Platinum trophy earned, including completion of one full recursion. The recent release of Pyre provided an overdue reminder for me to go back to Transistor, which I'd previously tried briefly but didn't make much progress on - and I'm very glad that I did! I don't think that I've played any other games quite like this game, with its innovative mix of real-time and turn-based overhead-perspective combat - the game's key mechanic is the protagonist's "Turn()" ability, which pauses the action, allowing a series of actions to be queued up. There's an extraordinary extent of customisability available within this system, with each of the game's 16 combat abilities able to be combined with any of the others for a supplemental effect, or assigned as a passive ability for a related persistent effect - and it all adds up to a system with a huge amount of tactical depth

Alongside this, while I didn't get as absorbed in the lore of Transistor's futuristic setting as I perhaps could have done, but there's some fantastic world-building here for those to whom that appeals. The final word, though, has to go to the game's stunning soundtrack and, taking its cue from Supergiant's previous game Bastion, the well-implemented narration provided by the 'intelligent' sword that's your constant companion throughout the game.

Reviewed on Nov 24, 2022


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