Thyroid

Bastion

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so... does the game get better than the demo, or is the demo indicative of the whole? All the reviews are so glowing but for some reason the trailers and demo haven't really sent me to gaming heaven.

I've been playing it and i really like it. I wouldn't say it's completely amazing, but it is uniformly solid and deserving of positive press. I think the biggest thing going against it are misconceptions brought about from constant comparisons to a number of games built around loot-focused dungeon dives.

At no point in this are you going to be grinding through dungeons for random drops and levels so you can just stomp through the game. It doesn't even let you return to cleared areas, barring the new game plus mode. This is a controlled experience that dolls out unique upgradeable weapons at a measured pace, and the options available for character growth are relatively restrained. (Don't misunderstand though, by the time you have the titular Bastion fully built about half way through the game, there are a lot of ways you can customize your character, just none of those involve random drops.)

So it's more of an action game, it's an action RPG of the sort that is more about dexterity with a controller than building your character. The combat has more in common with the old 2D Zeldas than it does with Diablo. So i mean, again about that trial for Bastion, based on that trial i could have thought this game could go in literally either direction, but it ends up being more of a Zelda-like action game. (Specifically in reference to the style of the combat, there are no puzzles and no overworld.)

In general though, i've found a lot of entertainment in this, i would recommend it. There's no glaring flaws that i see, it's filled with really incredibly pretty 2d art, and the action controls well. I mean... A negative... I guess the game only saving when you enter an area is annoying. If you do a bunch of stuff in the Bastion before you quit the game, when you load it back up that will all be reversed. Also, I'm not sure the narrator is as dynamic as they would like you to believe, but the voice acting is really fantastic and his dialogue is well written. It sets a very cool tone for what otherwise seems to be a fairly simple story in a fantasy/steampunk hodgepodge of a world.

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At no point in this are you going to be grinding through dungeons for random drops and levels so you can just stomp through the game.

Not for random drops or xp (although I am getting some incidental xp from doing it), but I'm finding myself grinding

the dream sequence

for some money to afford various upgrades. But you never have to; I just do it because I want to.

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I also really like what it does with what are basically Halo skulls.

Bastion has all these modifiers that you can use to make the game harder that will in turn reward you with more experience and currency. So for example, i've been playing the game with modifiers that make the enemies have more health, do more damage, drop grenades when they die, and cause damage on touch in addition to damage from their attacks. I think i'm getting like 30% bonuses to exp/gold.

It's just a really nice way to let the player control the difficulty of the game, since it rewards difficulty with something tangible inside of the game. You kind of end up in a situation where your expedited character growth and the promise of further rewards pushes you towards throwing the switch on more and more of these modifiers. There's just a big push and pull between greater rewards and greater difficulty, with you finding your own sweet spot as you play.

Of course, with the reward being such a generalized one, it makes it something that you can ignore if you want to. There's no serious pressure to use it, you'll just have to pick your upgrades more carefully. (Or grind the

dream sequences

, or just have more to do on a new game plus run.)

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I tried the demo out yesterday but it didn't capture my interest enough to get the full thing.

The art style's beautiful and the narrator wasn't as bad as I thought he might be from the trailers but I think it was the combat that didn't do it for me. I'd have to go back to it to figure out why exactly that is though.

Maybe I'll come back to this one later.

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I found the combat clunky and weird in the beginning, but once I started unlocking more weapons, it clicked.

There's around 11-12 of them, and each feels and controls completely different. Once I found the ones I liked best, the combat became way more smooth and intuitive.

The world is also doing a great job of drawing me in and making me curious about what it was like before it went to pieces. The writing is just vague enough, and together with the art, music and atmosphere, I'm enjoying exploring this world a lot.

Disclaimer: I am not associated with or have relations to Games Kasavin, SuperGiant Games or either of the Warner Brothers.

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Nuts to all of this. I was very down on Bastion and kind of snooty about all the media praise, but it's calling out to me now. The depth to action/weapons seems really exciting.

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Despite your endorsement, that clip was considerably more awesome than I was expecting!

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What I've played so far is pretty cool. It makes me miss the thumbcast though, because I know Remo would have a field day imitating the cornball narrator.

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What I've played so far is pretty cool. It makes me miss the thumbcast though, because I know Remo would have a field day imitating the cornball narrator.

You'll note that the first weapon you get is a hammer and that you can smash random bits of scenery for no particular reason. I think the Kid might be related to a certain mining colonist.

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You'll note that the first weapon you get is a hammer and that you can smash random bits of scenery for no particular reason. I think the Kid might be related to a certain mining colonist.

Fantasy asshole, rolling through a hedge.

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Whew. Just finished it.

You know how most video game endings are either a) an insane twist that comes out of nowhere and takes you out of the story, or B) instead of making an actual ending, they simply amp up the action more and more until it doesn't even make an impact anymore? Bastion is neither, they nail it.

I don't want to say anything about the ending itself, but yeah, finish it.

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These Xbox-only games (From Dust, Trenched, Bastion) make me want to get my RRODed Xbox repaired, but maybe I'll just wait for the PC versions.

