Bastion: An immediately fun, compact experience

I recently purchased a new Asus laptop, and have since found myself suddenly capable of playing PC games, which both excites and scares me. As a personal anecdote, I take no pleasure in hoarding video games, and a strong, negative pit wells up in my stomach whenever I add to it. That said, certain games are either only available on PC, or have been graciously given to me for free by friends during one of their Steam sale spending sprees.

Bastion is one such title, having been given to me several months back. Now in a capable Asus carapace, Bastion's software soul can bring with it a certain giddy feeling of finally being able to play something which had only previously been a pipe dream.

An Isometric Kid

A dynamic narrator recounts to us what the player performs, while the Kid does so on-screen. This active narrative style, layered over an equally impressive score by Darren Korb, rolls around in my head as I smash and roll through the game’s shaping environment.

Bastion is decidedly simple, though it’s also immediately fun. While playing through the game’s opening hour, I couldn’t help but think back to SaGa Frontier 2, whose convoluted game design provides a nice contrast to Bastion.

Calamity in Caelondia

The game’s story, at least in its opening hour, feels largely inconsequential. As I explore the game’s intimate surroundings, I find myself coming across petrified townsfolk and charms of various sorts, each hinting at there being some important meaning to the calamity which has affected the Kid’s world and home.

Most of my time so far has been spent collecting new weapons, exploring their merits against various ghoulish enemies, and rolling through fragile fences, piles of stone and dragon-like statues. The entire experience is all very ho-hum. Yet to the game’s credit, I feel its designers intelligently put just enough game into this game to make it feel compact, straightforward and focused. And in the end, I feel Bastion is better for it.

The End

My thoughts surrounding Bastion at this point in time seem to focus near exclusively on how well understood the game is as, well, a game. Developer Supergiant Games have managed to hook me with a vibrant art direction, an impressive score, a dynamic narrator; but they managed to infuse these ancillary qualities with hellishly addictive combat. It is its gameplay that I feel is the true merit of Bastion.