This game has been sitting in my backlog for almost two years and after finally finishing it, I kind of regret not having played it earlier. Transistor boldly throws you into its story and lets you figure out its world yourself. While it is a fairly short and linear experience, it never feels like the game holds your hand. The art, atmosphere, and soundtrack are evocative and simply stunning at times. Despite Red being a silent protagonist, she feels like a real character. After all, there are two “game mechanics” that simply exists to characterise her and do not add to the game otherwise. While I can see that some may find such details unnecessary, I really enjoyed them. Furthermore, the voice actor of Transistor (Logan Cunningham) does an incredible job at bringing his character to life. His voice is so emotive that I hung on his every word.
The combat system, however, took me a while to getting used to. It’s turn-based, but not really. You as player can enter a planning mode in which you can queue up attacks and/or movement, which Red will execute rapidly after you tell her to. Afterwards, you are vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks for a short time. Especially in the beginning, selecting enemies and figuring out attack ranges felt fiddly and imprecise using a controller. I bet this plays so much better with a mouse and keyboard. Moreover, I wish the skills were a bit better explained. The game very much expects you to figure it out yourself and mix and match them to see what they do. Don’t get me wrong, that approach can be fun, but made me feel like I didn’t get the system at first. This was very much a learning-curve for me.
Also, this may be nit-picky, but the German translation of this game is lacking. Some descriptions of skills are confusingly worded, some subtitles of dialogue are just incorrect, and naming an enemy type “Doofi” (which is called Clucker in English for reference) took me out of the experience a little bit to be honest.
Overall, I enjoyed Transistor very much. At its core, it’s a love story in a sci-fi setting that explores how our choices influence the world around us. I love Supergiant’s way of telling a story through environment and gameplay as well as traditional means. I almost wish it would have been longer, but then, it probably wouldn’t have been as a great experience as it was for me.
The combat system, however, took me a while to getting used to. It’s turn-based, but not really. You as player can enter a planning mode in which you can queue up attacks and/or movement, which Red will execute rapidly after you tell her to. Afterwards, you are vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks for a short time. Especially in the beginning, selecting enemies and figuring out attack ranges felt fiddly and imprecise using a controller. I bet this plays so much better with a mouse and keyboard. Moreover, I wish the skills were a bit better explained. The game very much expects you to figure it out yourself and mix and match them to see what they do. Don’t get me wrong, that approach can be fun, but made me feel like I didn’t get the system at first. This was very much a learning-curve for me.
Also, this may be nit-picky, but the German translation of this game is lacking. Some descriptions of skills are confusingly worded, some subtitles of dialogue are just incorrect, and naming an enemy type “Doofi” (which is called Clucker in English for reference) took me out of the experience a little bit to be honest.
Overall, I enjoyed Transistor very much. At its core, it’s a love story in a sci-fi setting that explores how our choices influence the world around us. I love Supergiant’s way of telling a story through environment and gameplay as well as traditional means. I almost wish it would have been longer, but then, it probably wouldn’t have been as a great experience as it was for me.