Supergiant Games and Valve have teamed up for an unexpected addition to the PC version of Bastion. The Gel Cannister secret skill is an unlockable upgrade available in new game plus mode that's described as “a viscous substance of unknown origin, contained in a scientific apparatus.” Careful inspection reveals the familiar pattern on the side of the object is the Aperture Science logo, and using the Gel Cannister summons a familiar friend: a sentry turret from Portal 2. Check out how it works in the video below.
“The idea for it came up when we were talking to Valve about getting the game on Steam” Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin told us over email. “Since we knew the game would be shipping a bit later than the Xbox 360 version due to the additional development time we needed to get the PC-style controls and other features sorted, we were thinking about ways of making sure this new version of the game would feel fresh in its own right. We always intended to have the game on PC and were committed to making it feel like a great version home-grown to the platform.”
“The idea of doing some sort of collaborative content came up in the conversation, with the Sentry Turret being one of the specific ideas we talked about. From our perspective it was a way we could pay homage to one of our favorite games this year, plus it was a less obvious tie-in than like a Team Fortress 2 hat or a like a funny GLaDOS monologue, so it was appealing from that perspective. It just seemed like it would be funny and absurd and yet fit into our universe in the form of an homage — some of the other Secret Skills in the game pay homage to other classic games. It was really cool of Valve to let us run with it, and we're really happy with how it turned out and the response it's been getting so far.”
We've already been enormously pleased with Bastion, but a Portal tie-in makes the PC version available through Steam a no-brainer at $15. You should get it.
Aug 22, 2011
