Review: Bastion

Developers: Supergiant Games

Publishers: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Genre: Platform/Adventure

Release Dates:
   XBLA: July 20, 2011
   Steam: August 16, 2011

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360


Have you ever loved listening to another person telling a story? Just sitting back, engrossing yourself in their words as they weave a story that spellbinds you and makes you feel like you're really there in the world of the story itself, living the characters and feeling the world? That's sort of how I felt with this little Indie game called Bastion. At first, I tried the demo, and most of what I thought was, ugh, another action game. Welp. Then I listened to a few of the songs from the soundtrack by the very talented Darren Korb, and thought, eh, why not give it another go. And I am very glad I did. 

I snatched it up during one of the sales on Steam and tried it for real. And I haven't regretted my decision even once, except for maybe not buying it earlier. Bastion has a very story-time like feel to it, with a narrator that has just the right voice and tone for the story, narrating more or less your every move. The more you play, the more the story unfolds, but not through cutscenes, dialogues, tedious CG full-motionpictures, but simply by the words of the narrator. It all unfolds as you play, the gameplay never really ceasing to force you to listen to the narrator: everything rolls on smoothly in balance with gameplay and story exposition.

So to go into further depth of the game, I will elaborate why this has won the price for Indie game of the year. Trust me, the developers deserved it.

Story:
The story starts with you, a young man refered to only as “The kid”. You wake up from your deep slumber, and find yourself in the world as it now is: high in the air, and empty of pavement. Literally. You are stranded on a small air-bound island, suspended in mid-air. The narrator starts straight away to tell you what has occurred. As you make your way forward and blocks emerge from nothingness to form a path for you as you move, we are told of the event known as The Calamity which is what caused all of this to be. The story itself is the journey of The Kid and the people he meet, and how he tries to reverse the effects of the Calamity, which we are given more knowledge of throughout the game.

The narrative is deep and rich of feeling, and the world itself is well-thought out. You can feel the characters and all their emotions as they try to make it in this new world they find themselves stuck in, and what they try to do to overcome.

Later on, you are able to collect personal items from the characters in the drama, to gain further gameplay, and therefore, more story, specifically about the characters and what brought them to the place they are today, all done, again, through gameplay. This is done by placing you in an arena and having to fight through 20 waves of ever-increasingly strong enemies, and every two waves, you get a little bit of a story that is told through these side-quests, and if you intend to get the game, I strongly recommend playing through them, as they changed my perspective of more than one of the characters by the end of the game.

As you explore as The Kid, you meet the ones that will follow your story: the old man, the narrator of the game, who tells his story of you. You also meet Zia the singer, a young woman of foreign descent, as well as Zulf, a man of origins same as Zia, the so-called "Ura". Their parts in the drama soon unfolds as the twists and turns of the story start taking place, digging their claws into you even further than they already have, most assuredly.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is in essance rather basic, with a nice easy-to-learn, hard-to-master type of experience. You start off with a simple hammer, and soon after gain a crossbow, and an ability. This is your inventory until you gain other weapons. You have two weapons to take with you at a time, and an ability. All weapons, which range from dual-revolvers to a musket, a blunderbuss, machete, artillery cannon, and much more, have different and unique playstyles, and I've yet to meet another person who played the exact same load-out as I have, nor a duplicate of any kind. Along the way you get to upgrade these as well, making them tougher, dealing more damage, shoot more bullets at a time, a charge-up attack, and similar. To top it all of, a shield, used not only to defend, but if you time it just right, you can often reflect back shots to the shooter.

The perspective of the game is a traditional top-down isometric view, and the controls are simple and effective, with either use of keyboard and mouse, or the built-in gamepad support, with the game originally being a console release for Xbox Arcade.

The first level takes you through a general pathway, but once you get to what is in-game called "The Bastion", you more or less get to choose your own adventure, as it acts as a sort of nexus for the rest of the levels. From the Bastion, you can choose to go on the next mission, or do side-missions that involve mastering a newly acquired weapon.

Conclusion:

Bastion is a superb example of how you can use a voice-over to tell a story, and a good example of how to deliver a story to begin with, to seamlessly merge it with gameplay. It has so much depth in its story, and the more you play the more it spews its contents over you, so to, uh, speak. Sounded a bit more gross than what I intended, but yea. It just continously shares its world with you, and you rarely if at all have to stop to consider it all. That, with the narration of Logan Cunningham, and the music, makes this game a great experience in gaming, and I highly recommend it.

Can be purchased on Steam over here where you can also try the demo, and on XBLA over here.