Bastion Review

Bastion was the first title in that year’s Summer of Arcade lineup, and it set a high bar for the five-week promotion. Players take on the role of “The Kid,” waking into a world shattered by an event called the Calamity, with no memory of what happened or who was responsible. The Bastion itself is the hub world the player works to rebuild by locating Cores and placing them in a central monument, gradually unlocking buildings such as an armory, a distillery, and an arsenal — all of which can be upgraded later and are revisited repeatedly over the course of the game.

The art style is one of the first things that stands out, with an almost watercolor look running through varied environments and enemy designs. Combat is hack-and-slash, letting the player carry two weapons plus a special skill at once, with an arsenal that ranges from a sword and a bow and arrow to the “Calamity Cannon.” Loadouts can be adjusted before most missions, and some levels include an arsenal mid-level for switching weapons on the fly. A narrator named Rucks comments on the action as it happens in real time — remarking on a fall from a ledge, or on a tough fight as it unfolds — which is a distinctive touch. The world itself is also built to reinforce this reactive feel: standing still can make it look like the player is floating on an island in the sky, while walking forward causes the ground to materialize underfoot.

Bastion features two possible endings, and completing the game unlocks a New Game Plus mode that carries over all weapons and skills from the original save. For players who find the game too easy, the “Shrine” lets them invoke gods to raise the difficulty — invoking Micia, the Goddess of Loss and Longing, causes enemies to regenerate from injury, while invoking Pyth, the God of Commotion and Order, makes enemies move and strike faster. These settings can be toggled on and off freely. Between levels, a Skyway is used to travel across a map showing both story locations and optional “Proving Grounds” trials tied to specific weapons and to certain achievements. These trials, along with regular levels, are also where players collect Fragments, the game’s currency.

Where it stands today

Supergiant Games, making its debut with Bastion, remains a well-known independent studio today, having since gone on to create Hades and Hades II.

Bastion launched as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive for this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion, but that exclusivity didn’t last. The game later made its way to PC, and from there to a wider array of platforms over the following years, considerably outgrowing its original console-only release window. That expansion mirrors the trajectory of Supergiant Games itself, which followed Bastion with Transistor and later Pyre before arriving at Hades — each carrying forward the studio’s reactive, narrator-driven approach to storytelling and its distinctive hand-painted visual style. Rucks’ constant narration, reacting to whatever the player happens to be doing at any given moment rather than reciting fixed scripted lines, is one of the clearest examples of that style taking root early and staying central to the studio’s later work.

Verdict

Bastion is an exceptional title and a tremendous start to 2011’s Summer of Arcade promotion. As Supergiant Games’ first release, it’s a home run that makes their future projects worth watching closely, and a sequel exploring more of this universe would be welcome. It’s recommended even for players outside the action RPG genre, and it earns a 9.5/10.