Bastion
9.5
10
2
2
Art that doesn't lose playability
Bastion is a beautiful game, in all respects of the word. The graphics seem child-like and kiddy, but it's clear this game is meant for adults. The themes in it are dark, but subtle enough that your average child won't catch them. There's no great challenge in beating the game, though some of the self-imposed challenges available to you can be worthwhile; nor is there a lot of repeatability to the game. You have a few potential options at the end of the game, and playing through four times (the game can be beaten in a few hours) is enough to get literally every ending you can get in the game. The narration is beyond superb, and the music will stay with you for the rest of your life. It perfectly conveys the themes of the game, changing throughout, and as you begin to understand more nuances to the plot, you see more and more of the meaning behind the songs. If you get a chance, download the soundtrack as well! You won't regret it at all, trust me. The graphics are HIGHLY stylized, and are again perfectly tailored to what the game is meant to be. In addition, the art suffusing the entire game through "cutscenes" and the like is just amazing. Now, I'd like to say all these are just superfluous minutiae next to the truly amazing feature, the plot. But I'd be lying. The plot is woven seamlessly into the music, into the loneliness of the art, the tired desperation in the narrator's voice, and into the gameplay. Everything is so beautifully integrated that this is no longer, in my opinion, simply a game: it is art. And yet it has lost none of its playability, in that if you approach it as a video game (just as children will), you will still come away from it having enjoyed your experience. In closing, you cannot go wrong with Bastion.
5/17/12
Story Telling
The game Bastion is in independently made game. It has this art stile that is suiting for the game. The game has a combat system that forces you to thing about which enemy should you attack first and in what way. The story is about a "Calamity" that happens and the main character trying to rebuild the Bastion. The way the story is told how ever is the reel important thing. It is told through narration, not cut scene or block of text. The voice of the narrator is a soothing, deep western voice. The music is also superb, it like the narrator is a western style, I have bought the soundtrack. Super Giant Games made one of the best games of 2011 and defiantly made the best way for a story to be told in any game, not with things that stop the action but some thing that flows with the rest of the game.
1/25/12