Gameplay for the most part follows a specific pattern; the player chooses a destination to travel to from the Bastion, goes through the level, and then come back to the Bastion. The Bastion serves as a base for the player, with six different building locations to upgrade as the player collects more cores. Each building serves a different purpose, and are as follows:
Arsenal: Where the player can choose which two weapons to take into battle, along with a special ability.
Forge: The place to customize and upgrade your weaponry.
Distillery: Holds different Spirits for the player to choose from, which grant passive bonuses.
Lost-and-Found: Missed an item while traveling? Buy it at the Lost-and-Found, or purchase more crafting materials.
Shrine: Invoke the power of the gods to provide additional experience at the cost of a harder time surviving.
Memorial: Rucks has posted different challenges for The Kid to complete, with shards (in game currency) as the reward.
With eleven weapons to choose from, five customizable parts for each, and over twenty special abilities, the player has a lot of options. Each weapon serves a different purpose, making each one feel unique. The Cael Hammer, for example, acts as the melee heavy hitter, while the Brusher's Pike serves as a long range melee option and the Army Carbine as a sniper rifle. At all times the players also carries a shield, which can be used to block attacks and even reflect incoming projectiles, and has the ability to roll out of the way of danger.
During the actual levels the player can destroy the scenery (as well as enemies) to gather shards, health potions, and black tonics (which are for the special abilities). Killing enemies slowly increases The Kid's level, which grants him more health as well as an additional spirit slot at the Distillery. Enemy types are diverse enough to warrant different strategies for each one, and bosses are challenging but not too hard.
In addition to the story levels and the backstory gauntlets mentioned previously, each weapon has its own challenge up based upon its specialty. Competing in these challenges nets the players additional crafting materials, and first prize earns the player a special ability specific to the weapon. These maps are good learning tools for figuring out the ups and downs of each weapon, and can make up for the
After completing the game, you are given the option of starting a New Game Plus, which allows you to carry over you weapon upgrades, experience, and shards. Considering how the game ends, you'll probably want to do this.
Gameplay Rating: 95/100 - Personally tailored weapons, invoked gods, and chosen spirits lets the player make the experience whatever he wants chooses it to be.
Combat Rating: 95/100 - Plenty of enemy variety and the action is fast paced.
Aesthetics
The world forms from underneath The Kid.
This is more personal taste than anything, but the art style of this game is amazing. Wonderfully vibrant and original, the game really sticks out from the crowd. The music is also excellent, going from catchy and upbeat to haunting when needed. It's described as "acoustic frontier trip hop" by the composer, so it's certainly got an interesting sound.
Should You Buy Bastion?
The Kid
An emotional story with exceptional gameplay,
Bastion is the definition of a great Xbox Arcade/smaller game. I would wholeheartedly encourage anyone who hasn't tried this game to do so. For deciding which system is best, I honestly don't have a preference; I only had to get used to the aiming on the PC. I found that I used the Dueling Pistols more on the Xbox just because I assigned them to the right trigger, and the Scrap Musket more on the PC, but I believe that as just a feeling thing. Take a look at the DLC section for another point to consider when deciding between the Xbox 360 and the PC.
Overall Rating for Bastion: 98/100
Achievements
The Xbox Arcade version of the game has 12 achievements, while the PC version has 24. Shared achievements between the two versions revolve around story based achievements, including completing the game normally and in New Game Plus. Oddball achievements including completing 50% and 100% of the vigils at the Memorial, upgrading each weapon at least once, collecting all four pets in the game, and surviving each on the 20 wave gauntlets. Steam specific achievements include beating the final part of the first level without falling off, fully upgrading every weapon, earning 1,000,000 points in Score Attack Mode (see DLC), and completing each of the four gauntlets (see DLC) with 5 or more and 10 gods. Other than the invoke gods gauntlet achievements, none of the achievements are difficult to do, and at worst take a little while to get decent enough at each of the weapons to earn their specific vigils. Easily perfected on the Xbox 360.
Achievement Difficulty: 2/10 for Xbox 360, 5/10 for PC - Story achievements come naturally, while only the gauntlet and vigil achievements take time. Steam specific invoke god achievements will be challenging, but with patience are doable.
DLC
Bastion doesn't have DLC per se, but it does have a patch that adds new content to the game. The Stranger's Dream adds a 20 wave gauntlet for Rucks, though it doesn't add too much to his backstory. The patch also includes two new game modes; No-Sweat mode, which gives the player infinite lives to complete the game, and Score Attack, where the player earns points from combat efficiency and shrines invoked, and allows all areas to be repeated. The reason this is entitled DLC is because this patch is a $1 download for Xbox users, due to some Microsoft policy. While not a lot of money, it does add to the cost of the Xbox version. I honestly don't feel the need here to rate a patch, so no rating for you.
Bastion
Originally Posted by James Spader/Alan Shore "Boston Legal"
