Daniel Konicek Staff Writer
The market of indie-games has been in a sort of explosion of talent these last couple of years. Hotline Miami, Paper’s Please, Limbo, The Stanley Parable, The Walking Dead, and Minecraft are all examples of huge successes outside of the main gaming publishers, and gamers have eating up all the affordable and stylistic fun. In 2011, one such game was Bastion, a top down action RPG that astounded the industry with an award winning soundtrack and voice cast. After such a debut, developer Supergiant Games needed to prove they were not a one-hit wonder, and with their new game, Transistor, I don’t think they will have to worry about that.
Transistor is the story of Red, a stunning singer songwriter who is attacked by a group of assassins. With the help of someone dear, she escapes danger, but not before they steal her voice. Using the Transistor, a sword-like artifact that can harness the souls of others as powerful “Functions”, she hunts down the group responsible as the mysterious force known as “The Process” consumes the city.
Probably Transistor’s greatest strength, and arguably its greatest weakness, is the presentation of the story. The city of Cloudbank is incredibly detailed visually, but there is little explanation of exactly how the Transistor or the Process actually works. As players use the Transistor’s powers, they can dig deeper into the events leading up to the Process being unleashed, but much is withheld until very late into the game. I personally enjoyed the mystery of it, and it forced me to experiment with the Transistor to get all the info I could, but players who like things to make sense or be clear may be frustrated by it all. The phrase “style over substance” certainly does apply to this game, but fortunately it is incredibly stylish indeed.
Mechanically, Transistor is very much like Bastion, an isometric action game fighting off enemies as you search through new environments, Aesthetically, though, it is something I have never seen before. The city of cloudbank is like Tron in the Victorian age, hand-drawn in a stunning array of colors. The soundtrack surpasses Bastion immediately, every step of the way building the mood of a world crumbling before your eyes. Ashley Barret and Logan Cunningham are back as the voices of Red and the Transistor. While Ashley is only present in Red’s songs from the past, Logan is astonishing as the voice of the somber companion of Red now trapped within the Transistor. The interactions between the two characters are an absolute joy to behold, making Red’s journey a very emotional one. As minimalist as the plot can be on depth at times, Supergiant Games lets the mood fill in the gaps. The result is an intimate look at the relationship of the two characters. Details end up mattering less than the connection between them, and their determination in the face of oblivion.
The gameplay itself is a fun mix of action and turn-based strategy, the Transistor granting Red the ability to stop time and plan out chains of attacks, the Functions working best when chained together into combinations. Using this power leaves Red vulnerable as it recharges, and so playing smart is key. Functions themselves can be used as an active power, an upgrade to another function, or as a passive boost to Red, which makes for a truly broad range of layouts and play styles that are possible. Pick the wrong one, however, the game can be very punishing, and death means one of your functions is burnt out for the next two checkpoints. I managed to find a combination of backstabs and evasiveness that kept me alive through the whole game, but the brute force approach is definitely not enough.
Transistor does have some faults. The challenge rooms can be repetitive, but feel almost mandatory as it helps Red level up to get some very valuable upgrades, and some enemies seem to exist just to drive me mad. The gameplay is fun, fast, and smart, but cannot compare to strategy games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown in terms of rewarding intelligence.
If Supergiant Games wanted to prove that Bastion was not a fluke, they succeeded. The art, the music and the voice acting are just flat-out brilliant, and the writing delivered some really powerful moments I am going to remember for a long time. This game is worth checking out.
