Bastion looks, based on the packaging, like a Secret of Mana style hack and slash, but what it ends up becoming as it progresses is a fusion between Torchlight and Braid, with a drizzling of Portal 2 quality narration. Yes, you can drizzle narration. No, you can’t drizzle it on your pasta.
In Bastion, You play as The Kid, a white haired ruffian of a protagonist, waking up on a floating chunk of earth, lazily hanging in the middle of a maelstrom of sorts. Instantly, the game seizes your attention: you have no inventory to speak of, and you’re guided by a grizzled narrator, who recounts your travels as they’re happening; think The Stranger from The Big Lebowski, with a dash of Cave Johnson.
The narrator explains that The Kid is heading for somewhere called ‘The Bastion’, a safe meeting place previously agreed upon in case anything bad happened. The bad thing in question, called ‘The Calamity’, effectively destroyed your entire world, and together with the narrator (who you end up meeting in person, which superbly ties the plot together), you must help explore the remains of the world, floating as they are about the place. The plot is vague and nebulous, but being as Miyazakiesque as it is, that’s hardly a bad thing; Bastion feels like a dream you’re having, and watching the world literally build itself up around you is a privilege typically only reserved for those insanely wealthy enough to pay people to literally build things around them as they go about their day.
The good things about Bastion are too numerous to mention; it’s totally understated, and it flows along without any of the clutter typically associated with Diablo clones (which it only really feels like superficially). There’s a terrific degree of customization with your gear, each piece of which is introduced at specific points in the narrative; you can combine an array of wonderfully fiddly ranged or melee weapons, allowing you to create your own playstyle. Also, combat is never, ever a chore, and bad guys are introduced and explained by the narrator with such depth that you end up... well, not liking them perse, but understanding them, or, failing that, wanting to understand them.
The best part of Bastion, though, is the narrator. One of the most resounding feelings you’re left with whilst playing dungeon crawl style games is one of lonlieness; even with an npc hireling fighting by your side in Diablo 2, or your pet in Torchlight, you’re alone in enemy territory. In Bastion, the narrator (the ridiculously talented and gravel-voiced Logan Cunningham) is with you the entire time. Not literally (he’s recounting the story), but when you go off and batter objects pointlessly for too long, he might comment that ‘the kid just raged for a while’. It breaks the fourth wall, but strengthens it at the same time which, if I knew anything about masonry, wouldn’t be a claim I’d issue so flippantly. Incidentally, here’s said narrator heaping shit on Cave Johnson of Portal 2 fame.
The game is simple, but that’s not a bad thing; it was originally released for Xbox Live as an arcade game, but that only adds to the appeal. And much like a pringle shaped like a pointy snowlflake, It’s simple, beautiful, challenging to get through, and eminently moreish.