// Bastion

Games like Bastion are few and far between. Xbox live arcade games are released ten to the dozen but only one or two are worthy of mention following their completion. Bastion lingers on in people's memories not because it is addictive like Trials HD or cute like Castle Crashers but because it is distinctive in a different way. There is something about Bastion that is very rare in modern games… but I’m getting ahead of myself…

Before I get into the art / not art debate, let me first of all give a little backstory about the game itself. Bastion is an action adventure game with lite-RGP elements, developed by a tiny team of only 7 people from Supergiant Games. It was released in July 2011 to a generally positive reception and even received a few awards including 'Best Downloadable Title'.

Much of the gameplay is run of the mill, the hero is charged with the task of reassembling the world by collecting ‘shards’ and bringing them to the safe haven of the Bastion, which by and large translates into the player sprinting around levels smashing boxes and collecting money and experience points. Enemies appear upon entering new areas which you can then hit with a melee weapon, shoot with a ranged weapon or use special moves on and the occasional boss battles help to break up the grind. It’s fun, fluid and polished but it is certainly not something that hasn’t been done bags of times before.

“So why the high praise then, you intelligent and handsome man?” I hear you ask me.

Well, it takes only one look at a screenshot to see that this game is visually exceptional. The world appears almost hand painted and is bursting with vibrant colours all but forgotten by this generation of realistic gritty grey games. The isometric top-down forced perspective works really well at ensuring that the player perceives the land of Caelondia the way it was intended and the inability to directly control the camera harks back to a simpler time of gaming, freeing up the right analog stick to aim.

The game starts with a white haired boy lying in a bed upon an isolated mass of floating rock which once belonged to a beautiful city. The world has been recently ravaged and rent apart by an event referred to only as the Calamity, and uncovering what this disaster was and why it happened is a big driving force as you journey through the game. As you take control of ‘The Kid’ and walk out of your bedroom door new ground rises up to meet you and walls fall from the sky, permanently adding sections to the map piece by piece.



Where you gonna go, huh?

It’s an interesting re-imagining of an old mechanic; many games have a ‘fog of war’, greyed or blacked-out unvisited areas that reveal themselves as you travel and progress, but Bastion has managed to tie this exploration into the storyline of the game in such a way that is both visually and audibly satisfying to experience.

The presentation of Bastion is it's true selling point and a big, BIG part of that is owed to the game’s audio. Now, the music is by no means bad – in fact according to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge and truth) 30,000 copies of the soundtrack alone had sold within only a few months of the games release, but it’s the narration that really captures your imagination.

The narration is constant throughout Bastion and from a gameplay perspective it’s the main way in which the storyline is driven and delivered, but it’s so much more than that in practice. The world of Caelondia and the events that led up to the Calamity are explained via short and poignant phrases by the narrator who is soon revealed to be an NPC by the name of Rucks. Voiced by Logan Cunningham (who you will remember from…? and also the equally famous film…?), Rucks paints such a beautiful picture of the land and it's former residents that you find yourself playing almost exclusively to hear what he has to say next, it really is that good. If the directors of Supergiant Games had secretly crossbred Morgan Freeman and David Attenborough the offspring would still have struggled to beat Logan’s performance.

And it’s not just the provocative and well delivered lines that makes this aspect so special, it’s how and when they are delivered that is truly matchless. When you first get out of bed the narrator says in a deep and gravelly voice “He gets up” and shortly after receiving your first weapon (and unleashing it on some nearby innocent crates and boxes) he says “The Kid just raged a while”. Nearly everything that you do is accompanied by a voice over and yet it never gets old or repetitive. This is not like the Guildmaster of Fable constantly saying “Your health is low, do you have any potions or food?” or the now infamous “Jason!” scene from Heavy Rain; the voice-over in Bastion is always wanted and really helps define the game.



