I see art as something, anything really, that makes me reflect on things that I normally either don't really notice or don't have time or incentive to ponder upon. That makes the few occasional dilemmas very touching and jaw-droppingly impactful. That's the kind of thing that makes a game great, in my opinion. Maybe not exactly the message, but the feel of the thing, the mood it sets allows you to overlook a great deal of tiny wrongdoings or mistakes, because you do feel like a part of something much bigger than yourself.
But all this pseudo-philosophical jibber-jabber aside, let's focus on the game itself. The game in question is, as you might have realized from the bloody title, Bastion. Bastion is, I damn well realize, not exactly fresh news, but I beat it twice and I'll be buggered if I don't write a review of what I believe to be probably the best game I've ever experienced.This kinda spoils what mood this review's gonna set, but first things first.
Bastion is an isometric-view action game that isn't comfortably described in standard genre chest of drawers. You basically control this fella (referred to exclusively as "the Kid"), and plow through enemies with a whole arsenal of weaponry, ranging from a simple spear, through a pair of cool revolvers, to a fucking mortar. You can customize your character a great deal, choosing your preferred loadout before each level (which includes 2 weapons of your choice and a special ability), selecting from a bunch of passive upgrades in a local Distillery, and individually upgrading your favourite weapons, all of which can be upgraded in multiple ways. The combat is fun, frantic and skill-based, requiring you to make the best of whatever you've got at your disposal. It does a great job of keeping you engaged through a system of deities, which allows you to tweak the difficulty level to your liking and receive appropiate reward for it.
The audio-visual design of this game is utterly unique and beautiful in every meaning of the word. The world is hand-drawn, as are most enemies. The few 3d models you see in the game are done in similar style, so you can't shake the feeling that you've been drawn in this quirky, charming fable, further underlined by the game's unique storytelling mechanism(but more on that later). The highly-praised soundtrack fits extremely well with the game, further enhancing its atmosphere of fantasy-western-something. It's quite a feat to design a game with so much depth and little exposition.
But all these praises aren't exactly enough to make a game truly shine among many wonderfully designed and fun games. What sets Bastion apart is its unique narrative and the way it beautifully merges story and gameplay. Here's the kicker: During the whole game, and I mean EVERY FUCKING SECOND of the game, your behavior and progress is narrated by a man with a voice of John Marston after having his throat massaged with gravel for a year. While I do realize that this must've been a real hassle to pull off, I wonder why hasn't anyone realized how much potential such a narrator holds. His monologue serves as absolutely everything: Backstory, tutorials, attention focus, personal insight, character development, humor. This makes the game what it is, and Rucks' (that's the name of the narrator) commentary makes you care all the more about the characters who never even speak (until the end). The characters are extremely well-developed and deep, and the game tackes real ethical problems with great maturity and emotional weight. You'll be forced to make some very, very hard decisions on your way, but while there's only two of them and they're both near the very end of the game, they feel like actual decisions, unlike the stellar, extremely artificial pseudo-moral dilemmas found in Bioware games. After finishing the game I honestly wondered all night whether my reasoning is just and whether the decisions I made really were the best routes to take facing a situation like that. This is something very hard to describe, a kind of sinking feeling of responsibility that only an interactive storytelling medium can provide.
While this might be a review in the sense that a Jehova's witness leaflet is a metaphysical debate, I really needed to get something off of my chest because I really believe that video games can be art at it's finest (and now I want you to say the obligatory "Fuck you, Roger Ebert), because the feeling that the decisions you make and your own aptitude actually made a difference can move you like no book or movie ever could. This was also present in many other video games (see the newest Deus Ex and Heavy Rain, for example), Bastion is an experience I wouldn't keep from anyone and reflection upon it can actually make you a better person.
As I'm sure it has made me.
forever happy,
the SBQ
But all this pseudo-philosophical jibber-jabber aside, let's focus on the game itself. The game in question is, as you might have realized from the bloody title, Bastion. Bastion is, I damn well realize, not exactly fresh news, but I beat it twice and I'll be buggered if I don't write a review of what I believe to be probably the best game I've ever experienced.This kinda spoils what mood this review's gonna set, but first things first.
Bastion is an isometric-view action game that isn't comfortably described in standard genre chest of drawers. You basically control this fella (referred to exclusively as "the Kid"), and plow through enemies with a whole arsenal of weaponry, ranging from a simple spear, through a pair of cool revolvers, to a fucking mortar. You can customize your character a great deal, choosing your preferred loadout before each level (which includes 2 weapons of your choice and a special ability), selecting from a bunch of passive upgrades in a local Distillery, and individually upgrading your favourite weapons, all of which can be upgraded in multiple ways. The combat is fun, frantic and skill-based, requiring you to make the best of whatever you've got at your disposal. It does a great job of keeping you engaged through a system of deities, which allows you to tweak the difficulty level to your liking and receive appropiate reward for it.
The audio-visual design of this game is utterly unique and beautiful in every meaning of the word. The world is hand-drawn, as are most enemies. The few 3d models you see in the game are done in similar style, so you can't shake the feeling that you've been drawn in this quirky, charming fable, further underlined by the game's unique storytelling mechanism(but more on that later). The highly-praised soundtrack fits extremely well with the game, further enhancing its atmosphere of fantasy-western-something. It's quite a feat to design a game with so much depth and little exposition.
But all these praises aren't exactly enough to make a game truly shine among many wonderfully designed and fun games. What sets Bastion apart is its unique narrative and the way it beautifully merges story and gameplay. Here's the kicker: During the whole game, and I mean EVERY FUCKING SECOND of the game, your behavior and progress is narrated by a man with a voice of John Marston after having his throat massaged with gravel for a year. While I do realize that this must've been a real hassle to pull off, I wonder why hasn't anyone realized how much potential such a narrator holds. His monologue serves as absolutely everything: Backstory, tutorials, attention focus, personal insight, character development, humor. This makes the game what it is, and Rucks' (that's the name of the narrator) commentary makes you care all the more about the characters who never even speak (until the end). The characters are extremely well-developed and deep, and the game tackes real ethical problems with great maturity and emotional weight. You'll be forced to make some very, very hard decisions on your way, but while there's only two of them and they're both near the very end of the game, they feel like actual decisions, unlike the stellar, extremely artificial pseudo-moral dilemmas found in Bioware games. After finishing the game I honestly wondered all night whether my reasoning is just and whether the decisions I made really were the best routes to take facing a situation like that. This is something very hard to describe, a kind of sinking feeling of responsibility that only an interactive storytelling medium can provide.
While this might be a review in the sense that a Jehova's witness leaflet is a metaphysical debate, I really needed to get something off of my chest because I really believe that video games can be art at it's finest (and now I want you to say the obligatory "Fuck you, Roger Ebert), because the feeling that the decisions you make and your own aptitude actually made a difference can move you like no book or movie ever could. This was also present in many other video games (see the newest Deus Ex and Heavy Rain, for example), Bastion is an experience I wouldn't keep from anyone and reflection upon it can actually make you a better person.
As I'm sure it has made me.
forever happy,
the SBQ