Bastion - Demo Impressions

This is the type of game that makes you glad you're in this hobby. Bastion is an action RPG centered around a white-haired boy and his quest to save the world. Bastion was developed by Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. Bastion originally got my attention when I started seeing high review marks popping up for it. As a gamer my interest was piqued and I wanted to try the demo for myself to see what was so good about it.

The main menu for Bastion shows the normal stuff you see from typical arcade titles. You have Story, Help, Options, Leaderboards, etc. I picked Story and got started. The beginning of the demo shows you, the white-haired protagonist boy listening to a stranger's disembodied voice. The voice basically serves as a tutorial and helps you. Bastion's story has something to do with the protagonist finding and collecting magical crystals to reactivate Bastion. Bastion is a secret mythical piece of land that holds the power to save humanity on the white-haired boy's planet.

Bastion is an action RPG that has more style than most full game RPGS. From the anime painting art style, music and reactive voice narration it became apparent to me why this game been getting such high review scores. The demo does a good job with introducing you to many gameplay mechanics in Bastion. This is a top down action RPG where you must take out groups of enemies with your Cael Hammer, Fang Repeater and Breaker's Bow. All of the weapons are useful and upgradable at Arsenal shops. The shield is very useful as well.

Xbox 360 gamepad controls are as follows: LS-move, RS-defend, A-evade, B-attack, Y-heal, X-attack, RB/LB-cycle targets, RT-secret skil and select opens Pack (items/info,etc). The controls are good in Bastion. Before I knew it. I was evading attacks, blocking, smashing enemies with my hammer evading again and then shooting enemies with my bow and arrows. So yea, the controls are good and the gameplay is even better. As you progress through the demo you find and equip Whirl Wind special ability which is a spinning hammer attack. You just press Right Trigger when you have enough special potion to activate it.

Bastion isn't a difficult game to master. At times I did drink health potions to keep from dying. You get items and collectibles from killing enemies and smashing the environment around you. Much of the environment is destructible and important in locating collectibles. The Distillery is a place that looks like a bar but is your character's upgrade station. Buying items such as Squirt Cider, Dredrum and Felching Fizz can yield your protagonist +10 Health, +10% critical hit chance and absorb stray fragments ability.

The demo showed me ten levels of progression for your protagonist when leveling him up. After defeating a mini boss and obtaining a special crystal you find Bastion and a stranger there waiting for you. The stranger is the reactive narration of Bastion and he is kinda cool. Anyways, you can talk to the stranger in Bastion about special objects you come across and he will enlighten you on what they are most times. You're pretty much at the end of the demo when you reactivate Bastion and build an item shop of your choice. Yes, you can build item shops and whatnot in Bastion as you find crystals to reactivate all of Bastion's functions. After you activate a part of Bastion the demo ends.

Bastion is fun, its cool and the story seems interesting. The anime graphics and reactive narrative coupled with good music created a nice presentation. Bastion is quality. Check out my other articles on Catherine demo impressions. Thanks for reading and visiting. More articles: Killzone 3 Beta Review