Transistor

Bought this for the story and the soundtrack, quit playing because of the difficult, confusing, extremely annoying combat mechanics. wish i had just passed on the whole thing and watched a letsplay instead

A story told in the rich and intense city of Cloudbank. A story of a singer who has lost her voice and whose only companion is stuck inside a sword. Like any good story it takes time to develop. It will not rush out expositions and explanations but will pace you perfectly as you learn about the world from interacting with yourself and the scattered remnants of your peers. This is not a story about a epic fight of good and evil; it is a personal story, a quest, if you will, for normalcy in a world going haywire. Transistor has many good parts that combine to make this a great game: a haunting and breathtakingly beautiful soundtrack, a gorgeous art design, accessible yet deep and varied combat and last, but not the least, a protagonist with a poignant silence. A few of my friends found the story a bit slow but they stuck through the end and came away impressed. The combat is a mix of real time and turn based gameplay with a bar that determines how many actions the player can pull off in a turn. Each action uses up a portion of the bar which must be filled over time. While the bar is being filled the player cannot take any offensive actions unless they apply relevant strategies. There a number of variations that you can try with different abilities and enemies are also constantly changing and updating which keeps the combat fun. Buying this is highly recommended as you will get your money' worth and will enable Supergiant Games to make more games like this.

Bear in mind that this review is completely biased and extremely subjective 'cause apparently I am just a sucker for the way SuperGiant make their games. Long story short: good emotional story, great storytelling, magnificent art, brilliant music, clever combat that is not too clever to constantly create bottlenecks for you but good enough to keep the game interesting, great abilities management system (sort of an RPG element) that is not complex but provides tons of variations. Take all of that, mix in perfect proportions - that's my description of Transistor. If you like those things - don't hesitate any longer. If you are familiar with Bastion and like it, Transistor is a must have. Because it is better than Bastion, more than Bastion, it is Bastion polished to perfection, Bastion squared. Yes, it is short, but IMO it is better to leave everyone wanting for more than thinking "My God, will this boredom ever end?" And you will want more, trust me.

I truly love this game. It's so much fun. http://vivisgamereviews.blogspot.com/2018/06/transistor-review.html - If you want a fuller explanation check out my full review here.

Atmospheric. Beautiful. Logan Cunningham. Excellent combat system with in-depth mechanics. Aside for its short play time, it has everything I want.