Bastion
I played this game to the end twice for a total playtime of 12 hours.
Bastion is an action RPG that tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world. Unlike other games that tackle this subject on a nuclear level (Fallout, RAGE, Borderlands), Bastion credits the destruction on an event known as The Calamity.
You are The Kid and it’s up to you to find out what the hell happened to your home country Caelondia.
The game is narrated from beginning to end by Rucks, a survivor of The Calamity. Through him, you learn how to restore order to the world and the secrets that lie within The Bastion. His voice adds a goose-bump-inducing intensity to an otherwise innocent looking game. He will comment on your every move and every encounter against the game’s enemies. For example, when The Kid find his trusty hammer, I took a minute to smash everything in the surrounding area with the new weapon. I was surprised to hear the narrator state, “Kid just rages for a bit..” Comments like these add lots of much-needed context to the game and helps the player realize the intense gravity of the situation—the world has ended.
Bastion begins with The Kid waking up to a broken Caelondia; apparently The Calamity caused the world to literally fall apart, leaving The Kid stranded on a floating piece of rock. Luckily, a path forms before his feet, allowing him to explore his country after mass tragedy struck. These physics-defying levels are never explained; they just are, and they fit perfectly with the game’s visual style.
Ultimately, it is your goal to retrieve Bastion’s scattered cores and restore order to the Bastion. Maybe then, just maybe, you could restore order to the world.
Visually, Bastion is eye candy. Playing the game is like watching a lively watercolor painting. Colors are ultra-vibrant and graphics are crisp. Characters and enemies have a nice 3D-model-meets-2D-sprite kinda feel. My favorite levels to look at were the “Who Knows Where” scenarios. These dream-like sequences are presented in black and white with a rainbow tint, and are a great way to gain extra Fragments of the Old World, the accepted currency at The Bastion.
Collecting fragment pieces allows the player to upgrade and customize The Kid and his weapon layout. The player can also customize and upgrade the weapons themselves. These upgrades come at a hefty cost, but you can easily max out all weapons with a couple of playthroughs. Additionally, The Kid can equip one special attack (based on the weapons he is currently using) and up to ten different alcoholic beverages at The Bastion’s Distillery. This is my favorite aspect of the game since each drink (i.e. Stabsinthe) adds certain statistical advantages to The Kid’s attributes.
Battle is basic and easy to pick up if you haven’t played an action RPG before. The Kid can equip one close ranged and one long ranged weapon. With a push of the button, the Kid can attack, roll away to evade, block, jump, etc. I didn’t have a problem with the controls at all; all actions were responsive and fluid.
Without giving away more of the story, Bastion is an amazing game. It’s colorful and family-friendly, but it also has a lot of mature themes for the adults to enjoy as well. I loved every moment I played this game and actually wished it was a bit longer, but multiple endings make for great replayability already. If you’ve got some space on your hard drive, download this game and save it for a rainy day. Thanks for reading.
If you liked BASTION you might also want to check out:
1. Deathspank
Stacking
It took me roughly 6 hours to finish Stacking.
Thanks to an unwelcome bout of insomnia, I got out of bed and fired up this quirky digital title. I had this game saved on my hard drive for a rainy day, but a sleepless night worked just as well. It wasn’t long after I turned it on that i fell in love with the game.
Set in the industrial era, Stacking takes place in a world inhabited by Russian nesting dolls, otherwise known as Matryoshka.
The player controls Charlie Blackmore, the smallest doll in the game. Respectfully so, Charlie is also the runt in his family and is never taken seriously. When Charlie’s family is kidnapped by the evil Baron to work in the mines, Charlie sets off on an adventure to prove his worth and save his family.
After the not-so-brief introduction, Charlie runs into a hobo by the name of Levi, who literally shows Charlie the “ins” and “outs” of stacking. Since Charlie is the smallest doll in the game, he has the ability to “bend the will of others” by stacking into other dolls and using their abilities. Each doll is unique and has its own special ability. It’s up to the player to use the right combination of dolls and abilities to solve the game’s many puzzles.
The gameplay itself relies heavily upon puzzle-solving. Throughout the game, Charlie encounters many different situations that can be solved in any number of ways. Usually these scenarios require a bit of stacking mischief and can be solved simply by finding the correct doll and using its specific ability to solve the problem. As the levels progress, the puzzles become a bit more complicated and often require a combination of dolls and the simultaneous use of two different abilities.
One of my favorites is the very first puzzle in the game. One of Charlie’s missions is to clear out an upscale lounge of all its snotty patrons. One way to do this is by stacking into the doll named Meriwether Malodor. This doll’s special ability lets out a huge green & bubbly fart.
YOUTUBE VIDEO “WARNING: SPOILER ALERT”
As you can see, the game does not hold back in terms of humor or grossness. In fact Double Fine has no qualms about clearing out an entire lounge with a healthy does of ass gas, a trait that Stacking shares with other titles by the same developer (Brutal Legend, Psychonauts, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster). Other dolls you’ll find include wrestlers who give wedgies, drummers performing solos, judges bringing down the hammer on the guilty, and bullies who have nothing better to do than to “belly bump” the kids. The player will encounter these and others as they traverse through several different locations (Trainyard, Zeppelin, Train Tank) in the attempt to restore the Blackmore family to its entirety.
I have to applaud Double Fine’s ability to hold and captivate my attention without the use of any spoken dialogue. The entire game is played out like a silent movie, with cut-scenes involving the dolls bouncing around followed by a screen filled with written exchanges. The whole thing feels a bit silly at times, but fits well with the whole pre-technological industrial theme. One could also finish the game in a couple of hours if side quests aren’t your cup of tea. However, most of the puzzles are not that difficult since the player is given an unlimited amount of hints (3 per solution) throughout the game. Ultimately these will tell you which dolls to stack and which abilities to use in order to get to the next puzzle. Prizes are also awarded to the player that finds every unique doll and discovers all the solutions to the games many problems. Levi the hobo happily sets up these prizes in your secret headquarters for your viewing pleasure.
Overall, Stacking was a very endearing game. While short in length, I couldn’t help but laugh at every ridiculous gesture and moment when the NPC dolls interacted with each other. Double Fine did an excellent job incorporating the different varieties of Matryoshka
into an assimilated world reminiscent of America between the 1890s-1910s. This game is perfect for a rainy day(or a night of insomnia) since it only takes a couple of hours to get through. If you’re a perfectionist like me, though, you’ll want to find every doll and every solution to every problem. Look into this one if you’re a puzzle fan, or a diehard matryoshka fan.
Dom's Games 