine Sam is traveling, roar around in a tour. If they are made long by the advancing robots and suddenly shout for help instead of hard slogans, this caricatures the clichés of tough Marines and other blatant guys with big guns in a simple but wonderfully fitting way.
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Vanquish quickly creates the famous flow, which lets me play section by section without really realizing it. Thanks to plenty of checkpoints and practically no longer existing loading times, I can continue to shoot almost without interruption. Speed, dynamics, constant shootings and clean playability – the guys from Platinum Games knew what first-class action games should look like.
Bayonetta – then and now
This was also true 100 percent of Bayonetta. Back then I was particularly impressed by the effective combat system in this game. Because the hot witch not only fought absurdly casual and provocative, but also based on her very own style. In every area, angelic beings who wanted to go crazy wanted Bayonetta to the tight leather garb. She responded with blows, kicks and firearms that combined into hearty combos. With the right key combination, a huge fist made of Bayonetta's black hair shot out of a portal at the finale and smashed the heavenly rabbits into a thousand pieces. It looked amazing and had a lot of steam!
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But there was more. Crass finishers, where the witch beheaded their enemies with a guillotine or had the Iron Maiden crushed them, were just the beginning. Even fat bosses suddenly looked ridiculously small when Bayonetta summoned a gigantic dragon out of her seemingly endless hair, who easily snatched away the beasts. All of this didn't even happen per level, but almost constantly. However, because Platinum Games knew how to put something on again and again, Bayonetta never got bored. There was also a funky level design that led through different dimensions. Heaven and hell were really set in motion …
Now I see and play it all for the second time, but it stays cool! Because although Bayonetta is designed differently in terms of combat system and camera perspective than Vanquish, it is also based on an incredibly fluid and grippy action. Again, it takes two or three sections for me to get used to it. But then I whirl the witch back and forth as if in a frenzy between the angels, combine various attacks to my heart's content and finally feed the hairy dragon.
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Despite body-hugging clothes and suggestive attitudes, Bayonetta doesn't look as crisp as it did ten years ago. In many scenes, it looks a bit blurred than Vanquish. Fortunately, this doesn't bother either, because the focus is on the presentation of the action. New moves and weapons bring fresh opportunities to sweep away opponents as the game progresses. So I build my battle witch, so to speak. Similar to Vanquish, I forget the time and play level by level, as if everything was completely new.
