Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platform: XBLA
Eu Release: July 20th, 2011
Bastion is a title that just spoke volumes and volumes to me right off the bat. Released as a part of Xbox’s summer of arcade promotion, its core foundation can be found in the graphic style, and from this, it then branches off quite well into other aspects to create a gaming experience that is fully rounded, and had me delving further into the calamity. We are taken along for a ride by the velvety rough voice of the narrator, as we are given some background on the calamity. Expect to hear his voice throughout, as he becomes a guide, an ally and a friend.
The player takes on the role of The Kid, the silent but innocently deadly protagonist of the title. As The kid, you awaken after the calamity, ‘stranded on a rock in the sky’,
and proceed to make your way to the bastion, going through a tutorial along the way. This is your first insight into the way that the world interacts towards your movement. Pieces of the landscape underneath your feet are built up or fall away, as you come and go across the terrain in each level. Just as quickly as the environment rises from nothingness, it can also be destroyed in the same breath. You are thrown into combat straight away, with enemies ranging from the swarming squirts, to thee abrasive and angry pick-axe wielding gassfellas. When you do eventually make your way to the bastion, with your new damage dealing powerhouses in the form of the cael hammer and the fang repeater, you will finally meet your narrator compadre Rucks, one of the other survivors of the calamity.
and proceed to make your way to the bastion, going through a tutorial along the way. This is your first insight into the way that the world interacts towards your movement. Pieces of the landscape underneath your feet are built up or fall away, as you come and go across the terrain in each level. Just as quickly as the environment rises from nothingness, it can also be destroyed in the same breath. You are thrown into combat straight away, with enemies ranging from the swarming squirts, to thee abrasive and angry pick-axe wielding gassfellas. When you do eventually make your way to the bastion, with your new damage dealing powerhouses in the form of the cael hammer and the fang repeater, you will finally meet your narrator compadre Rucks, one of the other survivors of the calamity.
The bastion will become your basecamp as you set of to different levels and areas to find and retrieve cores and shards. The purpose of these cores and shards is to beef up the bastion till it becomes a stronghold that echoes hope across a somewhat human-less landscape. Your bastion will eventually house a distillery, a forge, arsenal, shrine, lost and found and finally a memorial. In between outings to the land outside the bastion, you will find you self actively delving into each building, picking different weapon load outs, upgrading said weapon and using a whole host of over features.
Exploration outside the bastion will have you running into battle in forests, bogs and volcanoes as you take on all the enemies that bastion has to offer, earning fragments as you wipe them of the face of the crumbling, yet somehow structurally sound landscape. The fragments that you earn act as in game currency, letting you spurge on new items and upgrades for the 11 weapons that you will earn as your make you way through bastion. Another feature outside the bastion will have you test you finesse and skill as you take on weapon specific challenges to thus earn different rarities of items depending on how well you do.
Don’t fret; Rucks isn’t the only NPC that you will meet across your travels. You’ll run into two Urans at different stages of the story, whether they are friends or foes, well, only time will tell. The Ura-Caldonian conflict is pushed aside in the time of great suffering like the calamity, leading to the Urans Zia and Zulf taking refuge alongside you and Rucks in the Bastion.
Going from level to level to level to find the same object over and over again can be pretty repetitive, but in bastion it’s presented in a way that almost gives each level a fresh lease of life. The developers have achieved this through pitting the gamer up against different scenarios, which can be completely in many different ways due to the extensive weapon roster and effects that can be enabled through the distillery. This has you constantly thinking of the best way to take on a set of enemies and progress to find the ultimate treasure, the limited amount of cores and shards scattered across the land, adding an element of strategy to Supergiant games’ action RPG.
With an art and design style with obvious heavy influence from Japanese manga, the world is bold and captivating, with each step you take as the kid exposing another inch of the superbly designed imagery and strikingly sharp colour palette. Along with the rich dialogue narration from Ruck, you will also be accompanied by haunting beautiful soundtrack, which hits its peak as you first encounter Zia, and remains constant throughout. With further backstory being provided through a spot of smoking, indulging in food, or taking a nap with three specific items, everything that is thrown your way in bastion is done in such a manner that leaves you connecting to the characters, connecting to the world and most importantly connecting to the in depth storyline which makes this tile more than worth the Microsoft points. A minuet dent in your bank account for an exquisite title is more than fair, right?
Gamplay:4
Soundtrack:4.5
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