// 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