Every so often a game is launched that is so unique, artful and intelligent that it takes your breath away. right now for me that game is Transistor.
Created by SuperGiant Games, whose previous game Bastion was equally beguiling, Transistor tells the story of Red a singer in a dystopian digital world who has had her voice stolen by a shadowy agency. She is accompanied by the Transistor, a huge sword that contains a living soul. It is this soul that narrates the game and their relationship and how they came to be in this predicament is shrouded in mystery.
Transistor is certainly mysterious, SuperGiant Games grant their audience with the intelligent to piece the story together for themselves. They don’t spoon feed you banalities like so many games but instead introduce characters and situations slowly to maintain the mystery and make you engage and connect with the characters fully.
The game is played from an asymmetric view with a fixed camera which does very rarely hide the action, but never in a way that reduces immersion or makes the game unplayable. Graphics are colourful, well animated and have a very unique feel; almost Blade Runner mixed with Tron.
Gameplay is a mix of exploration, real time combat and strategic planning. You can pommel away at enemies with the sword in real time but this is not the most effective tactic you can employ. With a tap of R2 time freezes and you can move Red freely around the environment to plan moves to best decimate your adversaries. Each action has a cost and once you have spent all your points tapping R2 again will unleash the pain. you will then have to engage or evade in real time until the action bar recharges allowing the next bit of strategic brilliance.
This mechanic works exceptionally well and keeps combat fresh and interesting. There is also an upgrade system that means you can attach active and passive skills to the Transistor in any combination to match your playing style.
As you probably can guess I love this game and it is currently on PSN for £14.99, worth every penny in my opinion.
Check out my video below to see it in action
and as always… Happy Gaming
Mike Checks Out… Transistor