Transistor

The thing about Transistor is, while being from the same studio that made Bastion, it is NOT Bastion, per se. They share similar game mechanics, as well as the way story is presented at time, but they are wholly different thematically in art, music, narrative, and design.

This is not a bad thing.

In fact, the fact Transistor is not a copy of Bastion shows that Supergiant Games is being creative and reinventing on top of what worked as well as experimenting with new styles. This creativity lends itself into crafting Transistor into a wonderful game.

The gameplay is similar to Bastion's, exscept there is a new mechanic called "Turn()" that allows you to pause time and plan moves accordingly. It brings in a strategic element that allows you to decide how you'll deal with enemies. This is especially helpful in close combat areas, as the usage of a function like "Vault()" can save you in the nick of time.

The story and narrative are cryptic for sure, but can be pieced together. The fact that they don't give you all the details, and let's you come to your own conclusions, brings about an interesting anbiguity that actual lends itself to the narrative of the world. Furthermore, the personalities of the characters, though mostly just glimpses, were all different and varied. This is especially apparent when reading about them after obtaining different functions.

The art and music are what really solidify this game. The art direction is fantastic, utilizing sharp edges yet soft painterly textures in a contradictory yet appealing aesthetic. There are even design homages to Gustav Klimt in there! The world created breathes its own life as it moves and shifts. The music brings its own meaning and sets the tone for the areas or encounters in the game. Both lend itself into creating an engrossing atmosphere that really enhances what's going on on screen.

The only glitch I encountered was upon loading the game and playing the first 5 minutes on launch day; my screen stayed on black after entering a tunnel to go to a new area. I believe this has been fixed in the latest patch. Furthermore, some enemy AI may not react despite being close to them for a good five to ten seconds, but I did not find this detrimental to my experience with the game.

The comparisons to Bastion are unavoidable, but this game is not Bastion, and is its own game. Overall, Transistor is a wonderful indie title from Supergiant Games, and I recommend it to all who enjoyed Bastion and Supergiant Games' work on it, as well as to those who enjoy turn based strategy games with fantastic art and music.

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Read more reviews at my Steam Curator Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30187278/

It's hard to beat that soundtrack.

The story can be a bit of a retread of Bastion - action RPG, somewhat omnipotent narrator, magical object in the main character's possession that has the power to restore the world but only if the character wants to, trying to make the music as diagetic as possible, basically a big allegory for regret. The biggest differences in this one being of course the new spin on the combat and the setting. The combat is kind of a mixed bag - it's cool that they tried to make some variety from their last game, they're obviously going for a techy aesthetic, and it's cool that if you don't use Turn() your attacks have some pretty long wind-ups. The downside is if you do use turn, you end up kind of just wandering around half the match waiting for your Turn() to recharge. It's just a weird flow and they should have gone whole-hog to either action or turn-based, maybe even a strategy game with a whole team, instead of trying to make this pseudo inbetween stuff. It shows its cracks the handful of times you fight another person with Turn(), the end and the Agency() tests - the downtime as I said, the lack of variety once you find your go-to loadout, and how hard it is to manage many actors in each match on either side.

The setting is cool, though, and affects things like the combat. They do introduce Turn() to show you that it moves outside of time, but it comes across as if it's going to be a way to solve puzzles and it's never touched again so it it's a little weird in that regard. Being able to use each power as either a supplement to other powers or as a passive power for the player character is real cool, especially when you unlock all the slots and enough memory to use whatever combination you want. And then you can "recurse" through the story, i.e. New Game+, which kinda works thematically like it did in Bastion, though maybe less explicit, and again affects the combat because you can now start unlocking multiple copes of your powers and modifying them with themselves. Playing through again with a really robust loadout can really change the feel of the game in a good way. It doesn't quite match Bastion IMO but after how hard they came out swinging with that game, their follow-up was always going to live in its shadow to one degree or another.