By Lewie Procter on August 16th, 2011 at 5:19 pm.
Released today is Supergiant Games’ gorgeous looking action-RPG, Bastion. It’s available to purchase from Steam at a price of £11.49/€13.99/$14.99, and you can take a poke at the launch trailer here. Despite being temporarily wrapped up in a web of Xbox exclusivity, Bastion has always been PC bound. As you can see if you compare PC screenshots to Xbox screenshots, the PC version has access to far higher quality assets for those of you with grown-up sized monitors. There is a demo available and you can read Jim’s hands on impressions here.
Check back tomorrow for a full review.
16/08/2011 at 17:28 Demiath says:
Got it on the Microcube but have barely touched it, and will probably wait for a Steam sale before I actually play the game.
16/08/2011 at 17:29 godgoo says:
Where is this demo I ask!
16/08/2011 at 17:30 Lewie Procter says:
In the future. About 30 minutes away.
16/08/2011 at 17:31 godgoo says:
To the future!
16/08/2011 at 17:44 bear912 says:
I’m travelling there as we speak!
16/08/2011 at 17:51 Khemm says:
Back to the future, m-i-rite?
Will definitely try out the demo. No release on something that isn’t Steam and doesn’t require Steam to run? Can I buy it directly from devs?
16/08/2011 at 18:00 Eclipse says:
everybody, to THE FUTURE!
*sits waiting*
16/08/2011 at 18:00 Oneironaut says:
I preordered already. I probably should have waited for the demo, but with the positive reviews, low price, and the fact that I’ve been wanting a new game for a while, I’ll probably enjoy it anyway.
16/08/2011 at 18:38 Squirrelfanatic says:
Low price? I don’t know, the price seems alright for what you get (~10 hours of original gameplay), but not low.
16/08/2011 at 21:54 UncleLou says:
Really not sure what you mean, “10 hours of original gameplay” for 15 € is my definition of “low price”.
16/08/2011 at 22:57 lowprices says:
I’ve bought games for 40 quid that only had about 6 hours of gameplay, so if you really have to judge the worth of a game purely on the number of hours it will take you, then Bastion isn’t too bad.
Or, y’know, you could judge on the quality of the game? In which case it’s definitely worth the price. Hugely fun action rpg in which your story is contextually told by a man with an outrageously sexy voice? Definitely worth the price.
Well, the “sexy” bit may be subjective, but still…
17/08/2011 at 13:15 Squirrelfanatic says:
Hm, it probably is a subjective judgement. I don’t usually buy many games that are too short lived and those I buy have a lot of replay value which I don’t see in this case. Maybe I am wrong, but 15EUR seems “only” ok for me, not cheap. Or I am spoiled by the incredible deals thrown at me during the past half year. And don’t get me wrong, the game seems qualitatively pretty well done.
16/08/2011 at 17:34 deadly.by.design says:
I will definitely try the demo. (you know … when there is one)
16/08/2011 at 17:35 El_MUERkO says:
Does the game play like Diablo/Torchlight?
I think I’ve had my fill of button mashing.
16/08/2011 at 17:58 DrGonzo says:
Somewhere between Zelda and Diablo I would say, but it does also have an interesting story.
16/08/2011 at 17:43 Mr_LongHair says:
So by “out now” you instead mean “out pretty soon”… I got the internet so I didn’t HAVE to wait for things!
edit: no more waiting… installing!!!
16/08/2011 at 17:45 ran93r says:
Been tapping my fingers on the desk since I remembered it unlocked today, can’t wait.
16/08/2011 at 17:45 D3xter says:
It still says “This game will unlock in approximately 1 hour” :/
WHY? WHYYYYY?
16/08/2011 at 17:53 LieutLaww says:
Because the hr is not up yet :p
16/08/2011 at 18:11 Buemba says:
Did the game disappear from the Steam store for anybody else? Now when I try to follow a link to it I get a message saying the game isn’t available in my region.
16/08/2011 at 18:12 Yosharian says:
Article claims that Bastion is ‘Out Now’. Steam says Bastion is ‘coming soon’. One of these claims is a DIRTY LIE.
*waits*
16/08/2011 at 18:23 Lewie Procter says:
Steam is the dirty liar. It is out now, I was just ahead of the curve.
