Bastion (Xbox 360)

Bastion released in 2011, it's a role playing action game. We play as 'The Kid' and are guided through the story by the narrator. The narrator's voice is one to rival Morgan Freeman's.

Caelondia is a city that was fractured by a catastrophe. The kid meets the narrator, a man called Rucks. He instructs the kid to collect cores to rebuild the city. Each core you bring back powers the city and allows you to build new areas of the city, areas like upgrade stations, item pick ups you missed and a few more.

You have the option of which way to proceed with the story, it's not strict in the order you play. There's also optional proving grounds missions, which let you practice with each weapon. There's a huge amount of weapons, you're only equipped with two at a time, one melee and one ranged weapon. There are also health pick ups and potions that let you use your chosen power ups. My favourite weapon was the machete, you could swing it so fast no one had a chance to attack you. My favourite ability was spawning the squibs, a little floating creature, they drew enemies away from you and they attacked for you too.

The world is bright and colourful. Aesthetically beautiful, what makes it even more beautiful; the world falls down from the sky and builds as you walked forward. The world will stay empty besides the platform you're standing on. The world will only build if you move and it looks fantastic. It. Blends even better with the narrator talking.

A side objective to help the game stay more entertaining is the memorial. It gives tasks of all different kinds to implement as you play the game. You can also do these dream sequences where you fight waves of enemies and help practice your fighting skills. Annoying you can respawn off the map leaving you to be killed instantly, especially on levels where you map falls apart.

The story is really interesting, the gameplay is pretty good I just found it hard to play a lot. I played a couple missions a day, I didn't find it addictive enough to play through in one day, although you can. The world building and the narrator are enough for you to try this.

7/10