Good Game Get! Bastion
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 its 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 its own 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 its 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 its 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 its 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
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
Bastion Out on Steam This Week…
…other PC services later this month!
This is one of my favorite games of the year so far. I’ll have a write up about it in a few days, once I’ve completed the game. I’m on my second play-through and I only have one more vigil (in game achievement) to get… I’m having trouble getting first prize with the hammer and machete, always a second or two short. Silly Squirts!
No Xbox? Well, your wait is finally over as Bastion will premier on Steam tomorrow in a lightning fast jump from XBLA to other platforms. No DRM, cloud saves, achievements and leaderboards for the same price as the XBLA version, $15.
- Andy