I finally played Bastion

 Better late than never?

There comes those situations in life whereupon you are met with the tasks it is assumed that every man, woman and child must do. Occasions that all must arise to. I can't name any specifically, but every single self-important movie or self-help advert I've seen seems to think that's the case so I can only assume it must be true. Actually, wait- I do have one such example; in that everyone must have played Bastion. Right? I mean, everybody talked about this game when it first launched, and in the many proceeding months since, so surely this is just one of those games on everybody's hard-drive, right? And yet I could never find an actual living human being who could recount their experience with the title, and maybe that's because I hardly know any one at all, but irregardless it rendered me a little clueless about why the game was so adored. Yeah, I knew it was an isometric hack'n'slash indie darling, but aside from that I had literally nothing to go on. So it's one of those games that I just slapped on the backburner in order to pick up at some point, another resident of that ever-aching ever-reaching abyss of forgotten about games known only as 'the back catalogue'. That was until this Christmas.

Treating oneself is one of the few joys in life, and Steam certainly does like to have it's sales to facilitate such treating, so I got myself some titles for Christmas. (Yes, including Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2) I reached back and got some titles that I always wanted to own on PC, some of which you'll likely be reading about soon, as well as some which I heard glowing reviews about. Divinity Original Sin 2 needed getting even though I'm still not done with the first one, (that just had to happen) that 'Hades' game sounded pretty good so I took a plunge, oh, and Bastion while it's there. 'Why not', I thought, 'It's a classic, so it might have aged somewhat gracefully.' Now here I sit on the otherside of a playthrough wondering what in the seven layers of hell kept me for so long, I've truly been denying myself for no good reason, high time something finally gave.

Forged by Supergiant Games, Bastion is indeed an isometric action game; but what I wasn't expecting out of the title was how much style was oozing out of it. From the second the game began I was immediately taken aback when I heard the oddly western-drawl of our narrator; The Stranger. You see, I had seen little snippets of gameplay here and there, but never had I actually heard the game. And as anyone can tell you that does the gameplay a massive disservice because, in a strange way, Logan Cunningham's performance as the narrator is the beating heart of this entire game. (You know it's good when I went out of my way to look up the actor's name.) From start to finish, everything you do in the game is accompanied by the stylised storytelling of a wizened engineer who knows you only as 'The Kid' and forever sounds a syllable away from a spittoon break. On paper it sounds a little off for such a cowboy-sounding voice in this steampunk/fantasy world space, but it just goes to show you that sometimes you never know what you need until you get it; I cannot imagine this game with that voice.

Of course, I'm not trying to say that the amazing narration makes up for any fault in the gameplay. Bastion features a mix'n'match weapon system wherein every tool you get is unique and features it's own quirks, behaviours and upgrade systems; but the meat comes in finding your preference of two weapons and how you like to play. Combat takes place in real time (in case the adjective 'isometric' had you worried) and revolves around learning different enemy attack patterns and dodging around them, or parrying with your shield, all in order to get in a position to whale on them with your own tools of destruction. As such, the weapons you choose really influences how each enemy is approached. With the hammer you have enough force to whack enemies off of ledges and manage crowds, so you need to get close and watch for melee strikes, with the Pike you have enough reach to ignore close range strikes but not enough to keep completely out of harms way, and with the Army Carbine you can rain death from afar with a strong kickback, but need to be careful when things get a little too close. It all sounds like rather straightforward video game combat tactics but when realised with such a level of direct purity as Bastion does it, the team creates the space for the gameplay to become this gracefully instinctual dance of death that I'd liken to DOOM's gameplay if pressed.

