Developed by indie developer Supergiant Games, Bastion is an action role-playing game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic city known as “Caelondia.” You play as The Kid, one of the only surviving Caelondian’s of the game’s apocalypse—also known as “The Calamity”—and with the help of The Stranger, The Survivor and The Singer, your goal is simple: recover pieces of “The Core” in order to return The Bastion to its former glory. You partner up with the Ura people, whom previously there was conflict with, in order to accomplish this task.

Bastion is a wonderful action game with real finesse to its battle system—one of the key parts of the game. You can choose from over 10 different weapons (and a sub-weapon) that you use to travel the world with as you recover parts of The Core. You have the ability to increase the power of the weapons, giving you a better edge against the gradually harder difficulty the game pins on you. I did find that it’s very easy to fall off the edges of the stages, and although it does add an extra dimension of difficulty, it can get annoying.

Featuring a very unique narrative, The Stranger narrates the entire game for you. The narrative takes place in real time as you play through the adventure, and covers just about everything from item information to weapons to back story. There are also mini-games you can partake in, and when you do, the narrator will give you backstory on a particular character as you make your way through each round of battles.

Probably one of the best parts of this game, I found, is its art style. It’s very well-illustrated and there isn’t a single part of the game that doesn’t look beautiful.

While not a full fledged game, you can be sure to find plenty to do in terms of achievements and story. If you feel the game isn’t hard enough, you can enable “idols” which change the dynamic of combat during levels. These include slowing you down after being attacked, making enemies stronger, or just making everything more fast-paced.

Bastion is a beautiful game with plenty to offer.

4 out of 5 Stars.