Transistor - Thoughts
Transistor is the 2nd game developed and released by Supergiant Games, the same studio that brought you fantastic games like Bastion and Hades. Transistor was released in 2014 and is a futuristic turn-based action role playing game in which you control Red, a pop singer who has lost her voice. She also wields Transistor, a giant sword which contains her voice but also the consciousness of a man who was murdered.
Hades - Thoughts
The game received pretty good reviews from critics and was nominated for tons of video game awards and managed to win a few including Best Graphics - Art from IGN’s Best of 2014 and Best Strategy game from Gametrailer’s Game of the Year Awards.
What I Liked 😃
Supergiant’s Strengths
No matter the overall thoughts on any Supergiant Games game, it’s undeniable that every single game made by the studio knows how to make a game with style. Transistor is virtually dripping with it. The character design of Red, the protagonist, is so striking. Red is a beautiful woman with short bright red hair. She’s decked out in high heel boots and some sort of stylish fur coat. The Transistor sword is so big that she drags it on the ground behind her, causing sparks to fly. However, when she needs to wield the sword, she is more than capable. The setting is ripped from future film noir like the film Blade Runner, with futuristic buildings towering overhead, large digital signage, and science fiction inspired motorized vehicles speeding along in the background. The game presents an interesting place to inhabit with lots of mystery both explored and unexplored.
Tell Me About It
Supergiant Games also excels at narration. Bastion had the old man who narrated all of the boy’s actions. Hades’ narration was handled by its protagonist, Zagreus. And Transistor is mainly narrated by the Transistor sword. Red is a silent protagonist - other than a few grunts here and there - and so it’s up to the sword to provide context via spoken word. And just like those other games, the narration and voice work are superbly executed. The Transistor’s voice is deep and has a slight mechanical bent to it. But it’s also clear that there is emotion there, a soul trapped inside an unescapable void. This also goes hand in hand with the film noir motif. Besides the usual story-based narrative, the sword will comment on everything from the cityscape in the background to posters on walls and will even provide some commentary about enemies.
My Turn
The combat in Transistor is interesting. The developers decided to take a turn-based approach with combat. As you near a group of enemies, the world transitions(heh) from real time to turn-based. The visuals change from a science fiction cityscape into something more cybernetic. The abilities Red can execute are functions that are executed against the robot enemies (probably too much programmer speak) that I found very appealing being a software developer. Red and all the enemies have a number of “actions” per turn and the strategy involves figuring out where to move, which enemy to attack and what abilities to use. Once the actions are chosen, everything plays out in real-time. And of course everything is stylish as heck.
The big twist is that you can disable the turn-based mode and attack in real-time as well. This comes in handy when you need to maneuver around an enemy or if there are smaller enemies that don’t require as much strategy. The turn-based mode is also used to solve some puzzles like opening barricades.
What I Didn’t Like ☹️
What in Red’s Name is Going On?
The initial set up of Transistor is simple enough: Red has lost her voice, has witnessed a murder and finds a sword with the voice of a person inside of it. Normal, run of the mill stuff. Where it starts to get confusing is everything after that. People and places are mentioned and then never really explained. The game presumes you know this information for some reason. There are short biographies of some of the main characters you run into, but you have to be willing to stop and read those and the text provided is about all you get. I never got a sense of why the world is in the state it is in. I never established much of an emotional connection with any of the characters, not even Red. And at the end of the day, I came away not caring about the story at all and in fact almost immediately forgetting a lot of what I knew. It was a complete shock because I had played Bastion and Hades, with Hades being one of the best combinations of story and gameplay that I’ve ever experienced. But I have to remember that making games is iterative and Hades wouldn’t have been as good as it was without Transistor. Also, I could be in the minority here and the story is clear as crystal and very good. You can let me know in the comments.
Short Circuit
Transistor is quite the short game. I started the game on a Christmas day and finished three days later. And those three days included traveling to family’s homes, opening gifts and consuming large holiday meals. I was actually shocked when I realized I was nearing the end of the game. The website How Long to Beat shows that the main game can be completed in about 6 hours which seems about right from my recollection. Doing everything else in the game takes about 10 hours more than that, but I wasn’t enjoying the game enough to fully complete it. There are “tests” that can be completed. Tests are challenges that are separated from the main world that net extra experience and music tracks. The music tracks are a neat reward, and the tests do force you to hone your skills more, but they ultimately aren’t worth it unless you are a completionist. I completed a few and moved on.
Overall Thoughts 🤔
Transistor is a unique game, that much is certain. It’s set in an interesting cyberpunk-y Blade Runner-y world and is oozing style and presentation. The voice work is top notch as is common for Supergiant’s games. I also liked the idea of the combat system. However, I had no idea what was going on story-wise because there wasn’t enough plot to make sense or maybe because the game was trying to be too cool for its own good. I think we needed more exposition so that we could connect with Red and the sword. I think Supergiant learned a lot from Transistor and future games like Hades were better off because this game came first.
Where Can I Play This?
Transistor can be played on the PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch.
I played the game physically on the Nintendo Switch.