Bastion is a game that seems like it was built for narcissists. The world is created, piece by piece, as you explore it. Panels fly into position in order to give you a path to walk on, while inaccessible areas are blocked off. There is plenty of exploration to be had, but the aesthetic makes it slightly unsettling. This is what must have happened in The NeverEnding Story after the Nothing destroys the world and it's recreated by our dreams.

The artwork looks hand-drawn, and the enemies and settings are delightful. The action brings to mind the hack-and-slash action of the Diablo series, but with ranged weapons and a shield you can bring up to deflect attacks, there is a little more thought needed to defeat enemies. The real beauty, however, comes from the fact you're the star of a story being told via a deep narration system, as if you're living out an epic that's being passed down in the oral tradition. The effect, in a word, is mesmerizing.

Everything you do is spoken

While the game has strong action, much of the personality comes from the ever-present narrator, who describes everything that's happening on the screen as if he's telling the story to someone else. The voice actor is a man named Logan Cunningham, and while he only recorded a few bits at first, as soon as the team at Supergiant Games heard how well it worked, the idea of the constant narration was added to the game. At this point 3,000 lines of dialog have been recorded, and during my play session that amount proved enough to deal with everything I did in the game.

If you get your butt kicked, the game will describe it. If you win a fight, the game will talk about it. Fall off the side of the world, and the game notes it. The effect is convincing: it feels like someone with a great voice is standing behind you, narrating your actions in real time. Not only that, but the narrator provides hints about where to go and gives you background information on items you find. The constant patter is filled with reactions to everything you do, as well as an extra level of color and data about the game world. It's hard to describe, but I found it to be a convincing effect.

I told Greg Kasavin from Supergiant Games that the narration reminded me of playing Dungeons and Dragons. His face broke out into a huge grin. "It makes me happy to hear you say that," he told me. "We're all huge roleplaying fans from way back."

The narration was designed to do the same job as the dungeon master: explaining the action while providing context and flavor, while at the same time giving the player more information about the world they're exploring. It's a neat twist on storytelling in games, and I would be surprised if other developers don't rip off the idea in the future.

Difficulty will be handled in a novel way as well: instead of there being an arbitrary choice between different levels, you'll meet gods in the game who offer you challenges. They'll adjust different factors in the gameplay to make the game harder to play or the fights harder to win, and if you play under those conditions you'll be given greater rewards. These challenges can be adjusted whenever you visit the gods, allowing you to change the difficulty whenever you'd like.

This is one of those games where everything from the graphics, music, narration, and mechanics all work together to create something that feels fresh and exciting. I had a chance to play the game extensively, and now I'm counting down the days to release. Bastion is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade this summer, and a PC release is planned later in the year.