The Kid just raged a while

It’s a short title, never outstaying its welcome; however there are a number of features that will keep you invested for at least a second play-through. Walking your character into all the corners of a room searching for hidden nooks and crannies becomes a compulsion and it’s within these secret areas that a lot of the game’s best items, upgrades and plot clues can be found. Collecting all the idols and upgrades is fun and the challenge rooms help to add variety, but for me it was just hearing the narration for a second time and being able to do so knowing the full picture of the story that kept me re-playing.

But is it art?

This was a tricky one for me to decide upon. In terms of the look and feel of the game you really must see it in action. Screen shots are very pretty but like so many games the true splendour does not become fully apparent until you're at the helm, but there is no denying that this game is artistic from a visual perspective.



I'd forgotten these colours existed

The music is good, sometimes even great, but it’s the poetry like narration that elevates this games status.

Unfortunately, whilst the story has a few twists and turns, I never felt like I'd been left with a lasting message. I was moved by the game in places but upon reflection the hack and slash, boxes-smash gameplay is somewhat jarring against the flow of the solemn narrative.

Bastion is a great game that you should all play. It’s concise, fun and polished and has the best narration EVER in a video game to boot, but…

Verdict: JUST A GAME

// Shadow of the Colossus

For those of you who know me it will come as no great surprise that I have decided to pass judgement on Shadow of the Colossus first. It’s one of my all-time favourite games of all time, so prepare yourselves for a totally unbiased review…

You see, ever since I was a small boy I’ve always dreamt about climbing up the downy fur of huge rock beasts before slaying them with an enchanted sword whilst dressed in a poncho.

Ok, so that’s all a lie. The point is, however, that there was something about this game that instantly captured my imagination and that has stayed with me since first playing it back in February 2006. This was the second game released by Team ICO on the Playstation 2 and is the spiritual successor to ICO, another arty wonder, and in my opinion it bests its predecessor in every way.

The game follows Wander and his pet pony Agro as they journey into the ‘Forbidden Land’ with the desperate hope of resurrecting Wander’s late love, Mono. Armed only with a bow and arrow, a magical glowing sword and bones made of elastic, our protagonist makes a pact with Dormin (a dubious deity) to destroy the 16 Colossi roaming the land and restore the maiden Mono to life.

It all sounds very run of the mill and clichéd at this point; kill the bosses using your mystical weapon and save the princess, but there is something much deeper and altogether more foreboding about the whole experience than your average adventure game. Even the intro cut-scene moves at such a solemnly slow pace that I’m sure it had many gamers hammering the X button to skip it and dive into the action. It's worth exercising patience though, as this game is a sight (and sound?) to behold.

Now, graphics have moved on a lot since 2006 and even the 2011 Playstation 3 HD remake looks worn and tired, but from an artistic perspective (which this blog is all about) resolution and frame rate can go hang so long as there is something striking or otherwise innovative about it.

With that in mind, the game looks great. The scenery is magical in a subtle way; there are no upside down waterfalls or sparkling rainbows, but you still get the sense of a looming and heavy force hanging over the whole of the forbidden land. The game is divided into two halves. 50% of your experience is navigating the (terrible) map and locating the Colossi, whilst the remainder has you fighting them. Both are equally breath-taking and awe inspiring in their own way. I’m going to deal with the orienteering aspect first.

The visuals speak for themselves

Using a beam of light reflected off your sword you are guided roughly towards your next Colossus. These journeys between bosses can last as long as 10 minutes. That sounds boring, but the splendour of the land drives you on. The diversity of the environments you encounter is quite broad, and whilst the map is huge you can cover a lot of ground with your trusty steed. You will gallop through grassland, canter through caves and trot through… erm… deserts? The sights are believable and striking (even if they are geographically somewhat spatially inaccurate).

Birds fly overhead and little lizards skitter about over the rocky cliffs but other than yourself, your horse and the 16 massive colossi roaming the land, you are totally and utterly alone. There are no mini battles, no random encounters, no side quests and no weapon shops. The vastness of the world Team ICO created is further augmented by the amazing musical score and sound effects composed by the exceptionally talented Kow Otani. The audio really adds to this isolated and occasionally oppressive aesthetic, and even when you’re riding slowing through dense peaceful forest with light filtering through the canopy to the floor below, you can never shake that feeling of loneliness.

