VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Bastion

One thing that was immediately apparent during my first experience with Bastion was what devoted attention had been put into all aspects of its development. Beautiful hand-painted visuals contrast the somber attitude of the game's setting, while the music and voice work engross the player into the world just as much as the frenetic, wonderfully balanced combat. Bastion feels like a labor of love, and this attention to detail makes for a refreshing and beautiful single player experience.

What's left to fight for in the wake of Calamity? Bastion asks this and much more with its simple but evocative narrative. Assuming the role of The Kid, a rare survivor of a catastrophic event, it is up to you to build a safe haven and find what you need to survive in the game's shattered world. The Bastion, a floating island presided over by the game's husky-voiced narrator Rucks, is in a sorry state when The Kid first finds it. Scattered about the world are shards of crystal that can restore the Bastion to its full power, and it is up to you to find them. Whenever a shard is returned to the Bastion, you are able to build one out of a selection of structures. These buildings include everything from an armory, which allows you to equip different weapons and abilities, to a memorial, which unlocks a set of criteria-based challenges that may be completed in exchange for currency.

The game's combat is fluid, fair, and most importantly, fun. Enemies you encounter are challenging and varied, each with their own weaknesses and attack patterns. The fighting system is easy to get the hang of, but a variety of factors keep it from growing stale. The Kid discovers quite the arsenal to choose from during his travels, and very few of the weapons feel underpowered or gimmicky. They all have their uses, whether it's striking at foes from behind cover with the Brusher's Pike or clearing out large clusters of enemies with the Scrap Musket. If the combat isn't challenging enough for your tastes, you can visit the Bastion's shrine to invoke the powers of a variety of gods-- each one adds a different difficulty modifier such as increased enemy health or striking power. The game even boasts a New Game + feature for those that can't get enough after their first playthrough is said and done.

That big guy's more mobile than he looks.

While The Kid is busy battling through waves of foes, Rucks provides a persistent stream of narration, describing the environment around The Kid as well as crucial snippets of back story. These lines of dialogue often comment directly upon whatever The Kid is doing, which keeps the narration feeling spontaneous and fresh. Throughout the course of the game you can take three trips to Who Knows Where, an arena-style zone that pits you against waves of enemies. Between each wave, Rucks fills in intriguing bits of background story for three main characters in the game. This narration technique is something that could easily have proved disastrous and gimmicky; here however it works perfectly, adding a startling amount of emotional depth to the world of Bastion.

Bastion's sound design is another of the game's triumphs. Most instrumental tracks suit the environments they highlight perfectly, sprinkling on momentum and suspense at just the right moments.  You'll find yourself humming along to the two vocal tracks in the game for days afterward.  Here's a sample of one of them (though to be fair, context aids the impact of this song immensely):

 A brilliant premiere title for Supergiant Games, Bastion is a must-play game for fans of action-RPG's or creative storytelling alike. Priced at $15, this game is a steal for the amount of variety and play-lengthboasts. Show support for passionate independent developers: buy this game!

VIDEO REVIEW: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This week we have another studio's attempt to kick-start a tired franchise... and it actually turned out pretty well.

VIDEO REVIEW: Captain America: The First Avenger

Rounding out the Marvel lineup this summer, we have Captain America: The First Avenger.  Even with the lackluster villain, I must say they saved the best for last- I haven't seen a Marvel movie this good since the original Iron Man.



The way this movie avoided relying on blatant and ham-fisted patriotism was refreshing.  It would have been all too easy to make Captain America a symbol supporting America, the country/governmental body.  Instead, he's a representation of the ideals America often claims to have been founded upon: Courage, heart, determination, comradery.  Ironically, it's his own country's ignorance of these traits and reliance upon judging him by his outward appearance that often leave him feeling misunderstood or underestimated.  Go check out this movie for yourself: it's certainly worth your time.

VIDEO REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Here's our review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. i flew solo for the review this week, and this was filmed all in one take, so it's a bit less refined than usual. I didn't get to say all I wanted to in my review because we were hurting for time while we shot it. I thought it Isaac also makes a guest appearance to review the new Winnie the Pooh movie, which he went to with his nephew.







As an added takeaway from this review, I'm going to jot down a few additional thoughts on this film.

• It was an adequate finale to the series, but didn't live up to the hype I had built up in my head for four years.
• The main action sequence was disappointing to me because it lacked tension and a sense of fear for the main and supporting characters.  Rowling offed a bunch of characters in this battle in her book, but only bothered to tell the reader this after the battle was over.  Similarly, we never see any characters we recognize in danger in the movie's battle.  This was an opportunity for Yates to communicate the stakes of this conflict and ratchet up the battle's tension by giving proper onscreen deaths to some of the more beloved characters of the series.  he fails to do this, however, leaving their deaths seeming empty and meaningless.
• The first death in the movie is played for laughs, and we see bloodied corpses by the dozens, but the main villain just *SPOILER ALERT* just floats away in a cloud of ash?  Talk about anti-climactic.
• Warwick Davis gets some well-deserved moments in the limelight for his two Harry Potter roles, Griphook and Professor Flitwick.  It was nice seeing some of the ancillary characters given a few moments to shine.
• When Harry, Ron, Hermione make their triumphant return to Hogwarts about halfway through the film, I got a little chocked up thinking back on all the films and how much this imaginary school of wizardry meant to me while growing up.  There are some great moments of emotion in this film, despite my nitpicks and complaints.  The scene in the ghostly King's Cross Station, Neville's impassioned speech to his classmates, and Snape's backstory (though a shadow of it's literary self) are all excellent reminders of why Potter fans have grown to love this series so much. 

We'll miss you, Harry.  You've had a long and occasionally uneven run, but you've meant the world to a generation of readers and moviegoers alike.

VIDEO REVIEW: X-Men: First Class

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post.  Over the past month I've been busy getting married, enjoying my honeymoon, and getting settled into temporary accommodations, so forgive me if my posts have fallen by the wayside.  Here are a few links to reviews my new brother-in-law Isaac and I have filmed in the meantime.

This first one focuses on X-Men: First Class, an excellent return to quality for the series (in at least my humble opinion).



Second comes Isaac's solo review of the disappointing Green Lantern, filmed while I was honeymooning in New Orleans.



Coming soon, the Snob and the Slob will have reviews finished for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Captain America: The First Avenger.  I also hope to have a discussion of the critically acclaimed animated film Persepolis posted shortly.

VIDEO REVIEW: Kung Fu Panda 2

This week, we have an overview of Dreamworks Animation's latest entry, Kung Fu Panda 2!