I feel I got really lucky this month. I got to experience Abzû on Xbox One and it’s just a fantastic adventure. Then, a few days later, the cult classic Bastion—and yes, it definitely deserves that status—released on the console. Not only that, it was free for Xbox 360 owners who purchased the game on their old hardware. What can I say about Bastion that hasn’t already been said? From the gameplay to the plot, everything is absolutely stellar. I own Bastion on every platform it’s ever released on and I still can’t get over the magnificence of the experience. If you haven’t played this game before, you owe it to yourself because Bastion is a testament to exemplary game development.
For those of you who don’t know, Bastion is a third-person shooter where you venture out to different regions to reclaim cores to rebuild the world. The game features 1080p 60 FPS gameplay on Xbox One and has some of the best shooting mechanics ever implemented in an almost top-down experience. The visuals are hand drawn and the colors pop. It’s definitely a stunning title and a complex work of art.
The best part about Bastion has to be the story and narration. The world suffers a terrible event known as The Calamity which fractures the surface. You’re known as The Kid and it’s up to you to make it right. The narration varies depending on your actions and this is where games like Stories: The Path of Destinies get their inspiration from. For example, let’s say you’re going to rage and destroy objects for awhile. Well, the narrator will say, “Kid rages for a while.” Imagine if you survive a fight without getting hit. The narrator will say, “Kid didn’t let anyone touch him”. It makes every battle and every playthrough personal and engaging.
The music is haunting and beautiful. Some of the soundtracks, particularly the ones associated the singer Zia, are some the best compositions I’ve ever heard. The singing and tunes are lovely. Bastion has to have one of the best soundtracks ever created for a video game.
Aside from the music, the voice acting is stellar and characters interact with you in a natural way. While The Kid doesn’t speak during the adventure, the characters’ dialogues enhance this futuristic Wild West world. The setting is one of the most unique as well.
Choice plays an important role in the latter part of the game where you can choose to save individuals or focus on weaponry. The game even lets you decide how to end it. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t played Bastion but they’re definitely meaningful and varied. There isn’t an obvious choice because each one has its own benefits. It depends on just how attached to the characters you become. I’ll leave the hints at that.
Out of all the versions I’ve played, I have to say that Bastion works the best with the Xbox One controller. The Xbox 360 controller was good but it was a little imprecise and “floaty” for lack of a better word. The mobile ports are passable and can be tricky. Playing with a mouse and keyboard is more challenging than it should be given how you usually have to shoot in circles. For this reason I would definitely recommend Bastion on Xbox One even if you’ve already played it on Xbox 360. The shooting and movement feel tighter.
Summary
Bastion is an extraordinary game and as you might have gathered from this review, I can’t recommend it enough. Aside from the gameplay and story, it offers a lot of replayability in the form of weapon challenges which require tremendous skill to complete. There are lots of upgrades to purchase and objects which tell the story of the world to discover. You’ll be captivated by the setting and will want to return to it over and over again throughout the years.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.