![]() NarratorĪfter 8 years, with the help of professionals, introspection and medical science, I have broken down some of the barriers between myself and my happiness. I built walls between her and I to defend myself from the fear that now infected our relationship.Īll this takes a lot of getting used to, and you do get used to it, after a while. I attempted to build wall as around Hannah, to protect her. I guarded myself from the expectation of anything positive in my life, bracing myself for the next cosmic blow. Over the years, I built my own walls (a bead in Bastion’s story). When I get a beat from Bastion’s music stuck in my head, I cannot help but recall that hospital, the smell of it, it’s fluorescent hallways, the yellow gowns I was made to wear when inside. ![]() ![]() Mostly instrumental, save for the narrator’s appearance in the intro and a couple of other tracks. That nagging feeling that you’ve just been bitch slapped by a cold, uncaring, and perhaps godless universe? I was upsetīastion features a rich, multi-layered original soundtrack by Darren Korb. White haired women who stared us down as we parked in the spots reserved for the handicapped? Rage. Infected surgery wound? We raged with Manuka honey (it worked). Or, at least, pretend like I was while hunched over my iPad as Hannah lay in painful, drug-induced sleep beside me.įor the next year, Hannah and I would rage together. Bastion gave me the vehicle by which I could clobber the dark thoughts and demons that came into view. Where was my hammer? How would I defend myself from a world that, turns out, is not safe? With this hammer you break objects to find collectables and, when it comes to it, you crush your enemies. Your primary weapon is your “lifelong friend” a hammer. In Bastion, challenges appear in front of you as you progress through its colorful, shimmering, and broken world. Here’s a kid whose whole world got twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky. Maybe if I said it, he would heal my wife? Or, I told myself this expecting things to get bleak and hoping that he would make the best of it as long as I reminded him enough. “God is good” became the mantra that I would repeat to myself. Was I now being punished for my doubt? I was promised I would never be burdened with something I could not handle. The religion of my youth had already disappointed me by this point. I understand what a feat of projection that is.īy the time Hannah was diagnosed, I had already had my crisis of faith. The opening line could not be more poignant. Now here’s a kid whose whole world got twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky. The game opens with the narrator speaking. For me, the game’s defining feature was the use of a narrator who offers background story while also acting as an observer to your progress, making realtime commentary along the way. In the game, you take on the role of "the Kid" as he moves through a beautifully surreal environment in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Originally released on Xbox Live Arcade, it had been released for a year or so before I was able to play it on my iPad. At night, in the cold, dark hospital room, I took out my iPad, launched a game I had been meaning to play, and distracted myself Bastionīastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games. There were many sleepless nights and often I found myself alone. After her surgery to remove the tumors, we spent about a month at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore while she recovered. The following six months brought us a maelstrom of doctors, surgeons, fear, grief and life-changing consequences. It’s no wonder that the gaming industry has eclipsed Hollywood.Įight years ago, my wife was diagnosed with intramedullary astrocytoma tumors in her spinal cord. ![]() So many hours of gameplay, story, music and emotion. ![]() While a feature length film my last 140 minutes, it is not uncommon for a player to be engaged with a video game for dozens of hours over the course of weeks. You often take the role of a character in the story and have some amount of control over how the story plays out. As someone who once aspired to becoming a visual story-teller, I recognize that video games have the potential to envelop the player in their narratives – more so than film. But by today’s standards, I am a casual gamer, which means if I’m gaming, it’s usually in brief stints… while on the john. I do not consider myself a “gamer.” Twenty five years ago I played Nintendo with my friends, had a subscription to Nintendo Power, and was caught up in the Nintendo vs. ![]()
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