Bastion
Review

Bastion (2011) is an action role playing game, where you explore a series of floating, fantasy-themed levels. What starts as a familiar exploration quickly becomes an engaging and interesting game. This change is driven by a mysterious and often hilarious narrator, who offers witty commentary and insights into game play. This provides a unique way to engage with the game's silent hero, as he journeys through his own history.

To complete each level, you must defeat a variety of enemies using an array of weapons, which must be found and enabled before use. As you journey you need to collect cores, shards and fragments that enable you to add structures, buy materials and upgrade weapons. As you progress you can revisit levels and choose tougher challenges for higher rewards.

The result is a beautiful looking game, with a razor-sharp wit and a fascinating backstory. As you journey through the game, the world literally drops into place and you unlock a secret history, finding out just what went wrong here and how you can play a role in building a different future.

Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Bastion 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 17 months ago.