16/08/2011 at 18:25 Yosharian says:
Fair enough, contacting Steam now to give them a piece of my mind
edit: oh hello, relogging into Steam did the job! Downloading!
Also: looking forward to viewing the high quality assets. I do like those.
16/08/2011 at 18:13 LieutLaww says:
i can see it but it just says avail for pre purchase
Edit: It’s now available to install
16/08/2011 at 18:22 Calabi says:
Downloading now, cant wait, even though I have basically know idea what its about.
16/08/2011 at 18:28 JFS says:
Again, Europe is getting screwed with the price. I hate it. Not as much as with bigger-prized games, where it hurts more, but still.
16/08/2011 at 18:41 Tams80 says:
I was just thinking about that.
The pound sterling price is pretty bad* compared to the dollar, but the euro price being almost the same? Ouch!
*Still cheap for a game
17/08/2011 at 00:13 JFS says:
You’re right, of course, the game might surely be worth 12 Pounds/14 Euros, but why do our transatlantic friends get it for less? I think I’m waiting for a sale. Fuck regional pricing.
16/08/2011 at 18:40 kael13 says:
I’d really like to download the demo. Work button, work!
16/08/2011 at 18:41 Squirrelfanatic says:
Just log off and on again. Worked for me.
16/08/2011 at 18:43 Squirrelfanatic says:
Cool, a demo! This is really one of the cases where I just can’t decide whether I want to shell out directly or wait for a sale. Maybe trying the game will help me decide.
Edit: Fair enough, seems alright. Now back to working through my backlog before I start thinking about buying anything new…
16/08/2011 at 18:44 godgoo says:
well I installed the demo and it won’t launch, validated local files n everything. dang. (win7 64)
16/08/2011 at 18:45 Sheng-ji says:
Ditto…. DAMN, cant afford to buy it till tomorrow, was hoping the demo would see me through
EDIT: Problem solved…
Go into Steam – steamapps – common – bastion demo
(Replace – with backslash)
and execute these files:
dotNetFx35setup.exe
dxwebsetup.exe
xnafx31_redist.msi
Somehow the dependencies get not installed (First time setup).
Credit to Nekomancer from the steam forums
16/08/2011 at 18:47 godgoo says:
I can afford it but see no reason why the full game wouldn’t have the same issue, guess I’ll wait to hear from the rest of the internet-speaking world.
EDIT: Above works- cheers bub!
16/08/2011 at 19:09 Khemm says:
The “hassle-free experience” and “benefits” Steam provides are just overwhelming…
16/08/2011 at 19:17 godgoo says:
Played for 10 minutes then promptly bought the soundtrack edition, partly because the music so so awesome and partly just to give them as many of my monies as possible.
16/08/2011 at 19:19 magnus says:
Any more anti-steam tedium and I’ll face-palm so hard it hurts.
16/08/2011 at 19:27 Vinraith says:
@magnus
So to be clear, we get to complain about a crappy, intrusive distribution platform AND watch you hurt yourself? That sounds win-win to me!
16/08/2011 at 19:47 LionsPhil says:
Steam is insidious, sugar-coated evil.
Will you be YouTubing the face-mangling, magnus?
16/08/2011 at 20:50 psyk says:
Fuck steam and the crazy people who have been brainwashed to think it’s a good idea.
16/08/2011 at 21:26 Jeremy says:
History is doomed to repeat itself, just like comments on the internet.
16/08/2011 at 18:54 Brise Bonbons says:
I just bought Frozen Synapse this weekend. And the SPAZ demo made a mighty good argument for buying that. And now this? Blast! And Rock of Ages in a few weeks? And SS3:BFE?
Where were all these games for the past 2 months?
And Red Orchestra 2 is still begging me to be pre-ordered, too…. FUUUUUU!1
16/08/2011 at 19:10 Chris D says:
This looks promising but From Dust hits tomorrow as well. Decisions, decisions…
16/08/2011 at 19:12 Symitri says:
I feel the need to send my thanks out to the devs for making such a quality port. Resolution changes, windowed mode, volume adjustments, keybinding, its like some indie developers know how to make a good port *cough and innocent glare at Limbo*.
I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played and the narrator’s voice is either equal to or better than that of the Stanley Parable’s!
16/08/2011 at 19:14 Sheng-ji says:
The narrator is just brilliant!
