Summer of Arcade kicks off with Super Giant Games' Bastion. An action-RPG that oozes of style, but that also brings a good deal of solid gameplay to the table.
"He downloaded the game from Xbox Live Arcade and he sets about rebuilding Bastion."
The first thing that will strike you about Bastion is the peculiar storytelling that will accompany you throughout the adventure. The narrator comments on everything you do, big and small. It's a novel approach, but one that sometimes makes it difficult to focus on the minute details of the story. The story is layered so you don't really need to take it all in to appreciate it, but at times its annoying to miss out on details as you focus on combating enemies.
"The kid woke up on a rock."
Bastion draws its inspiration from the tradition of Japanese RPG's, at least storywise. You're a young boy, upon whose shoulders destiny has bestowed rebuilding the world after the cataclysmic Calamity. Bastion is a hub of sort, that you upgrade with building that let you manage various things such as tonics that boost your stats or abilities, weapons, and more. From Bastion you go out on various missions to procure materials to rebuild the world. Along the way you stumble on survivors and evidence that unravel the truth behind the Calamity.
"The game turned out to be an action-RPG with a twist."
Bastion at its core is an action-RPG. You will be hacking, slashing and shooting at enemy hordes that spawn as you walk across walkways that are rebuilt as you tread forward. But unlike most games in the genre Bastion requires the player to be more proactive, the various weapons and load outs you equip require specific tactics. There is a lot of replayability here and challenges in the shape of proving grounds. Another layer of replayability is also added by various idols you can activate in your shrine that provides you with more of a challenge. Instead of putting stats and numbers at the forefront, Bastion really puts the gameplay and the mechanics first. And while you do gain experience points and level, that is never your main motivation in the game.
"The kid turned his head and gazed upon a beautiful world."
Even if the world of Bastion has been through an apocalypse it's still extremely pretty. Once again it seems as though developer has taken their inspiration from Japan. And while the design on first glance won't be up for any awards when it comes to originality, it still has enough flavour of its own to avoid feeling like a rerun of something we played back in the day. The word homage comes to mind.
"Everything wasn't perfect and the kid pointed this out."
While Bastion certainly had us smiling all the way through, there are things that could have been better. You can fall off ledges in Bastion, but it is not always clear exactly where you can fall off. There are also spots where enemies escape off-screen, and the semi-automated aiming system isn't exactly they way we would have liked it. Perhaps, these things wouldn't have bothered us at all had Bastion been a more traditional action-RPG, but as the focus is firmly on the mechanics it stands out more. Most of the music and sound effects are great, but there are exemption and one tune in particular was below par. But other than that Bastion is a great way to kick of Summer of Arcade. It's perfectly sized for a digital title and brings execution on the same level as some of the greatest offerings on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade.
"Thinking back on his accomplishments the kid knew Summer of Arcade was off to a good start."