The weapons are the glue which hold Bastion's combat together, and that's why their variety and distinction is so important. Rather than be situational to the point of requiring weapons and playstyles for specific enemies, each tool is versatile enough to be used against practically anyone; and that actually makes quite the difference when it comes to keeping the gameplay fresh. You can chuck together two tools you don't use too often for a completely different fighting experience, and though sometimes you may feel a little disadvantaged, you'll never be stuck in the lurch. To this end the War Machete's have a ranged attack, so even if you disregard all bows and guns you'll still have some defence against distant aggressors; the Bullhead shield does considerable damage during a parry, ensuring that melee engagement isn't impossible during the exact inverse of my previous scenario; and so on and so forth. It really speaks to intelligent design for such an arsenal to be so well conceived, to the point that I loved playing with mostly every weapon, any gripes where due to just personal preference.

And that isn't even touching upon the weapon upgrades which the player can feed rather naturally through the 'fragments' currency you happen across quite frequently. These upgrades aren't strictly linear and they aren't insignificant stat increases either. You'll get the chance to choose between two upgrades and every decision can be easily switched out if you change your mind (Similar to 2016's DOOM) allowing for weapons to tailor to how you like to play. There's one upgrade which makes the Breaker bow draw it's shot 25% faster; which is a gamechanger in the fast-paced battle scenes you'll happen across playing Bastion. Or one which makes the bullets from the Twin Pistols ricochet, allowing for large groups to be felled with enough dumb luck and dumber spamming. If the tools themselves weren't already versatile enough to feed replayablity, and they are, then this is simply the lemon-flavoured icing atop this elegantly shaped carrot cake. 

Levels are made up of these delightfully digestible short gauntlets of enemies, generally themed around the Act, which take about 10-20 minutes but which can feel like a exhaustive slug in the more heavy scenes. Having such quick levels actually helps feed into that 'one more game' mentality which had me literally playing the vast majority of this game over one day. I wasn't trying to rush, I was just that engrossed in the gameplay loop that I couldn't drag myself away. The missions themselves are also peppered with these optional 'challenge maps' that theme themselves around a single unique weapon from your arsenal and asks the player to master them with through a difficult gauntlet. These were genuinely some of my favourite moments in the game, as they sparkled with the clever design which permeates every facet of this game. Supergiant know exactly how to naturally introduce the player to it's features and story to a point of genuine mastery. I've played plenty of games which flounder whilst attempting anything even remotely similar.

Weapon introductions in Bastion sort of go like this. You'll be blazing through a level and happen upon a new item which the narrator will introduce to the player with a little bit of context and maybe a hint as to how it should be used. For the rest of the mission you are then free to wave it around and get used to the thing. (or just switch back if you don't like it, I noticed the game always supplied a weapon switching station just after new acquisitions) After that mission, a challenge map will spawn which prioritises that new weapon and will present a unique situation wherein completing the challenge and getting the highest amount of rewards will push the player to figure out the quirks and in's and out's of this new weapon. Like how the dual-pistol challenge requires you to shoot out several targets beside a progressively falling bridge, despite the fact that it's impossible to move whilst shooting. What the mission want's you to discover (and will provide hints if you're having trouble) is that weapons continue to reload as you use dodge rolls and reposition yourself, naturally teaching the player that mastering the pistols is all about positioning. What a masterful, non patronising, way of handling tutorialising the players. Golf clap.

I cannot believe I managed to get this far into the Blog without talking about the Art style; that should be a crime. Bastion has this mix between these drawn environments and 3D characters. The drawn spaces span from the rugged city to the murky swamps, icy mountains, colourful caverns and even the peacefully gentle Bastion itself; whilst the 3D characters who inhabit this space are these stocky little characters that are honestly a little cute, even if a somewhat goofy. The Kid in particular looks nowhere near as adorable in game as he does on cover art. Now, usually such a clash in styles will have me retching up my lunch, (I'll never forgive you, Beyond Divinity, for the scars your art style inflicted on me) but here they actually go together well enough. I'm still hugely more inclined to the 2D art and would have preferred if the whole game was made in that style, but the 3D models aren't horribly out of place and their movement is well animated, so I'll call it a matter of differing preferences.

