QCF: Bastion

As the screen fades out, a stranger’s voice greets you directly. A room then emerges with a boy who’s slumbering away, completely unaware of what lies ahead of him. In the child’s nap his world has ended, and his residence crumbles around him. The kid has only one priority ahead of him in the catastrophic after-math: Enter Supergiant Game’s Bastion, the action-RPG kicking off Xbox’s Summer of Arcade.

The independent studio’s first title breaks a lot of new grounds within a familiar territory. Bastion plays out through an overhead perspective, with combat that hearkens back to classics like Secret of Mana and Illusion of Gaia, but delivers a completely unique and complex execution within its fighting mechanics. The streamlined interface allows for two different weapon load-outs, which can be changed anytime you want in your ever-growing arsenal within the progression of Bastion. In this arsenal, each different weapon you obtain possesses strengths and weaknesses that become fleshed out through battle with the various foes you encounter in your travels.

Before I can touch on the plot focus of the Bastion, which carries the name-sake of the game itself, I have to mention the importance of its place within the gameplay. The Bastion plays as your main hub area, where you’re given the opportunity to manage your weapon load-outs, equipment, side-quests, sundries shopping, and in-game handicaps that challenge your skill in exchange for additional experience points and currency. It is here that you'll constantly return, and formulate every different combination available as you advance. Varying the combination of your equipped weapons can be determined through experimentation in endurance stages unlocked as you progress, in order to give you an idea of how you'll approach the next stage. Bastion provides a balanced challenge that will test your skill, and can encourage precise focus towards deciding on the right arsenal before combat. In fact, let’s talk about the combat.

The complexity of the combat comes into focus once you find which combination of equipped weaponry is most effective against different classes of enemies inhabiting the area. In addition to the two available weapons equipped in your interface, you’re also given an input that allows you to equip a secret skill. Secret skills are interchangeable powers that are segmented into either equipment ability that requires that specific weapon to be armed in your repertoire, or a general power that can be used regardless of your current equipped set. The abilities and weapons can be swapped anytime within the bastion at the arsenal, but I’ll get into more about that later. Your Evasive capabilities include a giant shield that can deflect every projectile shot or melee attack that gets thrown at you, while also being able to counter-attack with a well timed block, which completely keeps you safe and returns recoil damage to your opponent. Given these dynamics, the combat is seamless in ways that no other game has come close to achieving. The effortless transitions between defending and attacking gives you such a sense of grace that’s fueled with a sensation of recognizing your skills, and the knowledge to utilize them within any given situation makes Bastion’s combat system one of the most solid efforts in years.

The innovative combat is also reinforced by its progression system. The process of player enhancement is fine-tuned to such a brilliant design that it perfectly complements the fighting structure of Bastion. For starters, Experience points will earn you levels to augment abilities that are determined by a slot-based system akin to the combat interface in the form of a distillery. The Distillery is where you can equip spirits that provide you different perks for your overall abilities. As you advance through the story mode, several different spirits can be earned that will again motivate you to experiment with different spirit combinations. You're also free to swap out any spirits within your possession on any given slot within the distillery, which can be found within the Bastion itself. The Forge will allow you to upgrade your weapons throughout your quest, as long as you possess the right material and amount of currency to synthesize the next level for that weapon. When you do this, you’re not given one, but two different perks you can actively switch between; this will help you cater to whatever tactics come to mind when preparing for the next stage. But moving along, let's examine the world of Bastion.

This is where Bastion truly succeeds in its jaw-dropping exposition. The beauty behind its presentation goes towards such great lengths, but gets away with being so subtle in its performance all at the same time. Bastion’s plot is moved forward through the concept of a tale being woven as you play it. The Grizzled old narrator accomplishes such convincing performance without the slightest hint of contrived theatrics. As you journey on, each movement is so charmingly chronicled. Be it a clever anecdote by the narrator, or a saturnine statement given towards your current circumstances, Bastion continues to sell the story beyond its deceptively minimal approach, and will never feel arbitrary when the story begins to flesh itself out.

The visuals excel further than any preconceived standard you may have had towards digital games. Aside from the game’s engaging combat, the palette of colors will engross your eyes into an euphoric state of awe. Still shots do Bastion absolutely no justice when you witness this game in motion, to where you find yourself being absorbed within its optical whimsy in the very same vein of Child of Eden. Coupled with the plot of a world being torn apart, you'll traverse against floating land masses that literally appear before you, in the sync of both your movement and the compelling narrative that creates the closest representation to an interactive fable, and depends on you bringing it to life.

The premise of every single aspect in Bastion boils down to one thing: growth. Never before has a game compelled me to move forward with that very ideal, and in every imaginable way that I could associate it with. Bastion is a steal at just fifteen dollars, and is the closest thing to perfection amongst this summer’s releases.