[ENG] Bastion - Review

(I think I don't have to tell this but - review contains my feelings and thoughts about the game, and after reading this - reader should decide if the game sounds cool or not really)

(Minor spoilers ahead, any major will be marked)

Bastion is a narrative-driven action game produced by independent studio called Supergiant Games and released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment far back in 2011. Bastion was released on a variety of platform - PCs, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch and even phones with iOS! This game can be easily called their debut as... Well, Supergiant Games are pretty recognizable today due to how their games are constructed, but back then - Bastion was their very first game - and it was a critical success to say the least, people appreciated many things, to name a few - visuals, sound design and how the creators managed to combine game and a story...

Action of the game takes place after a mysterious event know only as the Calamity, in aftermath of this catastrophe - city of Caelondia is shattered as well as huge chunks of areas around the city. In Bastion we take control of a silent individual known only as 'The Kid' who wakes up on a floating fragment of world. After realizing what happened, he decided to venture to eponymous Bastion - a mysterious structure, a place where everyone should go in troubled times. As the Kid arrives at Bastion, he realizes that there is only one person there - a stranger named Rucks. And that's probably as far as I should go with the plot to not spoil anything significant.

Narrator in the game is reactive and gives a really interesting point in few cases - he comments player''s actions and decisions as well as tells various stories. The most interesting thing here is probably the fact that narrator is Rucks, the same elderly man met in Bastion. There are a lot of locations in this game and to every single one there is at least one story told by Rucks - these stories are quite helpful in understanding and imagining how the Caeldonia looked before the Calamity as well as get a bit of insight to many fractions only mentioned by the name...

There are also a lot of mementos hidden throughout the levels - bringing them back to Rucks often gives you a better understanding of what it was or what purpose certain memento could serve, as well as a short story tied to the past of Caeldonia and surrounding regions

The game has two endings and personally I had a bit of a problem to choose an appropriate one, both had pros and cons in my opinion and I sat for quite a while before deciding and... I recommend you do the same, just sit back and think about the entirety of the game, of the events, of characters and so on before choosing what you think is 'the better option'.

Locations are beautiful, almost all of them work on the same scheme - floating pieces of Old World that create your way as you go - wonderful, hand-painted art style with isometric camera is an amazing combination - very often paths 'split' when you cross the levels, but also very often one just leads to bonus rewards whereas other needs to be followed to complete the level. Not to mention here occasional twists or unexpected turns during some levels which make exploring Caelondia's remains much more interesting. Thanks to such art design, the game looks stunning even today, 9 years after it's release - something amazing to say the least.

The sound design is amazing as well, slow tracks gently flow into your ears when you visit Bastion time after time and some faster ones during certain fights or events - suffice it to say, I shed a tear or two when listening to ending song. Although this soundtrack is amazing, I think Transistor (phenomenal, cyberpunk-themed game developed by the same people) had much better one (Overall I liked Transistor in much more ways than Bastion, but... First of all - it's not Transistor Review and second of all - that doesn't mean Bastion is bad, far from it - Bastion had better explained it's story in my opinion). This soundtrack is something that... Is quite different from your typical game soundtrack, and that's very good - it enhances the overall feeling of the world presented in Bastion.

(See all these empty slots? Well, that's how many weapons are in this game!)

The currency in the game is called 'Fragments of the Old World' - and they are used to everything - buying new things, upgrading your weapons, 

The player will visit Bastion between levels, in there they can upgrade (you need certain fragment to upgrade certain weapon - for example - 'Something Sharp' can be used to upgrade the Machete and so on; when upgrading you have two options to choose but you can change between them whenever you want) and change their weapons - the game offers quite a big variety of arsenal which can be combined in a lot of combinations. Not to mention 'Secret Skills'. These are special abilities which either require certain weapon equipped to use or are self-sufficient. Secret Skills require Black Tonics to use, they can be often found throughout levels and quite often they serve as a last resort option (or rather I used them like that) Although the combat system isn't very complicated as it consists of melee and ranged attacks, blocks (which at perfect time turn into Counters that damage the enemy back) and rolls... The sole variety of weaponry makes up for it.

With variety of weaponry comes variety of enemies that can be dealt with in different ways, though some of them require a bit of strategy to effectively slay them. And even if you fall in combat, you can revive in the same place - the game operates on '3 Lives structure' (On Normal difficulty, there is easier, called 'No-Sweat' in which you have unlimited revives), but after the third collapse you are forced to start the level from the beginning or return to Bastion.

There are places called 'Proving Grounds' - whenever you find a new weapons, you can be sure that you will unlock a new Proving Ground. In there you have to complete various challenges and - the better you do, the better rewards you unlock - from upgrade materials to new Secret Skills - but sometimes it's just worth to come back to them when you upgrade certain weapon a bit because... In my opinion some challenges were a bit too hard to complete them without any upgrades

(Example of an effect and total bonus currency and experience with 8 activated Idols)

There are also structures like Shop in which you can buy more Secret Skills, fragments to upgrade weapons or Spirits - the last ones are used in 'Distillery' and give you various bonuses. You can equip more of them as you level up - one at first level, two at second one and so on. These bonuses can consist of different things to fit into your playstyle - 100% Critical Hit Chance when Below 33% HP encouraging a bit riskier playstyle; +2 Health Tonics, Health Tonics refill full Health - which gives you a bit more space for errors and so on and so on.

(A word about leveling - it's pretty slow, although considering Bastion has a New Game+ option is understandable, I managed to hit 6th level before the end of the game so... Don't worry if you think leveling is too slow - it's supposed to be like that).

You can also find a Shrine in which you can activate various effect to make your game harder, but in effect receive more currency and experience (similar mechanic was later moved to their next game - phenomenal, cyberpunk-themed Transistor) - for example enemies can be more resistant to your hits, they can leave bombs after death and so on. There are 10 Idols (Each Idol is a different effect) to find or buy and activating even half of them can make the game painfully harder (which... If you think the game's too easy is a very good thing - you can manipulate the game's difficulty however you feel like)

(All 23 Vigils available in the game completed before the final level - it's do-able! As you can see you have a short description of a Vigil and a bit of lore tied underneath it - this game is lore-heavy and it's amazing!)

There are Vigils, which serve as a mini, completely optional quests that reward you with currency if you complete them (Personally I've completed all of them although it was a bit hard on some) - they require you to do various things - for example upgrading few of your weapons to certain level or finishing Proving Grounds with the best results and so on. There are also 'Weapon Vigils' that simply require you to complete special task with your weapon - for example deal certain amount of damage in one hit or eliminate certain amount of enemies in one hit and so on. 

Bastion is an amazing game that gave Supergiant Games almost instant critical acclaim and in effect they delivered some of the most incredible games throughout the next years - Transistor, Pyre and now an early-access rogue-like Hades - I am really eager to see what will they create next as... This studio is a wonderful example of how to make independent games (I am not saying here that rest of indie games are trash, far from it - I love many indie games and I am often eager to play new ones, I just mean that Supergiant Games can be seen as an example) - because... They only made few games, but their reputation and name is quite recognizable by now. Considering low system requirements and it's availability there is absolutely no reason to not give Bastion a try. It's a beautiful title with unusual and pretty sad story if you look at it, but at the same time... It's a story about hope and atonement - it's certainly one of the better stories I have played in quite some time. And remember:

Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning. Ain't so simple with this one...

Kind Regards,

Wing.