Bastion (Supergiant Games)

A great story isn't defined by what happens, who dies when, or why. A great story is made by how you tell it. I had played it before, but never all the way through. Now I wish I'd done that much, much sooner. I think this is the only game since Mass Effect (the first one) that produces real lump-in-the-throat, heart wrenching moments at every point in the story. The narration is superb, hitting the nail on the head for your immersive experience. It's like being eight years old again, being told stories around a camp-fire (without the fire department getting involved after you botched the whole thing).

Bastion can be a little bit disorientating at times, having the environment spring up just ahead of you takes some time to get used to, but once you're used to it, the game environments seem to flow in a pleasing, arty fashion. You play as the standard gaming protagonist: a mute character called 'The Kid' by Rucks, the narrator. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The apocalypse has instead been given the name, 'The Calamity'. This event is not the driving force behind the story though, and is instead a vehicle to find out more about the characters and their motivations. It's surprising how much depth the characters can have with so few lines, being described only by Rucks, who has a fair few complications himself (no spoilers here). There's a great moment towards the end of the story where you can go against the narrator's expectations. When you reach this moment, it's so very difficult not to pick the compassionate option, but you have the choice all the same, like any good RPG.

"He finds me."

The combat is simple, fast and engaging. It builds on the original Diablo formula. There're always a horde of enemies coming at you from multiple angles, and you only have two weapons (which you can choose), a Secret Skill (with limited uses) and a dodge-roll, which allows you to evade attacks and get out of nasty surrounds. For the first play through, it's not particularly taxing skill-wise. However, once you complete the game, you unlock a feature called New Game Plus, which turns the game up a notch. Enemies have more health, more damage, and all of the idol effects are activated, which means that some crazy things can happen if you let even a single squirt (a sort of living tear-drop thing) past your guard.

I've always got the game's soundtrack close to hand for whenever I want to listen to those funky, bluesy, interlinked tunes. The way Zulf's theme, Zia's theme both culminate into the final credits sequence makes for a great capstone to round up the story.

If you're looking for Pounds/Dollars per hour, it's probably not the best buy outside of a sale, but it's easily one of the most memorable single player gaming experiences to come out in a very... very long time.