Its genius really, because of the constant remoteness you quickly build an attachment to your horse Agro, who is both beautifully animated and tangibly realistic. If you stray too close to an edge Argo will refuse and the few gaps that can be jumped are done so with lifelike caution and calculation. Agro even sounds real and there are long portions of the game where the only noises you hear are that of his hoof falls and Wander’s encouraging ‘giddy-ups’. Agro will come when you call him and he's ferociously courageous during the game’s 16 boss encounters.

Which brings me on to the Colossi themselves.

Poor thing, hes just sleepy

These behemoths are the true stars of the show. The already fantastic audio steps up a notch during these boss encounters and the music shifts and changes depending upon your progress and/or proximity to the titans, really adding to the emersion of the whole affair. The Colossi look as if the ground itself has awoken, roots, moss and all, and whilst some of the giants appear enraged by this rude awakening, others just seem to want to go back to sleep. Some are enormous and lumbering whilst a couple are just larger than a bull. A handful of these monsters can even fly, despite their impossible size and others are entirely water based. All of them move with genuine purpose and are animated uniquely… or almost uniquely, there are a couple of re-skins later in the game, however the way each must be tackled is different.

The battles can almost be thought of as puzzles, and during a first play through, a player can expect to spend much of their time locating weak spots and learning the attack / defence patterns of the various colossi before ultimately climbing aboard and attempting the epic feat of slaying them for his own selfish ends.

And they are selfish ends. The Colossi are essentially the innocent victims in this game. They have done nothing wrong and are acting purely out of self-defence. Make no mistake, Wander may be driven by love and be pining after his dear Mono, he is even willing to risk everything to get her back, but he is still the bad guy here. These Colossi are as ancient as time itself and built for a very specific and desperately important purpose (which I will not spoil in this review) and yet Wander is willing to destroy them all to allow his girl to cheat death.

Infamous Colossus 13. My flat out favorite

You really get the feeling that you’re doing something morally wrong as each Colossus comes tumbling down. The forlorn music and the strange black mist that accompany each beast’s demise add to the growing sensation that perhaps you should have stayed well away from this land. It’s a credit to the game’s creators to have you mourning the loss of each Colossus.

I’m not going to ruin the game’s ending, but needless to say it’s the icing on the cake for me, forever cementing this game into my own personal top ten computer game experiences.

But is it art?

Visually inspiring, emotionally stirring, subtle and minimalistic gameplay with a haunting soundtrack that stays with you for years to come…

Verdict: ART

// Are Games Art?

The short answer to that question: Yes.

Yes they are… Or at least they can be…

In my opinion many games throughout the years have qualified as art. Albeit a new and interactive form of art, but art nonetheless.

Now I know I am not the first to make this point, in fact the 'Games as Art' debate has been raging for years, however being somewhat of a veteran in the field of sitting at home twiddling my thumbsticks, I have decided to lean forward and be counted.

Is this art? Probably not...

For me the question of 'are games art' was answered long ago with the likes of Castle of Illusion on the MegaDrive (that’s the Genesis if your of the American persuasion). The vibrant colours and inventive plinky-plonky music had me straight away and I would much rather have been inside exploring enchanted forests and toy factories than outside playing… ball foot? Football? Or whatever it is that young people are meant to enjoy.

Mouse + Cake Dragon = ART. Bearing in mind I was only 6.

I have been enchanted, amazed, moved and inspired by so many titles throughout the years that I have begun to lose count. And what else does a medium need to do in order to be classed as art other than convey emotion?

For me it is now only a question of which games qualify as art. Over the course of the coming weeks and months I am going to be taking valuable time out from what I’m meant to be doing in favour of reviewing some of my favourite games through history and posting on this blog.

Enjoy