The story begins with the hero, known only as “the Kid,” waking up in a crumbled floating world. He must make his way to the safety of the Bastion, which acts as the 'in case of emergency' meeting location. The world builds itself under the feet of the Kid as he travels towards the Bastion. The Kid realizes his world has been struck by the Calamity, obviously a great act of death and destruction. All the while a voice is speaking to the player narrating actions and hinting on the next move to make. The Kid meets up with the old narrator named Rucks at the Bastion. No one else has made it and now it falls on the Kid to collect crystals to restore the Bastion and save the fragmented land.
By Griff Hoffmann Bastion takes the classic action RPG, puts a little polish on the nostalgic elements, and makes something magical. Supergiant Games’ Bastion will tickle the fancy of anyone who wants to have some hack and slash fun and also provides a rich and engrossing narrative conveyed in unique way. The most stand out feature is the dynamic narration that occurs as the game world is explored which fleshes out the story without forcing the player to scroll through a codex or stand around talking to NPC’s. Bastion is easily the best downloadable game this year and an experience that should be enjoyed by anyone looking for something simple yet enchanting. The Kid gets up The story begins with the hero, known only as “the Kid,” waking up in a crumbled floating world. He must make his way to the safety of the Bastion, which acts as the 'in case of emergency' meeting location. The world builds itself under the feet of the Kid as he travels towards the Bastion. The Kid realizes his world has been struck by the Calamity, obviously a great act of death and destruction. All the while a voice is speaking to the player narrating actions and hinting on the next move to make. The Kid meets up with the old narrator named Rucks at the Bastion. No one else has made it and now it falls on the Kid to collect crystals to restore the Bastion and save the fragmented land. Kid knew a thing or two about guns The Kid is quite the able bodied hero with a large arsenal of moves, weapons, and special techniques. The Kid comes across a variety of ranged and melee weapons in the adventure and the player can mix and match these to a suitable style. Each weapon is unique is in the pro and cons department. From a piercing bow with a long charge to quick dual pistols with a long reload each weapon feels completely unique and any load out is viable. The Kid is also armed with an evasive roll and a large shield for blocking and reflecting attacks. Also, each weapon has two unique special moves associated to them but the Kid can only have one special skill equipped at a time. These are mostly large area of effect attacks or concentrated, very powerful strikes. The combat is the backbone of Bastion and it never gets old as new monsters and new weapons are introduced at a steady pace. The Kid wondered who wrote these captions Aside from killing monsters, challenge levels exist on the world map that test the player’s skill with each weapon. These levels require the player to score high or beat a time using the finer points of each weapon. Upon completing these challenges new skills and materials are acquired for upgrading weapons. These challenge levels break up the linearity of the game. The player can choose to go to one level before another but the skipped level must be played after to unlock the next set. In the mean time, the player can always return to the Bastion hub to customize weapons, difficulty, and talk to the narrator to learn a little more about the background of the Kid's world. What to build first...Distillery! After finding a crystal, a new building must be added to the Bastion landmass. These building are an armory, a forge, a shrine for making foes more powerful, and many others. At the forge the player can upgrade a weapon as long as the appropriate material and currency are in hand. These upgrades are slight but at the end of the tree a very malleable weapon is now in the player’s possession. The Bastion also offers three gateways to dream worlds. In these worlds wave based enemies attack the Kid while the narrator sheds some light on the character's back-stories. These dream worlds also act as a high score chase against friends tracked over a leader board. You never forget the smell of a Scumbag What is by far the most standout feature of Bastion is the narration. The gravy voice that tells the story of the Kid and the Bastion is unforgettable. The narration is uniquely dynamic as different actions are taken the narrator takes to pointing them out. The narrator comments on the weapon combinations and favoritism the player has for a certain set. The narrator also paints the verbal picture of the world and the Calamity that destroyed it. Talking about what the Kid, and by proxy the player, is doing never gets overbearing. Even during a second playthrough on New Game Plus there are additional tidbits. The narration also seems to fit so well with in the lonely scared world of Bastion and is one of those things that will only be really missed when its absence in other games is apparent. Bastion is an absolute pleasure to play and strangely a very unique game. It relies heavily on tried and tested staples of action RPG’s but it feels refined and fresh enough to not fall into the “yet another” realm. Bastion is remarkable and a gem to be enjoyed by all.
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