During the Steam Summer Sale, I managed to pick up a number of cheap games based on various recommendations. Bastion wasn't high on that list.. until I heard the soundtrack:
It was hauntingly good enough to convince me to get it. I decided to livetweet the whole playthrough without giving away too many spoilers, and since I'm writing this review long after I've played the game, our adventure begins with a tweet from 2 months ago:
For "weekend", substitute "Friday night games".
Kid waves his trusty hammer about, smashing things as he goes.
Kid smashes through debris, finds a bar. He defends himself against magical turrets, before taking a leap of faith.
Picks up a few more weapons, before reaching the Bastion, where the town said they'd meet up. There's only one person there.. who proceeds to send the kid on a journey through the ruins.
On his walkabout, kid sees things he'd never usually see. Like great, open areas.
Kid retrieves a gleaming blue mineral piece. After returning to the Bastion, he goes off in search of another. Because you always need more. He shoots up stabweed, just to see if there's anything lurking within.
Then the kid stumbles on another item. A machete, dropped in the chaos, he supposes. He clears more stabweed with it.
Kid finds more blue mineral, fights his way through more hordes. He sees petrified people, turned to stone. He's still struggling to come to terms with the scale of what happened. Then he spies someone.
Someone alive.
Kid runs over.
Kid finds a survivor, Zulf, leaves him with me. Kid runs off to find more mineral shards, finding a sheriff's musket on his way.
Perfect for clearing windbags, or so he tells me.
So many mindless creatures roam these ruins. Kid doesn't like it, but he's got his arsenal, he can deal with them.
But sometimes, it gets a bit lonely, all this fighting alone.
Kid finds a temple, a pantheon to the gods of this world. He muses over their domains..
And then gets greeted by more wildlife. He dispatches them easily enough.
Out in an uncertain world, with bits of the world floating around waiting for someone to piece them back together, it's slippery. Hard to maintain one's footing, and the kid.. well, he slips a lot.
Kid finds a moment's serenity in a dangerous world, lured away by his fatigue..
After he comes to, he brings back someone though. Zia, she called herself. Pretty musical instrument she's got there.
He presses onward, fighting a burrowing creature with a mouth as long as he's tall. Kid rolls and dodges, picking off the creature and one of her eggs in the process. Kid wonders if he could raise it.
And just like that, the kid finds himself having too much to handle.
Kid pushes on, undeterred by one slip-up. But he comes back to find that Zulf decamped, wrecking most of the Bastion.
Kid's got more work to do now..
He pushes on through the wildlife, cleaving them in twain, sundering them. Then he sees another human, who hands him a letter.
Before he can ask anything, he's seeing stars instead..
Kid wakes up, letter in hand. He heads back to the Bastion to read it, so that he knows where to go next - a scorched wasteland, where he finds a tool.
Oh yes, now that kid's packing a lot more heat than he used to, he'd like to unleash it.
But of course, kid can't burn what's already burnt to cinders.
Kid finds that life gets nastier the further one goes from paradise.
He travels further and further, deeper and deeper into uncharted territory, making new allies.
Away from his port in the storm, he finds a ship's mortar. Could come in handy, he muses.
Then he meets Zulf. Again. Kid seems calm, but a fire rages within.
Kid barely escapes Zulf's army. He comes back, torn and shot up, but still alive. Knocks himself out on his bedroll almost immediately.
Twisted dreams and tangled memories, they haunt him.
When he wakes from his nap, I hand him his final assignment: get Zulf.
I send the kid on his way with a little present.
Kid's still learning to use that launcher, it's easier to block its shots than it seems.
But he masters it quite fast.
All this while, I'm telling Zia a story. The story of how this mess began.
There are things I still don't know.
Kid finds a massive pillar. Zulf ain't gonna like what's coming for him.
Neither do the rest of his countrymen, when faced with the kid's rage.
Kid finally gets back to the Bastion, dragging a blue spike behind him. He's gotta make a choice now. The past, or the future?
Closing comments:
It's not too bad for a single player campaign, I suppose.
Some thoughts on the music title choices. I still wonder why Rucks doesn't get a theme song..
