I guess we all have to start somewhere.
Sometimes, starting could be a micro thing, starting a new game or starting a new review. Sometimes it's a Macro thing, like starting a whole new business. Sometimes it's somewhere in between, like starting with a whole new resolution. But at the end of the day, staring something new is starting something new.
I first started with PlayStation Plus in late 2014, having just received a brand new PS4 as a wedding gift. I initially wasn't too happy about this, the whole thought of paying just to play with my friends online wasn't something I was a fan of. However, there was also a nice consolation prize: two free games every month. And believe me, I made absolutely sure I downloaded those games as soon as they were available. I mean, I barely had any games for my new system. I always have been and always will be a physical media first person, but I'm not exactly opposed to digital media, especially when it's free (well, technically each game is $5 if you divide it up). And now, going on 12 years, I have built up quite a huge collection.
It's great to have those games, but I've always felt like I kind of wasted them. I usually look past these when I am trying to start up a new game and this time...was no exception. You see, I had planned to start a playthrough of Hades, a game I've heard a ton of positive press about in recent years. I saw the game for rent at my local library and decided now was as good a time as any to start it up. But alas, this start was a misfire, because the disc was so badly scratched it wouldn't install on my PlayStation. So I had to pivot quickly, and I decided I would start on something of another project: I am going to start playing through my backlog of PS plus games. And it was a starting point for Hades developer Supergiant games that led me to get started on said project.
I absolutely did not remember downloading Transistor, initially released in 2014, back in the early days of my PS Plus membership. It may have been part of the second or third group of games I downloaded. It was also an early entry in Supergiant's library, their second title and a followup to their highly regarded debut Bastion. I had never played Bastion, Hades, or any of their other titles, but I do remember having some level of interest in Transistor when I first saw it. It had an interesting graphical style and came on the heels of a highly recommended indie title (remember, this was back in the day before indie games were winning game of the year awards), so it was always one I considered checking out. It wasn't until now that I decided to take the plunge.
Transistor puts you in the shoes of Red, a popular singer in the futuristic city known as Cloudbank. Cloudbank was once a thriving metropolis, but it's denizens have all but disappeared, those who havent fled have been forcibly integrated by a rogue robotic collective simply known as the Process. This Process was created by a group called the Camerata, a collective of high ranking Cloudbank officials who's motives are unknown but obviously not good. They need to silence any dissidents, and Red is a primary target on their list. The game starts with Red having survived an attack, sitting next to a confidant who wasn't so lucky. Her voice has been stolen and her compatriot has been killed, but she isn't ready to admit defeat. She pulls a giant glowing sword, the Transistor, from the body of her fallen friend and ready to take vengance and restore the city. And she won't necessarily be alone in doing so, because the Transistor is much more than just a weapon. It has absorbed the concioussnes of her comrade, who helps to guide her along the way. They make their way through what's left of Cloudbank, ready to stop the Process and take out the Camerata members one by one.
It's a solid story that does an ok job of gradually unfurling as you play through the game. A lot of details are intetionally glossed over, but it's done intentionally here in an effort to force the player to connect the dots on their own. This can backfire spectacularly if done poorly, but it works alright here. Transistor does a fairly good job of world building despite it's minimalist storytelling. You definitely understand what kind of place Cloudbank is, as well as what kind of place it was before the Process took over. Red is an okay heroine, not one of my favorite all time characters but still a good one. I actually think it's pretty cool that she's a known commodity, most characters in games like this begin the game as ordinary people within their worlds. The fact that Red is a famous musician is kind of cool and I kind of wish this was explored more throught the game. Her relationship with her fallen comrade, who is never named, is very touching and getting to see more interaction between the two was probably the biggest story reason to keep playing. Overall I would say it was a nice story, but nothing earth shattering or essential to play.
The story also ties into the gameplay here, as the Transistor's ability to absorb the consciousness data of the deceased enables Red to learn new abilities. These unlock functions, which range from basic sword swings to area of effect detonations to movement skills. Each of these skills can be mapped to one of the face buttons, so you can have four active at once. However, that doesn't mean the other skills will sit unused. Because each function can also be used as a buff, either passive or active. Red will have a set amount of memory points, with each function taking up a set amount. Once your four functions are equipped, your others can be attached to them to provide an additional effect. For example, equipping the bounce function onto crash will cause your primary attack to spawn additional bouncing projectiles. You can also equip functions as passive buffs, though this doesn't become possible until much later. Honestly, this might be the single best part of the game. It was fun to try different builds and combinations and you could meaningfully tailor Red's abilities to your preferred play style without spending insane amounts of time doing so.