The way the world itself was realised, however, is the thing that'll really stick with the player. The world is but a floating chunk in the sky which forms itself around the player as they move into the empty spaces, making the immediate area in front of the player something of a mystery until they step there. I find the effect of the ground piecing itself together under you, like Tetrominos, endlessly pleasing and would seek out filling corners of areas just to see it. The story plays this as a consequence of the mysterious 'Calamity', but honestly it makes more sense if you just ignore the rationalising and just accept it as a strikingly unique visual quirk which lends Bastion some of it's immortality.

Speaking of 'The Calamity', the Story was another aspect of Bastion that surprised me; I honestly wasn't expecting it to have much of one at all. Even as the narration began I noticed how vague and digestible terms were being used, and so just assumed that was going to the status quo throughout the adventure, but boy was I wrong. Similar to how they handled the weapons, the storytellers introduce the narrative to the player gradually by having the narrator merely provide context on relevant articles, such as location you're currently in, the weapon you're currently using or the boss that's currently chewing on your innards. It's actually another mightily clever approach and it avoids that barrier of "Oh great, now I have to ingest this" which a lot of games actually suffer quite a bit from, especially indie ones. How many times have you booted up a game only to be barraged with fantastical names, societies and events to the point where you just say "I'm not in the mood for this" and just switch off? I know that's happened to me an unreal amount of times.

Bastion, however, starts you right into the action, to get you to start having fun before asking you to be invested. Things start and you're told there's a Calamity, that's it, now grab that Hammer and start whacking. They even have the narrator jokingly note how "The Kid" doesn't ever stop to ponder the floating islands in the sky, because he doesn't have the time to. It fits the no-nonsense voice which Logan Cunningham employs for the narration, and it lends more of that infectious fast-paced style which makes Bastion so pick-up-and-go. And it works wonders in making it easier to be invested because you're are so much more likely to be interested in hearing about the Bull god of commotion and Order, Pyth, when you've been using a shield fashioned after him to save your life for the past hour. Therefore, even though the narrative does rise in stakes to a crescendo, the meat of the story is more the audience becoming more informed about the world around them, with the actual narrative happening in the background. Overall, I say Bastion presented a solid story with a decent branching ending that I appreciated.

So overall I'd say that my time with Bastion was a lot better than I could have anticipated. (clearly better than I thought, else I'd have gotten around to it sooner) My only significant issue is with the length of the title, but even then I can't say that I didn't feel like the game didn't have enough content, just that I blazed through it so quickly, which is probably just more my fault than the game's. I was so impressed with Bastion, in fact, that I decided to look up Supergiant Games and see what they were up to nowadays. (I bet you can see where this is going) Only then did I see their Twitter banner and realise; "Hey, these are the guys that made Hades. What a coincidence!" So now I'm about two hours into Hades and am loving my time there, so I needed to get this out in order to give myself the freedom to fully throw myself into their newest masterpiece.

Unfortunately, as I have Hades that means I didn't really get a chance to try out the replayability of Bastion, even though I could tell a lot of the systems were built specifically for that, but that doesn't mean I was disappointed with what I experienced by any stretch. I was constantly impressed by Bastion and how clever it was alongside with how great it felt to play, and I even liked the game enough to come around on the idea of constant narration, which I typically hate in my entertainment. (This game turned me all kinds of around) For what it is, I have to direct any isometric action lovers, who might have somehow missed one of the most celebrated releases of the last decade, to give Bastion a shot, and assign an overall mark of an A Grade. Were the game a bit longer, slightly more daring with it's story or completely 2D animated, I would score higher, but the game which is there doesn't step a significant foot wrong in any department and absolutely schools a lot of bigger games in coherent and well conceived design tactics. I am very glad that I took the time to play Bastion, and look forward coming back to it far from now to find it shines just as brightly as I remember. For now, however, I have a world of Greek Mythology to submerge myself within...