Bastion Just Might Be My GOTY
I originally wrote this for GoodGame Get!, but really liked how it turned out so I’m sharing it here as well. If you haven’t played this game, you should. GOTY contender, and now on PC!
There are just too many games. It’s one of those good/bad things about the industry. Now that indie developers are creating masterpieces, how can we ever play them all? Writing about my favorite game of the summer, I feel like I dropped the ball. Even though it was only released a couple weeks ago, I’m a little late to the party. The torrent of fall games has begun — it’s “back-to-school” time and Madden drops tomorrow!
But that’s no reason to forget the lazy days and hot, sultry nights of summer. And it’s no reason to forget the Bastion…
Bastion is this year’s something different and landed strangely, like something different is wont to do, on Xbox Live Arcade, taking it’s place beside the legacies of past summer hits Braid and Limbo (though, thankfully, unlike the others, bouncing quickly to PC). By something different I mean it’s artsy, but fun. Challenging in it’s on way and offering a story unlike anything that’s come before. Bastion channels the cool of the Coen Brother’s Big Lebowsky; the grace of the isometric wonderland of Nintendo’s Mario & Luigi games; and the twang of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. But in doing so it never, ever loses it’s own identity.
Oh sure, at first you’ll just see a pretty standard isometric action-RPG, but as the world rises around you and you take a moment to embrace it, listen to what it has to say and savor the spice of it’s design, you’ll soon discover Bastion is something different, something special. Lend an ear and you’ll be charmed by the ever-present, and rarely-repetitive Narrator, an addition which enriches the narrative and drives the game forward with a smokey tone that would make Sam Elliot envious. Investigate a little more and you’ll be caught up in the uncomfortably real storyline. Let go of your expectations and you’ll be talking Game of the Year…
Most importantly, if you’re willing to accept the challenges this game offers, it will kick your ass.
I’ve heard complaints about players not liking the two weapon limit, or the multiple times the game swaps weapons mid-level. Heads up guys… you’re not meant to like it. You’re meant to overcome the challenge it presents to you. By requiring you to mix up your weapons, the developers, brilliantly, created a way to add both variety to gameplay and a new level of difficulty to the flow of the game without having to rely on some over-used RPG trope, like shoe-horning in another boss fight (which just slows down play). Sure it’s a blast to load out your favorites and power them up until you can whomp through any level with impunity, but that’s not the point of this narrative. Replacing weapons mid-level will break your rhythm, but in return it gives you a better, more challenging game.
Bastion doesn’t try to over-complicate gameplay to hide it’s familiar action-RPG mechanics; instead it innovates narrative form, and shines through presentation. The final result is a game as comfortable as an old shoe and as bright and shiny as a new penny.
FYI, despite the variety of tools and weapons, I rocked the Brusher’s Pike and Fang Repeater almost exclusively. But that’s Bastion, it let’s you roll the way you want, and has something to say about every choice you make.
That’s why it’s so damn good!
- Andy