16/08/2011 at 19:37 johnpeat says:
The narrator is amazing (prepares to be copied for spam) and the PC conversion is great.
End of the day tho, it works best with a controller – it’s just that sort of a game.
The PC control options are find and dandy but you can tell it’s designed to be played with a controller and I’d suggest getting one of you’d like the full experience.
It’s prettier than on 360 too – higher resolution and being on a monitor, rather than your TV, you see more of the glorious detail.
16/08/2011 at 20:52 psyk says:
“It’s prettier than on 360 too – higher resolution and being on a monitor, rather than your TV, you see more of the glorious detail.”
Ok this has to end. You can connect the 360 to any screen you want it’s not tied to your TV.
16/08/2011 at 21:32 Jeremy says:
Well, in all fairness, the PC version is in 1080p which is a higher resolution than the 360 version.
16/08/2011 at 22:12 Thants says:
Monitors and TVs are basically the same thing nowadays anyway.
16/08/2011 at 22:20 LionsPhil says:
While it has keyboard and mouse controls, I question the wisdom in having the mouse cursor hovering in the world with a shadow under it—and that shadow being the actual place you’re targeting.
If you position the actual centre dot of the cursor on something, you’ll miss. Boggle.
(You’ll also miss if you use the shield, since this swings you around to autotarget on some tiny gnat on the eyebrow of a grazing deer several screens over etc. etc. so many Yahtzee metaphors rather than, say, whatever’s closest to the mouse cursor, that I might actually care about not hitting me with its huge mallet.)
16/08/2011 at 22:28 Lewie Procter says:
I didn’t make up the bit about the resolution. The Xbox version only supports up to 720p. Obviously you can connect it to any display you want, it ain’t going to make the game have higher quality assets.
16/08/2011 at 19:30 Vinraith says:
Watched the trailer. So… it’s a button-mashing console ARPG about a drunken child in a candy colored post-apocalypse?
16/08/2011 at 19:35 johnpeat says:
Y’know this console/PC childishness has to stop at some point don’t you?
It’s an ARPG (something PCs have far more of than consoles do) with stunning graphics, a fantastic soundtrack and an amazing ‘live’ commentary – is what it is.
It’s been designed with a controller in mind for sure – but you can click your way around if you want to – the controls are well done.
I really can’t be bothered with people who are going to try to pigeonhole things or take an aloof attitude to them tho – no place for it…
16/08/2011 at 19:38 Mr_LongHair says:
what johnpeat said. Though maybe less harshly. It’s awesome so far. If hard since I suck at games now apparently :o/
16/08/2011 at 19:51 LionsPhil says:
Well, Yahtzee liked it. ‘S got a plot, apparently.
16/08/2011 at 19:51 Vinraith says:
@johnpeat
My, aren’t we defensive? “Console” is not an insult in that sentence. My apologies for trying to be funny, I’ll be on my way.
16/08/2011 at 20:01 johnpeat says:
That’s a roundabout way of saying “calm down I’m just trollin” really, isn’t it?
16/08/2011 at 20:03 Vinraith says:
Whatever makes you happy, I suppose.
17/08/2011 at 01:00 Kryopsis says:
Is that an attempt to be funny or ‘soft trolling’? Either way, play the demo and you’ll get an answer to your question.
16/08/2011 at 19:40 Craymen Edge says:
From the screenshots, I’m not so sure I like the crisper cleaner edges in this instance.
I completed the console toy version. The game mechanics aren’t all that, but the atmosphere, story and narration were enough to drive me through the game. I just loved experiencing the world and story they’d put together.
The soundtrack is class too, although I waited until I’d experienced it all in the game before I went ahead and bought it.
16/08/2011 at 19:45 kuran says:
With all the attention that went into the backgrounds, it’s a shame the main character’s sprite looks so dopey.
16/08/2011 at 19:57 Jae Armstrong says:
Can my budget stretch to another game this month?
…eh, sure, why not?
17/08/2011 at 05:26 Jae Armstrong says:
Aaand, done. 8/10, 9 if you have a thing for gravelly voiced narrators. And, let’s be honest- who doesn’t?
Narrative is- not exactly original, and I could see the TWEEST coming from miles away (and the one thing that did take me by surprise turned out to be a bait and switch :( ), but the delivery is good and the milieu is top-tier.