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This is out on PC today and I've started playing it. Unfortunately, it would seem that until it gets patched it'll be a bit difficult to figure out what specific weapons and items do as all the descriptions say "Item x has no description" followed by a paragraph in Latin that I haven't bothered to translate. Also, all the pop-up tooltips say HINT_*situation I'm in*. And all the location names are MAP01_intro or something similar. What I'm saying is, their shit seems to be tagged incorrectly. Wait for a patch unless you want to figure shit out entirely on your own. Oh, one last thing is that all the button prompts, I'm assuming due to this error and not laziness, are for a 360 controller. Sigh.

As for the game itself, It's pretty damned good from the hour or so that I've put in. I would maybe recommend a gamepad rather than a mouse/keyboard combo though. Not because the controls don't work, but trying to run straight along a diagonal in an isometric world isn't as easy as it should be when you're using wasd instead of a stick. Not unplayable by any means, just a bit awkward. On the other hand, I think I'd prefer aiming with a mouse to the right stick or whatever it would be mapped to, so take that as you will.

Anyway, it's buggy in a way that screws up all the text but plays just fine, so take that into consideration if you were thinking of a day one perch. Give it a few days and I'm sure they'll have fixed this up and the game will be fantastic.

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I played it yesterday and had no problems. But there was an update today, I think.

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I went back to it after posting that and it was fine for some reason. I don't get what the fuck up was there, but it seems to have resolved itself. Now I can say without reservation: play this game!

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Just finished it. I was only at level 5 at the end, so I guess I missed some things (there seem to be 10 levels). I didn't spend much time in the dream sequences, but got first prize at most of the proving grounds.

Pretty sweet game. The gameplay is nothing special, but it's not bad either and it's fun getting all the weapons and skills. I think the narrator was almost perfect. I don't think I ever heard a repeated line. For example, he would just be silent if I went back to a proving ground and he had nothing new to say.

The music is great. The visuals are good, but occasionally you can't easily distinguish between walkable and fall-downable areas. But it's not a big problem. Also, the WASD keys don't move you exactly along the isometric lines, which also makes it easier to fall down, but there's supposedly a command line option for that (which I didn't try).

I liked building the bastion, getting the achievements (or were they called something else, the ones in the memorial building), finding new stuff. The game almost brought out the completionist in me, but since I don't have that much free time right now, I didn't bother getting quite everything -- missing one achievement, didn't try playing with the idols enabled.

I chose the second ending, I think --

took Zulf with me and then chose not to reset the Bastion

. It was a good ending, but maybe the other one is better?

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I'm having a real hard time with this game. It's nice-looking and nice-sounding and it's obviously a good game, but there's just too much chaotic combat going on, which exhausts me. Then there's the thing where I get hung up on some extremely difficult part and ragequit. For example, I smoked a pipe, and got to play this crazy arena thing where you fought some enemies and then heard a line from some story I wasn't able to follow because I was stressing out trying to grab all the potions before the next wave, and then after a hundred waves it gets too hard and I lose everything. I don't know if that pipe is a story thing or a side quest or what, but I hate it.

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It's a side-quest. There are three of them in total, with 20 waves each. The first tells the back story for the kid, the second for Zia, and the third for Zulf. All of these are optional if you don't want to do them though. I just finished it about 45 minutes ago myself. Got the same ending as Erkki, and am now 2 levels in to the new game plus which I intend to finish with the opposite ending. I really liked this game a lot. I think the latest patch actually fixed the isometric walking thing. It seems better than it did when I started playing the game, anyway. Man, that game was rad as hell. 'Blix, keep at it. When you find the right weapons to suit your play style (mine was machete for quick slashes up close and army rifle for long distance accuracy and damage) things fall into place very naturally. Totally worth the $15. And, unlike From Dust (reputedly), a game that was actually worth waiting for the PC version of.

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...And almost exactly a day later, I finished New Game Plus, have every achievement (including the secret one for the Portal turret!) and got a first place rank in every weapon training ground. I also hit the level cap and maxed out every possible item, and have seen both endings. Neither one is good or bad. I have a personal preference for

evacuating and not trying to do-over the whole world

but both just happen, no judgements. Either way, the game tells you you've done the right thing and helped greatly, it's a matter of which way your personal philosophies lead you. I kinda like that. At the same time, I have a friend on my Steam list who says that it's her "favourite computer RPG since Planescape" and I don't think it's worthy of that much praise. It was really good, yeah, but for a few afternoons, not to be reflected upon and held up as an all time classic. For the price though, you're getting an excellent game, and one that I put at least 13 hours into (Steam says 16, but many of those hours were during downtime at work and so involved long periods of having the game paused and not actually playing it.), so definitely pick it up if you'e interested.

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I feel like I failed this game, I appreciate a lot of what it did, but I just didn't enjoy the combat.

It is repetitive (although I think that I could have mixed up but I didn't) and it was far from rewarding kill stuff.

I got through to the end but really, I just dragged myself through it to be done with it.

Beautiful visuals, great Voice overs and lovely music, just deeply unsatisfying.

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I bought this game on the strength of someone saying good things about in another thread - perhaps it was the recently completed one. Have to say, I'm enjoying it. Nice, relaxing RPG-lite game, with a backstory that doesn't bludgeon you with details. Just completed the Bastion, which I assume is about halfway through?

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