Posted on: June 20, 2016

lauma

Games: 441 Reviews: 5

Beautifull, not very long, a bit cryptic

As other reviewers already noted, game's strong points include beautiful visuals and melancholic songs that creates charming, haunting world. Game is not very long - it took me a bit under 10 hours to finish it first time; however, the neatly done "new game+" mechanics allowed me to play it straight again without making it boring. In the first playthrough story felt a bit rushed and cryptic; however, during the second playthrough I paid more attention to the details - most of the things fell in to the place, and story turned out to be more connected and reasonable than I expected at first. Yes, it might not be the most innovative story, but then again, most of the stories in this world are old, differs only how they are presented. And this one is presented in a painfully beautiful and (IMHO) immersive way. Also this game excels in including LGBT people as a natural part of the world, not some kind of “special case” people. There is this one gay couple presented so naturally I didn't even notice at first. And a lady whose gender happens to be neither M nor F. You notice if you pay attention to details, but overall those are just minor details, because all characters have their interests, professions and stories. Thus, LGBT is handled not as some kind of "token" issue, but as a natural part of the world - the imaginary world provided by Transistor really treats LGBT people as inherently equal. Even it maybe is not done entirely flawlessly, it is still a beautiful perspective and I liked this point of view very much. Of course, it is not how the real world happens right now, but sometimes we need our space to dream. Gameplay-wise 3 things must be noted: 1) interesting combat mechanics with some planning-ahead; 2) in-game possibility to change difficultie via various limiters; 3) new game+ (recursion) comes with harder enemies, new tests, new items, as well as some new/changed text lines (I think). Conslusion: I suggest it for feels, not for long term hardcoredness.

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Posted on: December 22, 2018

Jimthesfn

Verified owner

Games: 587 Reviews: 60

There is an interruption I can't shake

The game has great voice-over, art style, music and combat. There is many different combinations you can come up with in the combat which is very nice. Thou the combat can feel like they want you to be punished at times and loose your most highly cost ability which can make the combat really frustrating depending on how you built your skills. The thing I mean with my interruption of both the story and the combat is how you learn more about the different characters that is involved in the story. They come from the skills and depending on how you use them you learn more about the story. This can become annoying as you have to use them in different ways to learn everything about them all. This is what interrupts the flow of the story and the combat. I wish they would have done this differently.

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Posted on: April 6, 2020

thomasjaques

Verified owner

Games: 10 Reviews: 1

Solid

Short and sweet. I think it's head and shoulders above Bastion, which I found clunky. Battle mechanics are good. Buy it on sale.

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Posted on: November 29, 2020

ClarenceTheBard

Verified owner

Games: 97 Reviews: 9

So much style packed in a small package

While I think it is the weaker Supergiant Games game out there (hold back but its meandering development) it has way too much style for me to ever forget. I get enthralled by every curscene and most of the song where Red sings. Though I will admit that Transistor go for 2 out of me 3 soft spot. A love story and the protagonist is a mucisian of some sort. (The third one is a spiritual undertone. See Pyre for a good exemple of that).

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Posted on: December 14, 2015

Sykes.228

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 32

True art in video game form

There are very few games that are able to gather so many elements in such superb quality, and then combine them to create a whole that's still more than the sum of its parts. Transistor is: drop-dead gorgeous visual art, amazing music, innovative gameplay with very unique elements and background logic backed up by sweet worldbuilding and storytelling. Maybe more importantly, it all comes together as a stream that transcends all these individual parts. Just like, say, Portal combines its mechanics and cheeky humour into one one coherent package or how Audiosurf creates a cerebral mix of music and visuals, Transistor is an amazing ethereal experience that shows how a video game can become a piece of art stronger than any other from. Some might criticise the story for being more or less somewhat clicheic wrapped up in enigma (just like Bastion) and I suppose it's kind of true. Normally I'm not very keen on "open to interpretation" stories but when it works, it works. And Transistor certainly works as a story as well. Together with Life Is Strange and a couple of others games, Transistor shows what amazing things can the best of human minds achieve if they work towards something wonderful. It's one of those games which I truly hope will be remembered or at least rediscovered decades from now.

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