Bastion (2011) is cool. i like it! it's got tight controls, it looks gorgeous, and the SOUNDTRACK goes sooo hard. seriously. there are some bangers. we need more sounds of hammers hitting anvils in songs, because that is the soundbite of my dreaaams.

by far the best part of the game is the soundscape: Darren Korb's sweet sweet bangers and Logan Cunningham's sweet sweet narration. the world of this game feels so full of life and yet so utterly ruined thanks to these two facets. the narration feels so natural and is so adaptive that it is almost as though it is completely tailored to your specific experience playing the game. if you fall off a ledge, the narrator will make a little joke about your journey ending there. there's unique voice lines for every combination of weapons you leave the arsenal with. in one area, the narrator even reminded me diegetically that i could use my specific special ability if the swarms of enemies were too much. it felt insanely organic, and as though it had to be planned that i would have that specific equipment in my loadout, but no! i could've had literally anything in that slot. the narration is so frequent that you may think it'd blend into the background, but i found it to be engaging the whole playthrough and it made me feel like the lore of this world was being transmitted into my brain via osmosis.

there's a pretty great sense of progression as you both build the bastion and build up your arsenal. there's always something to check up on, upgrade, or swap out every time you finish a level, which feels nice. there's a good number of weapons, and i'm partial to a good number of them. they're not all great, but i imagine there's some i don't care for that others swear by, so your mileage may vary. however, the final portion of the game where it forces you to use a different weapon was dreadfully boring and anticlimactic. it spits on all of that building up that i just gushed over and instead gives you the most clunky, unfun piece of equipment in the entire game.

the story and gameplay aren't all that crazy, but the narration and vibes are fantastic, and i would recommend this game based on those two factors alone.

I think I would have enjoyed this game much more if I played it when it came out. Nothing Bastion does is wrong, in fact I think it is a very successful game in nearly every area. The gameplay is tight and enjoyable, the art and sound are wonderful, and the story is cryptically interesting. The main issue is just that I can think of another game that does just about any of Bastion's aspects better, including later games by Supergiant, and it makes me ultimately wish I was playing them instead. No doubt though, Bastion is hugely impressive as the first title for what would become a top-rate studio.