Bastion turns 15: Supergiant's forgotten 10/10 debut still holds up

Bastion, the action RPG that launched Supergiant Games into the spotlight back in 2011, is turning 15 — and Polygon argues it deserves way more attention than it gets in 2026.

The piece is a retrospective recommendation rather than a news item: writer Jason Venter revisits Bastion and makes the case that the game holds up remarkably well. The headline's "10/10 masterpiece" framing reflects the critical reception it earned at launch, when it was widely praised for its hand-painted art style, reactive narrator, and tight isometric combat. Supergiant has since become one of indie gaming's most respected studios on the back of Transistor, Pyre, and especially Hades — but Bastion, the game that started it all, tends to get skipped by players who came to the studio later.

Bastion was Supergiant's debut title, originally released as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive before landing on PC and other platforms. It was one of the defining indie breakout hits of the early 2010s, helping establish that small teams could produce polished, critically acclaimed action games without a major publisher. The studio has maintained that reputation ever since — Hades won a Hugo Award and became one of the best-reviewed games of 2020, and Hades 2 is currently in early access.

If you've only discovered Supergiant through Hades or Hades 2, Bastion is the obvious next stop — and at 15 years old, it's almost certainly sitting in your Steam library already.