There's no question, really. Bastion makes other XBLA titles pail in terms of quality and enjoyability. Bastion a bewitchingly beautiful, enchantingly intense experience that no other arcade title can come close to. Bastion encapsulates everything a service like the Xbox Live Arcade should offer. Bastion is the perfect download title.
By all accounts, the world is ending, thanks to an event known as "the calamity". The Kid (the main character. great name, I know.) awakes to find the world of Caelondia lying in ruins around him. Instructed by the voice of The Narrator, The Kid makes his way to The Bastion, the area that serves as the central hub for the game. From The Bastion, The Kid must travel to various locations to collect cores to fuel the power of The Bastion, and return Caelondia to its former glory. Obviously things don;t go quite according to plan, but I feel you ought to experience it for yourself rather than me tell you exactly what goes down. Suffice to say, you meet a handful of characters, learn The Kids backstory etc etc.
As straightforward as the story sounds, it isn't so. The story, including The Kid's actions, and various observations, is told entirely through The Narrator, who, while having an insanely cool, albeit creepy, voice, does tend to become part of the background noise after a while. This game requires concentration. And in this high speed era we live in, my concentration is no where to be seen. It's story telling in its simplest form. But it isn't story telling in its best form.
What The Narrator's inclusion does offer, however, is a different level of immersion. While it can feel like, at times, he's droning on and on, and your mind wanders from thought to thought, at the odd times you catch him narrate on you actions, you do, strangely, feel at one with The Kid. To hear "The Kid rages for a while" as you smash the hammer into some market stalls is a little bit exciting somehow.
Bastion is a stone cold stunner. Each location you visit is filled with vivid, vibrant colours that burst out of the screen. Bastion has the finest art style of any game I've played on the Xbox 360. I'd say it's like a painting come to life, but that's far too cliched and obvious for my liking. BUT I'LL SAY IT ANYWAY. Bastion is like a painting come to life. Everything in the world has a colourful glow about it. Even the enemies The Kid encounters have this aura about them that makes it regrettable to pound them for XP.
Bastion plays like any standard action RPG released this side of the millennium. You're given the option of a selection of melee and ranged weapons, and can carry two at a time. Weapons can be upgraded at the forge, depending on whether or not you have the correct upgrade item, and enough XP. When you level up, you can go to the distillery, and select a drink which increases The Kids attributes in some way. Combat is button mashing, basically.
Now, that's fine, but when The Kid starts to walk off the edge of the level when I look away for a second, that's where I draw the line. That bugs annoying, dammit. I want it gone.
So, Bastion. It's beautiful, it's bold, it's an excellent debut from SuperGiant games. It's a brilliant way to kick off the "summer of arcade" promotion, and an even better addition to the already impressive XBLA arsenal. It's a game that I recommend very highly, one that any self respecting gamer must experience. Bar a few bugs here, and a couple of hiccups there, when all is said and done, Bastion is an exemplary title. One that, for the price of 5 Call of Duty maps, is well worth the plunge.
9/10
