Bastion
Lie on my back
Clouds are makin' way for me
I’m comin' home, sweet home
~Darren Korb, Setting Sail, Coming Home
In my reviews I often talk about just how many developers treat their games like products. Well, technically, those are the products, of course, but… you can’t create anything really beautiful just by doing your job. If you’ll do your job good enough, you may come up with a really good product, but that’ll be just that. A product. While we all know that video games can be… something more than that. Much more. When Miller brothers started creating their MYST? It wasn’t because they wanted to make a popular game. Heck, they weren’t even gamers. They just had that certain vision and they really wanted to turn it into reality. To share it with the others. To let the others dive into it and experience it together. And it’s not just words. You can clearly feel such things. From Westwood Studious' magical worlds of The Legend of Kyrandia and Lands of Lore to Cyberdreams’s I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, based on Harlan Ellison’s short story. That certain artistic touch? That special something that makes a game more than just a game? As long as you treasure it as much as I do, I want to introduce you to one of my most favorite independent developers. Please, welcome – Supergiant Games.
– Real player with 41.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dynamic Narration Indie Games.
Bastion 2012
When Bastion came out it was at the beginning of the Indie craze. People were first starting to realize that amazingly fun games could come from tiny studios with no budget. Well now in 2017 the term Indie game has all but lost its meaning both financially, and terms of team size. But at the time, a game with such deep combat, definitive flavor, and overall polish was a treat.
Bastion does a good job of grabbing you with the colorful paint-style world that appears beneath your feet as you move forward. Every action you do is narrated by a grandfatherly voice that explains the story and smaller moments. There was a time early in the game when I walked off the edge of the platforms and the narrator said “And that’s the end of the Kid’s story….I’m just kidding.” And I respawn and he says “The kid goes back for another round.” It was a charming break of the 3rd wall.
– Real player with 33.3 hrs in game