Providing a welcome breath of deadly fresh air, Bayonetta 2 certainly stood out at E3 amongst the cat suits, hovercrafts and wet simians. With a provocatively-clad lead and plenty of gore, it stands out like a sore thumb amongst the lineup and that is exactly what we need.

Credit must be given to Nintendo for helping get this project off the ground, as it shows commitment to variety. Fans of the original may be mad at the Wii U exclusivity, but Platinum Games has pointed out if it wasn't for Nintendo, there would be no Bayonetta 2.

So how does this action-packed game play? Well, it depends on which difficulty setting you choose. The options presented were very easy, easy and normal, although we assume that there will at least be a hard and very hard option too.

You are first asked what control method you would like; touch screen or not. Touch screen controls offer up either very easy or easy, as if to mock the player, while normal will see you using the buttons themselves. It is not just the ease of the AI that changes, but other elements such as auto-movement and the assistance you get from allies. The difficulty levels feel like a playing choice, rather than just setting the AI's level.

When using the touch screen, you can tap on a targeted enemy and Bayonetta will race to them and attack. However, if you are using the face buttons she will still go toward them, but not all of the way. Other differences between the modes include Bayonetta's special attack, Umbra Climax. What the attack itself does is different in easy mode compared to normal mode.

The game is similar to many hack and slash titles, in the sense that you have an army of enemies to defeat in a graphic and violent manner. As the game progresses the challenge will become harder, but this is definitely an action game at heart.  That being said, it has more depth than your standard button masher.

Everything moves at a breakneck pace and as the enemies pile in, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep clearing them. Unfortunately we only played the game briefly, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. As mentioned earlier, it is refreshing to see something a bit different on the schedule. Furthermore, considering the critical success of the first title, scoring 40/40 in prestigious magazine Famitsu, we are eagerly looking forward to getting our hands on the final version of Bayonetta 2