I probably should have lead with this, but Transistor plays like a fairly standard action RPG on the surface. Red can move around freely and attack enemies with each of her equipped functions. The big differentiator here is planning mode, which will allow red to pause the action and input a set number of commands, be they movements or attacks. Think V.A.T.S. from Fallout, but with a little more freedom of movement. Mastering this is essential, as it allows you to get into advantageous positions and perform combos on enemies, providing more damage. Against more powerful foes, you may even have to use it defensively to get out of their range. Getting a game over here is also a bit different. Red has a life bar just like you would see in any action RPG. However, once said bar is drained you will lose control of one of your functions rather than just die. You need to have all four primary functions fail in order to get a game over, which sounds like it would make the game a bit too easy. However, combat is balanced around this, as enemies hit fairly hard and later foes can drain your life quickly. In addition, any functions that do fail can't be restored until you have visited two separate save points, so losing too many of them can really force you to play sub-optimally. Combat is okay, a bit uninspired but technically proficient with more positive qualities than negative. I've seen better, but I've also seen far worse.
The biggest flaws here are absolutely linearity and extremely short length. I feel like I've been talking a lot about linearity in recent weeks and I feel like I keep going back and forth on what's too much, too little and just right for me. There won't be any of that debate here though as Transistor definitely fits firmly into the former category. Simply put, there is almost no level of exploration to be had here and the game is laid out almost more like a modern FPS than an action RPG. You walk along a predetermined path, fight a planned encounter, lather, rinse and repeat. You can occasionally avoid a foe or learn some additional information by making a small detour, but the differences this caused were barely noticable. The excellent graphics and relatively fun combat go a long way in making you not think about this, which definitely counts for something. However, that doesn't change the fact that you are basically walking in a straight line with the occasional fight for four to six hours.
Speaking of which, that's entirely too short for an RPG, even an action RPG like Transistor. I guess I would rather them not pad the game out with fluff, but I find this genre works best when games are around double that length, if not longer. I get that the storytelling is supposed to be fairly minimalist, but they could have used some time to flesh things out or do a little bit more world building. Maybe add some more bosses, or a super boss, or something gameplay wise. While it may have been painfully linear, the game wasn't a chore to play by any stretch and I would have been fine taking a little bit more time to beat it. A lot of games, especially indie games, from this era kind of adopted this cadance of a sub-5 hour, straight line story that was meant to be completed fairly quickly. A lot of the indie walking simulators from the era, stuff like Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch come to mind, played out at the same pace. But those games were more like interactive stories that had fairly minimal gameplay. Transistor's story was fine, but it wasn't even remotely on par with something like WROEF. It's appeal was really it's deep customization and you can't really fully grasp that over just a few hours.
Well, I guess they did include one way to pad out the length of the game, which brings me to my final issue with Transistor: the fact that there's a new game plus mode. Again, this is a topic that I've brought up before and I think that new game plus can be used to great effect. But I feel like a lot of modern games just tack these on for what seems like no reason, and Transistor might be the biggest culprit I've ever seen. What is the point of playing this game more than once? To my knowledge, there's no additional story, no special ending, no superboss and no additional areas to explore. So what am I playing again for? To play the same game but slightly harder? I have never understood that line of thinking, especially in a game in this genre in this style. Again, True and Ultimate Vault Hunter modes work in Borderlands because you are trying to get better equipment and fight special bosses. New Game Plus works in Chrono Trigger because there are a bunch of endings to get and your powered up party allows you to play less linearly each time. But neither of those apply here. Even if the game isn't difficult enough, there are already ways to make it harder by using limiters, which allow you to take on a handicap in exchange for earning more EXP. Again, I really don't see any point in playing through the same game more than once, especially because it was so linear in the first place.
While I don't think it was amazing, I can certainly see from playing Transistor why its developer is so well loved. It may have been very linear, but it had some good combat, a decent narrative and an outstanding customization system. I know it wasn't quite as well received as its predecessor and it certainly hasn't drawn the game-of-the-year-level hype that Hades has, but there's still plenty to like. That said, there really wasn't a whole lot of depth here and I can't ever see myself revisiting Transistor, even for a casual playthrough. That doesn't necessarily make a game bad, this game is certainly far from awful, but it's another factor I find myself weighing more and more heavily as I play through all these games. I wouldn't go too far out of my way to play Transistor, but it's definitely worth a run through and it's worth taking a look at for fans of Supergiant's other, more famous titles. Hey, if you've had PS Plus for as long as I have it's probably in your library already.
