Bastion Review (PC)

Developed by Supergiant Games, Bastion is an Action RPG about a Kid that awakens to find his world torn apart by something called The Calamity. The story is simple, but wonderfully told through fantastic narration. Your goal is to power the Bastion, a sanctuary built to survive such an event. You do so by going around the remaining chunks of the world collection shards. These shards enable you to create buildings where you can upgrade weapons, buy items, and accept additional gameplay challenges. All of this happens to the wonderful score composed by Darren Korb.

The art style of Bastion is superb. The water color visuals paint such an amazing picture as that rapidly builds itself as you move throughout the level. Everything from the characters to the monsters is wonderfully drawn.

No matter which path you choose to take, which weapons you use, or how many times you fall off a cliff, the Narrator talks about everything you do in the game. This storytelling device is easily one of the best I’ve seen in recent memory. It all leads up to a choice you have to make in the end that for once, feels earned by the story before it. Too often choices are put in front of you that are rather black and white. No so with Bastion.

You travel throughout the world of Bastion using the Sky Bridge. This serves as your over-world map. Scattered throughout the world map are challenge levels for each weapon in the game. Completing each allows awards you with several different drives, ranging from menial upgrades to some of the best abilities in the game. These upgrades work towards building your weapons up while the abilities are something extra to help you out in a pinch.

Bastion’s gameplay is simple, yet effective. You control the Kid and a crosshair for his weapons. There are only two types of weapons: melee and ranged. You can carry two of any kind of weapon throughout the game. The problem is that about half way through the game you’ll have obtained the some of the most powerful weapons. This gives you no reason to upgrade your other weapons past wanting to complete their specific challenges.

Bastion plays rather fluidly, though sometimes it’s hard to judge how close you are to a cliff and need to make that jump. Other times you’ll completely miss your mark when throwing a weapon or using one of the guns even though the crosshair is hovering right over your target. Despite these issues though, Bastion is extremely fun to play.

If you love great graphics, gameplay, and music all wrapped in one neat downloadable package, then Bastion is for you. The game runs from $10 to $15 depending on where you buy it, but it’s worth every dollar. Bastion was a welcome addition to my gaming library in 2011.