I waited until I had completed Bastion before giving you my thoughts. Not because I was undecided on it but rather I absolutely loved the game. I don’t want to spoil it though. I can’t. It is just a delight to play, to uncover the world yourself and engulf yourself in the story.

I can tell you though it is polished almost perfectly. The graphics and art style are stunning. The story is told by a single narrator who’s calm deep voice guides you across the broken world. His narration changes depending on what choices you make, even what weapons you choose or if you want to hang back exploring other areas. It makes the game feel personalised to you and your actions.

I have heard a lot of complaints that while the games art style is unique and original the combat is just an unoriginal hack and slash. I don’t see why the simple mechanics are a problem, there are a good variety of weapons to choose from each unique in their combat abilities. There are many different types of enemies to face and many of them require different tactics to kill. Also there is the shield you carry about which you can use to counter attacks adding another element to the combat. The combat is simple – Yes. But that does not mean it is bad. It is enjoyable, you don’t get bogged down in technicalities of stats etc. You can still upgrade your weapons and can get passive bonuses from certain tonics as you level up. There is also a system where you choose your own selection of gods which modify the difficulty of the enemies in varying ways while also increasing your money and experience gain.

The sound is actually a massive plus. I’m not a sound expert and it isn’t something I look out for in games but the soundtrack and many of the songs were of such high quality I couldn’t help but notice them.

I finished the game in around 8 hours (according to steam, but do we ever believe that?) so I think it is well worth the small price tag of £11. There is also some game changing choices near the end of the game that drives to play through it again in the “New game plus” mode which allows you to keep your weapons and experience and allows unlocks of new tonics and gods.

In typical MMGaming fashion I should point out as many tiny flaws in the game as possible but the only thing I can come up with is  the control system with the WASD keys doesn’t quite fit the isometric nature of the world and so it can occasionally be a struggle to traverse in a diagonal direction.

I actually highly recommend this game to anyone and I’ve tried to make this review not spoil the game in any way. I give Bastion a beautiful:

Rating: A