Bastion Review

Bastion is the first game from Indie developer Supergiant Games, and its a stunningly beautiful and uniquely challenging game. Bastion follows a silent young white haired boy and a wise old sage-- who serves as the games narrator-- As the boy you explore the world of Bastion and the remnants of the world he once knew which has been reduced to near nothingness after the Calamity, as you quest to piece together this safe haven known as Bastion to unlock its secrets. The Narrator is the first thing most people will notice when playing the game for the first time, as he recounts your actions not based off any pre-scripted timing but just off the cuff based on the things you do, even specific things like how many time you get hit by an enemy or just how you interact with the world. Its incredibly cool and surprisingly it never gets old or even remotely annoying because he never repeats himself, and i mean never. Its a cool feature amid a myriad of cool unique ideas this game displays.

Aesthetically the game is almost unmatched, the music in the game is a joy to listen to as it sweeps you through this magnificently creative and wonderful world. Its so hard to find legitimately beautiful music in games, but Bastion goes above and beyond whats expected from your average game, and makes me want to leave the game on idle just to hear the music a little while longer. Suffice to say when you unlock an item that allows you to switch though the music on your own accord, I was very pleased. The games art is particularly jaw-dropping in its beauty and detail, its the environments specifically that are so incredibly well drawn and colorful, it is truly stunning watching the world rise from the endless abyss below and form in front of you as you traverse this strange land. The enemies aren't creative in their design but look very well drawn nonetheless, the characters share this same sentiment, for while white haired silent protagonist isnt anything new they're still well rendered and animated characters. The game does not delve into long protracted moments of exposition making sure you know what is going on, instead it opts to throw you into this world and force you to piece together the history and lore that exists under the surface.

The core conceits of the gameplay is the main appeal of Bastion, focusing mainly on your ability to defeat hordes of different enemies each with their own strengths and weaknesses with the weapons you discover on your journey. The first weapon you pick up is a simple melee based hammer, followed quickly by a repeater which fires several rounds in the direction you point in. The weapons can be upgraded with different attributes with items you find in the environment adding more damage, faster reload, and more. The game is so finely tuned in the combat that it becomes a real engaging sort of puzzle on how to defeat the enemies and the incredibly precise controls help when you are dodging and switching weapons.  Its this rock paper scissor mentality to the combat, of finding a particular weapon that works well against particular enemies and balancing what two weapons you are going to use is key to surviving in this often times brutally difficult world. The game even rewards you if you willingly ramp up the difficulty, by activating these totems-- each representing a god in this world-- you increase the damage received or the the speed in which enemies attack and spawn, while on the plus side you gain more XP and points to upgrade weapons. 

The story is very interesting as its dolled out in such a way were you never have the all the details, which of course leads to so some late game revelations that alter your perspective on the few characters you do meet and even the state of the world. The story is nothing new but is handled well and the key choice moments are sentimental and carry weight and aren't reduced to simple good choice/ evil choice. The game also has an interesting way to develop its characters by forcing you through waves of increasingly difficult enemies while the narrator tells the back story to how everyone got to where they are now, and why they have decided to help on this quest to restore the Bastion. The story and the characters are interesting enough that fleshing out the history of this place and its few citizens is a large incentive and rightfully rewarding in the end.

My one problem with the game is unfortunately a pretty big issue, and that is the structure of the environments, while gorgeous to look at it, there are many problems that arise from the way its constructed. In several instances the action on screen becomes so chaotic that it begins to blend in with the extremely detailed level causing your view and sometimes movement to be obstructed by an object in the game. Enemies often get hung up on said objects, because from what i can tell  there is just an overabundance of completely unnecessary things blocking your path, or just randomly strune about the level. It got so bad i often found myself destroying everything in my path just so i could more freely. The last issue concerns the level as well, but more about how easily you can fall to your death. Since the world is materializing in front of you it is structured awkwardly and sometime there are these impossible to see holes or  you just don't have the perspective you need to gauge how close to the edge you can get before you fall.

Bastion is an incredibly fun game to play, the core gameplay is fun and learning how to best utilize each weapon against particular enemies is almost the entire appeal of the game. The game looks gorgeous with unparalleled level of detail in the most inane objects. This level of detail leads to some problems when traversing the levels, but its largely frustration free. The unique setting and atmosphere for its story allows the game to stand out as a refreshing exceedingly fun and beautiful looking and sounding game. Bastion is a welcome relief from the doldrums of this summers game releases and is a pleasure to play.

(4 out of 5)