7/10
Sometimes, starting could be a micro thing, starting a new game or starting a new review. Sometimes it's a Macro thing, like starting a whole new business. Sometimes it's somewhere in between, like starting with a whole new resolution. But at the end of the day, staring something new is starting something new.
I first started with PlayStation Plus in late 2014, having just received a brand new PS4 as a wedding gift. I initially wasn't too happy about this, the whole thought of paying just to play with my friends online wasn't something I was a fan of. However, there was also a nice consolation prize: two free games every month. And believe me, I made absolutely sure I downloaded those games as soon as they were available. I mean, I barely had any games for my new system. I always have been and always will be a physical media first person, but I'm not exactly opposed to digital media, especially when it's free (well, technically each game is $5 if you divide it up). And now, going on 12 years, I have built up quite a huge collection.
It's great to have those games, but I've always felt like I kind of wasted them. I usually look past these when I am trying to start up a new game and this time...was no exception. You see, I had planned to start a playthrough of Hades, a game I've heard a ton of positive press about in recent years. I saw the game for rent at my local library and decided now was as good a time as any to start it up. But alas, this start was a misfire, because the disc was so badly scratched it wouldn't install on my PlayStation. So I had to pivot quickly, and I decided I would start on something of another project: I am going to start playing through my backlog of PS plus games. And it was a starting point for Hades developer Supergiant games that led me to get started on said project.
I absolutely did not remember downloading Transistor, initially released in 2014, back in the early days of my PS Plus membership. It may have been part of the second or third group of games I downloaded. It was also an early entry in Supergiant's library, their second title and a followup to their highly regarded debut Bastion. I had never played Bastion, Hades, or any of their other titles, but I do remember having some level of interest in Transistor when I first saw it. It had an interesting graphical style and came on the heels of a highly recommended indie title (remember, this was back in the day before indie games were winning game of the year awards), so it was always one I considered checking out. It wasn't until now that I decided to take the plunge.
Transistor puts you in the shoes of Red, a popular singer in the futuristic city known as Cloudbank. Cloudbank was once a thriving metropolis, but it's denizens have all but disappeared, those who havent fled have been forcibly integrated by a rogue robotic collective simply known as the Process. This Process was created by a group called the Camerata, a collective of high ranking Cloudbank officials who's motives are unknown but obviously not good. They need to silence any dissidents, and Red is a primary target on their list. The game starts with Red having survived an attack, sitting next to a confidant who wasn't so lucky. Her voice has been stolen and her compatriot has been killed, but she isn't ready to admit defeat. She pulls a giant glowing sword, the Transistor, from the body of her fallen friend and ready to take vengance and restore the city. And she won't necessarily be alone in doing so, because the Transistor is much more than just a weapon. It has absorbed the concioussnes of her comrade, who helps to guide her along the way. They make their way through what's left of Cloudbank, ready to stop the Process and take out the Camerata members one by one.
It's a solid story that does an ok job of gradually unfurling as you play through the game. A lot of details are intetionally glossed over, but it's done intentionally here in an effort to force the player to connect the dots on their own. This can backfire spectacularly if done poorly, but it works alright here. Transistor does a fairly good job of world building despite it's minimalist storytelling. You definitely understand what kind of place Cloudbank is, as well as what kind of place it was before the Process took over. Red is an okay heroine, not one of my favorite all time characters but still a good one. I actually think it's pretty cool that she's a known commodity, most characters in games like this begin the game as ordinary people within their worlds. The fact that Red is a famous musician is kind of cool and I kind of wish this was explored more throught the game. Her relationship with her fallen comrade, who is never named, is very touching and getting to see more interaction between the two was probably the biggest story reason to keep playing. Overall I would say it was a nice story, but nothing earth shattering or essential to play.
The story also ties into the gameplay here, as the Transistor's ability to absorb the consciousness data of the deceased enables Red to learn new abilities. These unlock functions, which range from basic sword swings to area of effect detonations to movement skills. Each of these skills can be mapped to one of the face buttons, so you can have four active at once. However, that doesn't mean the other skills will sit unused. Because each function can also be used as a buff, either passive or active. Red will have a set amount of memory points, with each function taking up a set amount. Once your four functions are equipped, your others can be attached to them to provide an additional effect. For example, equipping the bounce function onto crash will cause your primary attack to spawn additional bouncing projectiles. You can also equip functions as passive buffs, though this doesn't become possible until much later. Honestly, this might be the single best part of the game. It was fun to try different builds and combinations and you could meaningfully tailor Red's abilities to your preferred play style without spending insane amounts of time doing so.
