The narration’s the centerpiece of the Bastion experience. With it, you get the Stranger’s constant commentary as companionship, so you never feel as alone as you really are during your adventure. The oral history he provides grounds your fights in a deeper history and the narration also works as a vector for character development. But all his talking never gets in the way. It actually generates a soulfulness that pays off hugely in the end. The game does the players the favor of giving the Stranger narrator a name as things proceed. Later, you come across the presence of a survivor from a rival culture that hints at the tensions of the old world. Will that pre-apocalyptic drama survive into the new world? It’s one of the questions you play to see answered.
(MORE: Shank Co-Creator Talks About Sharpening New Action Game)
But Bastion actually asks a lot of questions. You’re tasked with rebuilding the world, but in whose image? How do you leave the old hates–ones borne in the fires of manifest destiny–behind in the wake of disaster? Can you? What would you do if you could avert tragedy? Or is it better to just move on? Some of what you do in the game provides some of those answers, culminating in a surprisingly emotional ending.
Assured in tone, beautiful to look at, challenging to play. And more still: wonderful to listen to, in its voice, sounds and design. Its disparate parts combine to make Bastion feel like a game that was made in memoriam, as a way to recall someone. Somewhere in all the hacking, slashing and shooting, Supergiant’s captivating downloadable adventure becomes a meditation on loss, grieving and moving on.
Bastion builds a powerful internal mythology, which isn’t that unique. What is singular is that the game reveals something meaningful with it. You find out that you’re either the kind of person that lingers over loss and steeps himself in what-could’ve-beens or one that cuts off tragedy like a tumor and gets on with life. Either way, Bastion creates a new understanding of what a game can show a player and that’s something that you can take with you to your own safe haven.
You’re getting a lot of game for $15 (or in Redmond-speak, 1200 Microsoft points). The story mode clocks in at about 20 hours, with plenty of arena missions on the side for replayability. After you finish Story Mode, you can go at it again in New Game+, which lets you bring all your beefed-up stats and weapons along.
Techland Score: 9.2 out of 10
Evan Narcisse is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @EvNarc or on Facebook at Facebook/Evan.Narcisse. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.