Bastion (PC) - Guest Post

This game is Bastion by SupergiantGames https://supergiantgames.com/ and you can find it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/107100.

(Click the pics for full sized images)

You start out alone, in a tiny Island. Asleeeep. The nice thing about the game, is they have the options to customize the controls. I'm going by the default controls. WASD for movement, Right click for Attack, Left click for 2nd Attack, Q for special, R for Reload (if needed), Tab to view items, Shift to defend, Space to roll evade. It's easy to get used to I feel, but you can customize all of that or use a different preset.

A big part of this game, walking around pretty much creates more of the world for you to walk around in. You can even get a sort of achievement in game if you create enough of the world by exploring, which earns you money. More on that later though.

"Kid just rages for a while". You are the kid. Basically, you have a narrator comment on the events going on in the world and all. So if you fall off, he'll mention it. It's not annoying though. He basically tells the story as the kid doesn't speak.

Like that.

Got a new weapon. This is the 2nd hand weapon. So I have a Hammer (initial weapon) and this projectile weapon. It has infinite ammo, but you have to reload when you run out of ammo on the screen. Each weapon has a different feel to it and way it works. Weapons you will come across are things like a Machete which does low damage but hits really fast, Hammer for high damage but slow speed, Crossbow to fire hard but is slow, Dual Pistols which has ammo and so on.

These fountains over here are really useful. They restore your health to full and restore your potions to full. You can initially hold only 3 potions so that ends up being a big benefit.

Found a Distillery! What does it do? Well, when you level up...

You can place a drink into that spot and you will gain the benefits of it. You can only pick one per level though. There are various effects such as Health + 10, Gaining more slots for health potions, Doing harder critical hits, and a lot of others that I don't remember right now. You just pick which you'd prefer.

Now the armory. Once you get more weapons, you can do stuff like have a Hammer and a Machete (but losing out on Long range), having 2 long range weapons, having a Machete and Dual Pistols, a Hammer and Crossbow, a Flintlock and a Repeater, things like that. You can also set your special skill here. Chose Whirlwind for now. Some skills are weapon specific so you'll want to keep that in mind. I like the prox mine skill myself.

You can take a ship to continue on! There will usually be some type of fights on board, usually with you having to use the ranged weapons to take out the stationary security systems. Speaking of fights, I haven't yet gone over that have I?

Here are some stationary security systems, with dragon type heads. They blow projectiles at you, but are usually pretty easy to take down with a crossbow. I have the fang repeater here so I can only fire so much before I need to reload. I'll go over the HUD elements, though it's pretty simple. You have your health bar (and are always reminded to press F to heal yourself when you get low, and this is just a small popup and doesn't get in the way or be annoying), your health potions, black potions (It's sort of like your MP, use them to use the special skill), the blue shape with 395 over there is your money, and the bottom right is your weapons and special skill, and any ammo or time requirements if any.

Now for a boss battle. I came into an empty room and knew something was up. The big blue globs throw blue fluid at the ground which hurts you and slows you down. They get smaller as you damage them. The one in the hood is a big version of a common enemy, and just takes some time before it attacks, giving you time to evade. Some other types will spin around and deal damage.

Arrived at Bastion at least! This is your safe haven.

With the floating islands core that you found, you can revive Bastion. Each core you find lets you place a new area in Bastion. For example, an Armory, a Distiller, a Lost and Found, places like that.

Now you can use this to fly over to the next area!

As so. The worlds tell you if it's a practice area or if it has a Core. The bow one for example is a small....

...floating Island where you can test your skills with the bow! You get a prize at 3rd place, 2nd place, and 1st place. All to upgrade your bow or get new skills. It's easy to get 3rd place, but 2nd and 1st are tougher. You may want to upgrade your bow a bit first before you try that. You need under 10 shots to get 2nd place and under 5 shots to get 1st place. As arrows can pass through multiple targets and you can walk around, this isn't as impossible as it seems at first.

Got a forge now. With this, you can use the items you find and forge them into your weapons to upgrade them.

Like so. You have a choice between 2 per each level of upgrade. So I can go and pick the dice upgrade (I believe that's Critical hit rate up) if I wanted instead.

My own little pet!

Gonna try this route and see if there's a core here.

When you grab a core, usually that makes the Island unstable. The red floor tiles means that it's about to collapse. Run run run!

Poor kid. A lot of people in the world have been turned to stone due to the catastrophe that happened earlier.

Back to Bastion, and now at this place that I unlocked with that core. When you meet the requirements there, you can get a reward! There are a few weapon based and a few that have to deal with exploration or something else.

We found and rescued someone! This guy in the left is the one we rescued. The one in the middle is the one who was on Bastion, and is the Narrator. You're the one on the right.

It's a bull... I know I'll end up fighting that thing sometime!

It unlocks a shrine. Which makes the game harder if you want to worship any of the gods there. You get extra EXP from enemies if you choose to go along with them, and you can choose to worship or stop worshipping them or switch over to another idol as much as you'd like.

You can find items in your travels. Some of them bring up new dialogue with the characters you have on the Island, some are upgrades.

Enemies with hearts around them actually like you and are on your side. This helps even the odds especially when you're up against a lot of enemies.

You'll be seeing a lot of this.

With an enjoyable action RPG systems, lots of things to see in a beautiful world, and an interesting story and soundtrack, it's a really great game and well worth buying on Steam!