Bastion

The art team behind Bastion’s artistically drawn art style needs to be commended for its great work. In my opinion, this game is one of the best-looking titles available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade service. Its visuals are unique, creative, rich and diverse. Enemy designs also follow that same suit, with some very interesting creations presented. That’s the case for the most part, although there happen to be a couple which could’ve used a bit of added innovation. Though that admittedly happens to be far from a major complaint.

Going into descriptors, one could refer to the game’s hand-drawn art style’s effects as being a mixture of cell-shading and anime inspiration. However, the Japanese influence isn’t overly prevalent, meaning that the experience features an art style that is more modern North American than anything else. Its cell-shaded features take prominence.

Thankfully, Bastion plays as well as it looks. It also runs with similar quality, with incredibly rare frame rate drops acting as the only noticed performance issue. Those moments of slowdown are so infrequent, that they’re almost not even worth mentioning. When that issue occurs, it’s very minor and doesn’t last for long.

Not only is Bastion one of the best-looking downloadable games around; it’s also one of the best sounding titles in that category. The folks behind its sound made effective use of an audio versus silence balance. In doing so, they gave the experience character, charm and mystery – all of which it exudes in spades, with the help of quality sound effects.

The entire game is narrated by Rucks; an old man who was mentioned previously in this review. One of the only survivors of the Calamity, he’s a knowledgeable man with a hidden past. His narration is incredible, to say the least. Almost every action that The Kid completes is detailed audibly, using gruff lines that feature a ton of charm, and minor hints of humor. A great example is, “The Kid just rages for a while.” However, his narration also includes tons of back-story talk, which is both interesting and well written.

Last, but certainly not least, is the original score that pops-up occasionally throughout this colourful title. There are some quality orchestral tunes, although the most memorable songs happen to be two originally created songs by vocal performers. You’ll hear each one more than once. However, neither one becomes annoying or repetitive, which says a lot about how great those two tunes are. In fact, they could easily be two of the best original songs found in any game released this generation.

If you haven’t already purchased Bastion, then you’re certainly missing out. This is a high-quality game, which demands that every lover of quality video games gives it a chance. Although it has a couple of minor issues, this relatively lengthy and high quality downloadable game is a home run in digital form. Don’t pass it up, or else you’ll miss out on one of the best experiences of the year and, perhaps one of the best of this generation.