Bastion: Great Concept, Engaging Gameplay

[Will090]

Bastion is an extremely enjoyably game that excels in many ways, and only has a few flaws that dampen the experience. The first thing that hits you when you start to play is how great the game play concept is. The object of the game is to build towers to defend your shoreline from invading ships. I really recommend playing this game on the hard difficulty as it adds so much more to the game. In order to build towers to defend your shores, you must connect them with a series of roads to an armory in order for them to be able to function. When building these roads, you get pieces that resemble Tetris blocks and must use those to connect your armory with your towers. You can also upgrade your towers and armory with better offensive and defensive stats. Buying powerups can be done as well. Once you finish building your roads, constructing defenses, and upgrading the combat begins. Unlike most tower defense games, the towers fire is controlled by you. You control a reticule that hovers to wherever you swipe and when you press the fire button in the bottom left corner all your towers will let loose an array of projectiles. Occasionally, my finger would get close to the fire button but not touch it, and it would register as if I did fire. This is slightly annoying, but happens on a seldom occasion. This requires good timing, as the ships you are trying to sink are always on the move and trying to take down your defenses. If you had bought powerups the previous round, you may use those against the onslaught of attacking ships.

Powerups include:
- Powder Keg Mine (waits in water until a ship sails over it)
-Fireball (High Splash Damage)
-Bombshell (Big Damage, Wide Radius).

Enemies Include:
- Corvette (Fast, Light, Armored Ship)
- Frigate (Standard Ship)
- Ship of the Line (Heavily Armored, Slow, Deploys Dinghies)
- Dinghy (Brings grunts to beach)
- Grunt (Foot soldier that plants bombs at your towers.


Once you win the round, like most defense games, you are awarded money for how many enemies you kill. The money can be used to purchase new towers, upgrades, and powerups. There are two modes of play. Conquer is the campaign of the game where you go from level to level defeating your enemies, and survive is self-explanatory. The few cons I could find are it has a clunky menu system, the fire button is sometimes too responsive, and it lacks online leader boards. Overall, this a very fun game and a steal at the current .99 price point.

Rank 8/10