I could jump up and down a few dozen times and tell you to stop asking me inane questions such as “Why?” and get Bastion. Download it for PC or Xbox, just get it. Stop reading this and go get it now.

If you’re still reading this, you are one of the few intelligent people who wants to know the honest answer of “why?” and I’ll break Bastion down into three major categories for why you need and will want to play the entirety of Bastion.

1. The visuals are beautiful and artistic in all the right areas. The backgrounds and color swathes are tight and drawn with care and attention to the detail only a master graphics engineer (or “painter”) would put into such graphics. The world builds itself around you as you progress through each level, making the journey from level to level a sight to behold. Artistic merits aside, Bastion graphics are similar to the older 16 bit generation of RPG-style games and fits well into the genre making one such as myself nostalgic for playing old-school Genesis and Super Nintendo RPG’s again.

2. The instant you start to play Bastion, you’ll notice something odd coming out of your speakers: someone talking about what you’re doing. Bastion has a constant Narrator, who explains what you, The Kid, is or will be doing. Sometimes the Narrator explains the obvious: “The Kid takes his frustration out on some boxes.” After you beat up boxes for no reason, to more helpful hints within the game itself. The narration helps move the story along and keep things fresh and interesting before the game starts to feel stale.

3. Game play is more reminiscent of classic RPG’s with a modern twist built-in to the mechanics. You play with one melee weapon and one ranged at any given time, and once you find the forge, you can upgrade weapons to increase power and build new features and abilities to help with the next task or level of the game. Flasks or potions are also found and used to aid The Kid with special abilities such as more damage or more health to help survive the more trying and difficult levels.

Bastion itself is a great solid game with a firm hold into classic RPG’s using known tried and true formulas for an experience unlike any seen since those early days. The visuals and sounds tie together other elements into a masterpiece puzzle of excellent gaming experience you will have a hard time putting down, let alone forget for some time.

If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to grab the demo from Steam or Xbox Live and test the waters.

Bottom Line: I believe I said it best in the first paragraph: Get it. I don’t care how, just do it now.

Rating System: (0-10 ranking)
Graphics:	Beautiful lush landscapes painted in a lovingly warm hue makes one want to play more. The worlds themselves build around you as you play, which only adds more brilliance to the graphics to the game.	10
Story:	Great story to start with, add in “The Old Man” who does the narration to explain the history and how things began. The story is perfect for this formula of a game.	10
Controls:	Simple movement, attack for melee and ranged and not too difficult for a child to pick up and play.	9
Sound:	The sounds alone tie the game together; however, the real star is the insertion of the Narrator, which makes dull areas funny and the exciting areas more thrilling:	10
Kid Friendly:	Very much kid friendly. Kids know a well-built game when they see one.	9
Replayability:	The ending of the first run through lets you go back on + mode, which gives you your weapons and such while making the monsters a bit more difficult, reminding me of how Diablo 2 put in the different modes after you beat the normal mode making another nod back to the great game developers of the past.	10
Value:	To be honest, you could sell this game for $50, and it would still be worth every cent.	10
Cost:	$14.99 on Xbox Live or $14.99 on Steam for PC.	9
Fun:	As I’ve mentioned before, you owe it to your inner-child to download the demo and try the game for free before shelling out the one hundred fifty thousand pennies for the full game.	9
Total:

- Chris Tallant