On Bastion, Game Narrative & X-Play’s “Lame” Review

I’ve never gotten angry at a video game review before. There’s just no point. I’ve ignored them if I didn’t agree with them, sometimes to my detriment and sometimes not. But reviews are just opinions — you know the old saying — and not worth getting worked up over. That is until I saw the X-play review of Bastion.

Bastion wasn’t really on my radar. I knew it was coming and watched at least one of the “Building the Bastion” videos GiantBomb produced about the creation of the game. Although the art and world mechanics were attractive, the gameplay appeared derivative and I, like a lot of people, was wary of the constant narration. But Bastion had something, something different, something which encouraged me to play the demo… and I was quickly hooked.

But apparently the reviewer at X-play wasn’t. Oh, they gave it a 4 out of 5, a score which I can’t argue with since it is a downloadable game with finite re-playability. They praised it’s artistic style, the score and the fluidness of it’s controls, everything I agree with. But then they called the story “lame” and I lost complete respect for their review and the score ceased to matter. Don’t get me wrong, they have every right not to like the story, but they should at least take a moment to examine the narrative before dismissing it so out of hand:

Referring to the game’s narrator, the announcer reading the review says, in a far too snarky tone, “Will you freaking shut up already. Nobody cares ‘cause the story is lame.”

This isn’t a review, this is audience pandering. I understand I’m not part of the target demographic, but seriously, even the most immature teenage CoDBlOps griefer should want a little more from their reviews than “the story is lame”. Lame?!? Lame used in this way is a colloquialism. It’s used to insert some sort of thoughtless, emotional criticism. It has little meaning. It’s lazy and immediately makes me wonder if the reviewer bothered to pay attention, or even played the entire game. It has no business being in a review and that’s what makes me angry.

On top of all that, Bastion’s story isn’t lame. It was clearly thought out and, from my perspective, very well crafted. It simply was presented in a manner we’re not used to. Since it’s an all too familiar, and uncomfortable, story, maybe some gamers have little stomach for it. I hope I’m wrong about that.

Bastion is a tale of colonialism; the history of an advanced people who come from across the sea to build a great city on the hill and, in doing so, dominate then disenfranchise the native population, consume the new world’s resources and eventually threaten their own existence with technological advancements. It’s a story as old as civilization and perhaps hits a little too close to home for some of us. I’m not trying to be preachy here, and neither is Bastion. I’m just trying to point out the story isn’t lame.

But X-play’s review got me thinking: Are we, as gamers, untrained at parsing narrative alongside gameplay? Is that what’s going on here? Are we so used to receiving story through cut-scenes, audio clips or text-based menu entries, that having specific narrative presented during combat, when our attention is directed elsewhere, ensures the information to understand the story is lost in the din of monster whomping? Or maybe X-play’s reviewer was just too lazy to take a moment and listen to the story and expects the average X-play viewer to be the same way.

Story-wise, is Bastion too hard?

I’ll admit it has taken me two play-throughs to pick up every detail of the story, and maybe it’s unfair of the game to ask that of a player. I’ll reserve examples to avoid spoilers, but it’s important to listen to the narrator. It’s important to pay attention on the trips to “Who Knows Where” and the practice ranges. Most importantly, it’s important to know why you make the choices you do at the end of the game. It really does all make sense and perhaps it’s not unfair for Bastion to make us work as hard for the narrative as we would work to defeat the strongest of bosses.

Maybe what we have here is an example of video games evolving, maturing, and it’s our job to keep up. We all want video games to be a more mainstream and respected form of entertainment. I think it’s clear that the creators of Bastion want that as well.

- Andy