I probably should have lead with this, but Transistor plays like a fairly standard action RPG on the surface. Red can move around freely and attack enemies with each of her equipped functions. The big differentiator here is planning mode, which will allow red to pause the action and input a set number of commands, be they movements or attacks. Think V.A.T.S. from Fallout, but with a little more freedom of movement. Mastering this is essential, as it allows you to get into advantageous positions and perform combos on enemies, providing more damage. Against more powerful foes, you may even have to use it defensively to get out of their range. Getting a game over here is also a bit different. Red has a life bar just like you would see in any action RPG. However, once said bar is drained you will lose control of one of your functions rather than just die. You need to have all four primary functions fail in order to get a game over, which sounds like it would make the game a bit too easy. However, combat is balanced around this, as enemies hit fairly hard and later foes can drain your life quickly. In addition, any functions that do fail can't be restored until you have visited two separate save points, so losing too many of them can really force you to play sub-optimally. Combat is okay, a bit uninspired but technically proficient with more positive qualities than negative. I've seen better, but I've also seen far worse.
The biggest flaws here are absolutely linearity and extremely short length. I feel like I've been talking a lot about linearity in recent weeks and I feel like I keep going back and forth on what's too much, too little and just right for me. There won't be any of that debate here though as Transistor definitely fits firmly into the former category. Simply put, there is almost no level of exploration to be had here and the game is laid out almost more like a modern FPS than an action RPG. You walk along a predetermined path, fight a planned encounter, lather, rinse and repeat. You can occasionally avoid a foe or learn some additional information by making a small detour, but the differences this caused were barely noticable. The excellent graphics and relatively fun combat go a long way in making you not think about this, which definitely counts for something. However, that doesn't change the fact that you are basically walking in a straight line with the occasional fight for four to six hours.
Speaking of which, that's entirely too short for an RPG, even an action RPG like Transistor. I guess I would rather them not pad the game out with fluff, but I find this genre works best when games are around double that length, if not longer. I get that the storytelling is supposed to be fairly minimalist, but they could have used some time to flesh things out or do a little bit more world building. Maybe add some more bosses, or a super boss, or something gameplay wise. While it may have been painfully linear, the game wasn't a chore to play by any stretch and I would have been fine taking a little bit more time to beat it. A lot of games, especially indie games, from this era kind of adopted this cadance of a sub-5 hour, straight line story that was meant to be completed fairly quickly. A lot of the indie walking simulators from the era, stuff like Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch come to mind, played out at the same pace. But those games were more like interactive stories that had fairly minimal gameplay. Transistor's story was fine, but it wasn't even remotely on par with something like WROEF. It's appeal was really it's deep customization and you can't really fully grasp that over just a few hours.
Well, I guess they did include one way to pad out the length of the game, which brings me to my final issue with Transistor: the fact that there's a new game plus mode. Again, this is a topic that I've brought up before and I think that new game plus can be used to great effect. But I feel like a lot of modern games just tack these on for what seems like no reason, and Transistor might be the biggest culprit I've ever seen. What is the point of playing this game more than once? To my knowledge, there's no additional story, no special ending, no superboss and no additional areas to explore. So what am I playing again for? To play the same game but slightly harder? I have never understood that line of thinking, especially in a game in this genre in this style. Again, True and Ultimate Vault Hunter modes work in Borderlands because you are trying to get better equipment and fight special bosses. New Game Plus works in Chrono Trigger because there are a bunch of endings to get and your powered up party allows you to play less linearly each time. But neither of those apply here. Even if the game isn't difficult enough, there are already ways to make it harder by using limiters, which allow you to take on a handicap in exchange for earning more EXP. Again, I really don't see any point in playing through the same game more than once, especially because it was so linear in the first place.
While I don't think it was amazing, I can certainly see from playing Transistor why its developer is so well loved. It may have been very linear, but it had some good combat, a decent narrative and an outstanding customization system. I know it wasn't quite as well received as its predecessor and it certainly hasn't drawn the game-of-the-year-level hype that Hades has, but there's still plenty to like. That said, there really wasn't a whole lot of depth here and I can't ever see myself revisiting Transistor, even for a casual playthrough. That doesn't necessarily make a game bad, this game is certainly far from awful, but it's another factor I find myself weighing more and more heavily as I play through all these games. I wouldn't go too far out of my way to play Transistor, but it's definitely worth a run through and it's worth taking a look at for fans of Supergiant's other, more famous titles. Hey, if you've had PS Plus for as long as I have it's probably in your library already.
7/10
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