Dolanbot and a review of Supergiant Games, Transistor…
It’s safe to say I’m having PAX withdrawals and I’m itchin’ for PAX Prime in August to finally arrive. Following PAX East earlier this year, to satiate my hunger I have been slowly accumulating the titles that astounded me as they release. Among these is Supergiant Games’ Transistor and the experience was breathtaking.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, a beautiful strawberry blonde mute woman formerly known as the star singer Red and her giant talking motherboard of a sword, the Transistor, walk into a Junction Jan only to find that its empty. In fact, the digital metropolis of Cloudbank which the game is set in has been evacuated and is slowly being erased by a mysterious entity known only as the process. And the only way to get answers and bring salvation to this doomed city is to find the four members of the notorious Camerata responsible for stealing Red’s voice and destroying the body of the love of her life. Its a joke, her man is really just in the sword somehow and he talks to her and… –Alright, I’m terrible at telling jokes but it’s the premise of Supergiant Games’ sophomore title: Transistor. Now this sounds like it could easily explode into some bloody sci-fi Kill Bill-esque RPG wet dream, and as much as we’d all like to see that, the team of Supergiant Games’ instead decides to recount a relatively short tale (6-7 hours, re-playable at least once) of love in desperate times with exquisite hand drawn graphics and polished and extremely tasteful electronica.
You play as Red, however the star of the show is the transistor, who valiantly takes up the role of narrator. An absolute must for Supergiant Games who, in their debut game Bastion, famously composed the unique gaming experience for players by having an aged, wise, sarcastic and morbidly poetic voice narrate every hammer tossing, sword-swinging, and gun powdered trigger-pulling calamity the player executes (he also makes for the BEST motha-flippin’ Dota 2 announcer to date). Here we have the potential to have another literally silent protagonist, another Gordon Freeman, incapable of developing real relationships with those around them. This is further realized by the fact that Cloudbank can seem quite lonely and hostile at times, especially when even the Transistor isn’t quite feeling like himself. However Supergiant Games does a tremendous job of avoiding this by having the female lead and the Transistor communicate through writing in the feedback section of the news terminals found throughout the city.
The story is hauntingly beautiful at times and serves its purpose quite well. The combat is where the game really takes off. The combat is divided between fast-paced action sequences and static combat planning phases based on your turn() action bar. In the static planning phases Red can formulate her attack strategy and then execute it with lightning speed. And its incredibly satisfying to see all your enemies drop in the span of three seconds after you’ve planned the perfect execution. The leveling system allows you to slowly accumulate functions, or spells in Transistor, and you are limited to the amount you can use at one time. However since you can combine up to three transistors to make a super skill and each function may also be used as a passive to give Red a shield or spawn a decoy every time she uses a function, the load-out combinations are infinite, which is good because the enemies are plentiful and incredibly versatile. Like Bastion, there is no difficulty setting, the enemies become harder as you progress through the game. If you feel like you’re really getting the hang of it, you can install limiters that buff your enemies and debuff you to even the playing field. Although the game is relatively short, it is re-playable and I would highly recommend giving it a shot since the combat only gets more brutal and complicated (that may just be me, I am a Dark Souls fan after all).
The experience is enhanced tenfold by the magical compositions of Darren Korb and vocals of Ashley Barrett, the first soundtrack of which I added to my music library upon hearing it. It creates the atmosphere as much as the story and beautiful artwork. Once again to emphasize, the artwork. Its hand drawn. And it looks stunning.
Transistor had a big role to fill following in the wake of the supergiant Bastion. However it was an incredible experience and well worth the price for a game that is just as enjoyable playing the first time as it is the second.
Transistor is available on PC (reviewed), PS4.
-Dolanbot