Characters are… well, there isn’t a lot of room for them to develop. No real dialogue as such, and while the game makes a good fist of exploring them through their actions, without that direct, personal interaction they remain distant. I found myself thinking of them more by their titles than their names- the Kid, the Stranger, the Survivor, the Singer.
Art is excellent, though the simply-textured 3D models mesh poorly with the beautiful 2D backdrop, and I think the game would have benefitted from a slightly more… vigorous attempt to disguise the fact that said backdrop is, well, a backdrop with a floor/no floor/wall mask painted on top. It can feel very obviously like a game level than an enviroment from time to time.
Music is, well, I know I liked the soundtrack so much I bought it weeks ago. You should too.
Gameplay. Full marks. Every time you think it’s in danger of falling into a pattern, it changes things up. This one’s a linear smash and grab, this one’s free form, here the objectives been eaten by a slime, this one’s a platformer. It ran out of steam in this towards the end, but it never degenerated to the point of dragging. Beyond that, each of the weapons has a clear, well developed niche and for each enemy there is a specific counter-strategy. You’re never just button mashing- or if you are, it’s a highly controlled button mashing tailored to the specific situation you find yourself in.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to swap out weapons in the middle of a level, so I mostly stuck to the same, small set of dependable, generally applicable options (hammer, bow, spear) rather than changing things up. The ability to do that on the fly would have made the game a lot deeper and more varied, I feel.
The Gods thing, I didn’t feel it worked so well. Specifically, there wasn’t enough reward for it. Stacking four (of ten) Gods atop one another can change enemies from bumbling chumps into lighting-fast, aggressive, tough-as-nails killing machines… and your reward is 30% more exp and cash. Just not worth it, unless you’re a masochist.
17/08/2011 at 05:28 Jae Armstrong says:
Forgot the controls. Bit daft, really. You really want an analogue stick, or mouse driven movement for this sort of thing. Well, they suffice.
EDIT: Played on a keyboard, because we don’t have PC-compatible joypads in the house. Aren’t we sillys?
I mean, I brought a 360 controller up from downstairs, but it gave the tower case the evil eye and refused to talk to it. :’(
16/08/2011 at 20:03 Berzee says:
Woooo!
Looking forward to going home and listening to the gravelly-voiced background man!
16/08/2011 at 20:12 wiper says:
Get Your Basti-on, surely?
This is a genuinely lovely game on 360 – I’m curious to see how well it controls with mouse and keyboard, or whether it’s best to stick with gamepad controls, and seeing it with even prettier visuals is very tempting. I heartily recommend it.
16/08/2011 at 20:45 c4llum says:
Review?
16/08/2011 at 21:09 Nick says:
7/10
16/08/2011 at 20:51 Tei says:
:-O
this game has quality.
17/08/2011 at 05:27 Jae Armstrong says:
What, stealing my avatar are you? >:(
16/08/2011 at 20:59 UncleLou says:
Played it for an hour or two, love it to bits. Achingly beautiful, really fun combat, full of neat little ideas and stuff to make it addictive. Utterly splendid game.
16/08/2011 at 22:24 Antares says:
I wasn’t expecting much from the demo seeing how little I usually care about diablo-likes, but there’s just something in the narration and art style that’s got me hooked.
I’ll probably have a very hard time resisting a buy if it turns out it keeps this level of quality storytelling for the entirety of the game.
16/08/2011 at 22:34 Dominic White says:
It’s really not much like Diablo at all. It’s a straight action game with some light RPG trappings, and a very strong linear story, which the narration tells excellently.
16/08/2011 at 22:47 RaytraceRat says:
Just played 20 mins of demo, so far this game is brilliant. Great narration, nice gameplay, lovely art style… and I run out of nice words… crap. Oh, and music is really good too.
17/08/2011 at 00:19 Phinor says:
I had already judged this game based mostly on screenshots and umm, few seconds of video. Well, I figured a Steam demo is almost always worth my five minutes and OH MY GOD it’s actually a great game. The narrator is superb and the soundtrack is one of the few game soundtracks I’m considering buying.
I had my gaming purchases planned for the next few months but now the plans are completely ruined. Bastion, Trackmania 2 and From Dust are alllll mine.
