When I first tried playing Bastion, I wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about. In fact, after I played the demo, I sort of shrugged a little, deleted it, and went about my day. All I had really known about the game prior to its release was that it had a hand-painted look and that it was dynamically narrated. While the demo indeed confirmed that the game featured both of these elements, the relatively brief slice of the game on display didn’t exactly leave me clamoring for more. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by what was supposed to be one of the marquee titles of Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion. I ultimately ended up purchasing the full game after seeing and hearing the overwhelmingly positive reception it had been receiving. Once I began to really dig into it, I found my initial lukewarm feelings were completely turned around. What I had initially thought was just a mediocre hack-and-slash affair turned out to be so excellent that it might just be the best downloadable title of 2011.
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