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| Red and Transistor. Image belongs to Supergiant Games. |
Transistor is an isometric action game with some light RPG elements. I would say that sums it up best and is comparable gameplay-wise to Bastion in many of these aspects. The focus on the game is Red, a popular musician in the futuristic city of Cloudbank, which is part cyberpunk and part art deco. At the beginning of the game you are introduced to Red and the Transistor, which is a giant sword plunged into a mystery man that Red retrieves. However, it is not merely a sword but one that is imbued with intelligence and a voice. It's Transistor that provides the game with the bulk of the narration, guiding Red through the streets and rooftops of Cloudbank as she battles the Process, a type of robot legion, and searches for the Camerata who originally ordered her dead.
The story is very intriguing and I kept playing and searching through regions of the city to find little hints of story as they are strewn everywhere. Studious scavenging will reveal you with a great deal of backstory and even simple activities like voting at computer terminals gives you some insight into the world that has been created. The story and narration are key here, as is the beautiful world that you are presented with, but it is the use of music that really stands out in this game. Red is a musician so it goes without saying that music is a key to this game, and whether it is from her songs to the electro-infused jazz pieces that make up the games score, this game is an aural treat. With this soundtrack coming right after the outstanding Child of Light soundtrack, it's been a great year for music in games without a doubt.
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| The city of Cloudbank. Image belongs to Supergiant Games. |
Combat however is the meat and potatoes of this game as you will be doing a lot of it, and guess what, it doesn't disappoint. At the start of the game you have a mere two combat actions, a basic close-range attack and a projectile attack. As the game progresses you gain access to more functions, which are the skills you can either equip as prime actions or you can set as support actions to increase the power of your main functions. This allows for a fair amount of customization and the ability to change your loadout, as it were, and whenever I got a new function I was always keen to see what it could do or how it could affect the others.
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| Red and Transistor and a stranger? Image belongs to Supergiant Games. |
When in actual combat however you can opt to play it a couple of ways. You can maneuver the combat areas in real-time and use your attacks instantaneously without repercussion to how many actions you can take. The other way is to initiate a Turn which pauses the combat and lets Red move freely and use her actions. However each one takes away from her Turn bar and after you un-pause the game and let loose with your attacks, you will be left open for a time while your Turn bar refills. This leads to many decisions to be made in combat and quite a bit of risk-reward which I really enjoyed. As well, if you are to die in combat (which does happen) you will be revived but will be missing one of your functions. As long as you have functions left you can keep fighting but you will be hindered by the absence of needed abilities. It's never the end of the world and you get them refilled at the end of combat, but I enjoyed it as it added extra complexities to an already engaging battle system.
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| Red taking on a Jerk. Image belongs to Supergiant Games. |
All in all, I enjoyed my time in Cloudbank. The world and characters have a great amount of depth to them, and the Transistor himself and his narration offer a great deal to the experience that Supergiant has created. With a great combat system, and a new-game plus mode to offer some additional replay value, Transistor is a game that should be added to your PS4 collection.
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