17/08/2011 at 00:30 LGM says:
It’s a great game, but it’s been referred to as an indie title. If it’s indie, why is the WB logo there at the beginning? Warner Bros does not = indie.
17/08/2011 at 00:49 Azradesh says:
Indie does not equal self published, it equals independent, which they are. Valve are also “indies”
17/08/2011 at 00:55 Howl says:
Several hours in and the narrator is doing my nut in. 90% of what he says is utter nonsense and he.. never.. shuts.. up. The combat and environments are also painfully repetitive. I was expecting to love this game but after playing most of the evening I’ve hit my limit.
17/08/2011 at 00:58 Kryopsis says:
Sounds like you need to take a break.
17/08/2011 at 01:31 Gilly says:
Played the demo…for twenty seconds.
I simply cannot stand that the diagonal walking direction is not aligned with the diagonal pathways. There’s a diagonal path, you walk diagonally, and you always scrape stupidly along the wall.
Why? Why must it be? WHYYYY?
Edit: Oh…twenty seconds further, he finds a “repeater”. Which happens to be full auto. And what does the narrator say? “Gotta hold still to SPIN UP THE CHAMBER”.
Armchair gun nut senses HURTING BAD.
17/08/2011 at 04:08 Dominic White says:
It’s a repeating crossbow, goofus, that fires bone spikes.
Also, USE A GAMEPAD. This game is not designed for keyboard.
17/08/2011 at 05:21 Azradesh says:
It plays fine with a mouse/keyboard. You may want to change the control mode to the mason style so it plays like Diablo. (click to move)
17/08/2011 at 13:42 Gilly says:
I don’t have a gamepad…well, none that’s compatible with post-2000 PCs. I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS AGE!
Also, there is NO excuse for diagonal movement not fitting the diagonal walkways. That’s just an incredibly stupid developer oversight. Moving vertically is fine, but having to constantly correct the player character’s position so he doesn’t waltz off the diagonals like a drunken jogger is plain moronic.
17/08/2011 at 02:23 Wulf says:
I like this.
It’s pretty, silly, colourful, funny, imaginative, clever, and (rather importantly) abstract. It’s not gorey or needlessly bloody, it hasn’t thus far tasked me with harming wolves (which I cannot do), and the narration is very involving and inspiring.
The exceedingly alien world it’s set in is engrossing and engaging, and it compels me to want to explore it more to see and hear more of it, so that I may understand it better. And because I have a peculiar distrust of the narrator despite liking his narration, so I’m curious to see how that will play out.
It may even just about manage to end up somewhere on the bottom of my best games of all time list. Just maybe. It’s not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it is appealing and it carries some of the elements I’ve wanted to see in a game for a while.
So… I like this.
17/08/2011 at 03:46 bwion says:
This is not the sort of game I usually love, but I do love this game.
Probably one that folks should try the demo first, because I think it will succeed or fail based on whether you find the narrator awesome (as I do) or tiresome (as inevitably some people, wrong-thinking though they may be, will).
I’m going to be hearing the narrator in my dreams. “And then the middle-aged fella dozed off on the bus. He’d wake up in time for his stop, though, don’t you fret.”
17/08/2011 at 04:50 Wulf says:
I’m thinking that a non-trivial slice of straight male gamers will end up bi-curious purely because of the narrator’s voice.
This is a good thing.
I support this game and its secret intentions.
17/08/2011 at 05:00 Neon Kitten says:
For a lot of people, myself included, the PC version is running locked at 48fps – regardless of Vsync on or off. High quality assets look lovely, but when a game runs more smoothly on an Xbox 360 than it does on PC…
Hopefully the devs will be able to quickly nail what’s causing it to happen. After all, they had the first patch for the game out less than 3 hours after release!
17/08/2011 at 06:08 geldonyetich says:
Demo played.
Impressions: Very, very, very solid. The atmospherics in particular are marvelously done.
That aside, the depth wasn’t quite as great as I’d hoped, it’s very much a console game port. They probably did everything they could to redeem runny stabby shooty, but I’m pickier than that. I’ll likely pick it up when a discount is available.
17/08/2011 at 08:12 UncleLou says:
Tom Waits and Bastion’s voice actor, separated at birth.
http://static.wix.com/media/9f722cd33cbd10f4f879c82abf9c0b8b.wix_mp