Game: Bastion
Bastion is, without a doubt, one of the best games I have
ever played. The story, is that sometime between going to bed and waking up the entire world
shattered into assorted bits and pieces in a horrific event known only as the
Calamity. You have to gather the Cores
of the various larger bits of floating landmass to give power to the Bastion,
your base of operations and the games
resident McGuffin. Once the Bastion is
fully powered up, you can save the world. The story is engaging and exciting, but the best part is that it doesn't interfere. Cutscenes are few and far between, with most of the narration taking place during actual gameplay. The narrator is fantastic. Its like someone distilled old west novels,
spaghetti western movies, tobacco, whiskey, gunpowder, and cactus into
concentrated essence of the old west and lovingly applied it to the inside of
the man’s lungs between takes. It only had one flaw: too short.
Okay, now that I’m through gushing about the utterly
fantastic story, I can now gush about the utterly fantastic gameplay. The weapon variety in the game is fantastic,
not too huge, not too tiny, well-paced, and all of them were fairly intuitive
to use. You can raid a level with any
weapon combo you want, and the narrator has a nice quip about all of them as
you leave the armory. My personal
favorite weapon was the War Machete. After
I found that thing it practically never left my hand, and the starting weapon
Cael Hammer was left to collect dust at the bottom of a drawer. See the War Machete deals a little less
damage, but its lightning quick. I can
stab someone and be back behind my trusty shield before the brightly colored
enemies have time to twitch, which came in very handy when I got a damage-over-time
upgrade. Also, I can throw the damn
thing, which made it very versatile. I
found myself playing a lightning bruiser, using either the starting Fang
Repeater or the Dueling Pistols most of all, alongside my trusty blade. The game introduces you to new weapons by
letting you pick them up in the levels.
They take the place of a slotted weapon but you either finish the level
in short order or come across an armory soon after you learn how to use it, so
if you don’t like it you can put it on a shelf and let it collect dust like an
ugly Christmas sweater from your grandma.
You get a choice between 2 upgrades at each tier, and there’s little mini-McGuffins
that you need to unlock each tier, which prevents you from turning that Machete
into the sword of fucking Gryffindor by the fifth level, which does wonders for
the pacing. There isometric viewpoint an create some confusion, but nothing unmanageable.
In conclusion, if you enjoy games with stories and variety,
and new ideas, go buy Bastion. This game
is so awesome it made me GUILTY that I got it on sale because I wanted to give
the company more money to make more games like this. If you’re the sort of violence obsessed
denizen of Xbox Live with a maturity level somewhere below your shoes, then go
jump off a bridge because society doesn’t need you.
Score: 10/10
Pass/Fail: Pass with flying colors, magnificent
fanfare, and people bowing in the streets.
Comments
Post a Comment