Supergiant Games released Transistor in May of 2014. Some readers may be familiar with Bastion – Supergiant’s previous game – and should know that I went into Transistor with no prior knowledge of Bastion or Supergiant Games whatsoever.

Transistor was introduced to me by a good friend who’d had his eye on the game for some time. He strongly recommended it to me upon its release, insisting that it was well worth the time and money. I had very little idea of what to expect, but I went and bought it anyways to see what the fuss was about.

I became obsessed with the game. I played the game every spare minute I had, the artwork became my desktop wallpaper, and the soundtrack was the only music I listened to. Transistor was, and still is, the most enchanting game I’ve ever played.

First off, the game is just beautiful (Click to enlarge).

Some of the game is shown in still drawings, such as the first image, but the interactive world is all animated. Transistor‘s isometric art style gives depth to its two dimensions, and prevents it from feeling cramped.

The game’s setting is the city of Cloudbank, whose buildings and citizens are essentially representations of data or programs. The citizens of Cloudbank participate in polls that control virtually every aspect of the city, from weather, to sky color, to the construction of new bridges or buildings. Because the city is able to morph and change itself according to the whims of its people, it represents a unique, utopian world.

For the most part, Cloudbank contains features typical of real cities – a downtown area, a dock by the ocean, skyscrapers, roads, and so on. The constant green glow throughout the city is enough to tell you otherwise; besides that, there are teleportals, jump pads for skipping from roof to roof, and other things that only a digital world could feasibly have. Some areas even defy laws of physics or reality.

Many of the more interesting areas in Cloudbank are seen as you progress through the story, as if you were taking a guided tour. The rest of the seemingly vast city is left to the imagination, but the immersion leaves nothing to be desired.

Transistor plays like your average RPG, starting you off with a few abilities and granting you up to 16 as you level up and progress the story. Called “functions”, they cover a variety of effects – stun, invisibility, damage-over-time, and so forth. However, while each function has it’s own primary effect, they can also operate as augments to other functions, or passive upgrades.

For example, your stun ability can work with your “range” ability to attack and stun targets that are farther away. Or, your “area-of-effect” ability can work with your “charm” ability to turn a group of enemies to your side. Or, you can modify your “dodge” ability to grant invisibility and fire a homing projectile that deals damage over time. Or you can summon an ally that knocks enemies back with its attack, while healing you at the same time. And so on.

Gamasutra.com did an interview with Amir Rao from Supergiant Games, which provided some interesting insight on the ability system:

In Transistor, every time your health runs out, you lose access to your highest-value function and end up having to proceed without it at least for the remainder of the encounter before it becomes available again. If ever you lose every function in your action bar (which can be up to four in total), you reload at the last checkpoint. This ‘slow death’ might seem like a devious slippery slope, and perhaps it was for some players, but we found that it caused many players to try new function combinations as the ones they were relying on became unavailable for a short time. Better yet, they would often stick with these new combinations even after regaining access to their preferred combinations from before.

This tendency to “reward” ability choices that are effective (and used effectively) and “punish” players for ineffective choices is what makes the gameplay challenging and fun. Not every playstyle will work, and failure forces you to adapt and learn.

Adding another dimension to the gameplay is the “Turn” system.

You can attack enemies in real time, but for the large majority of combat you’ll be planning and executing “Turns.” In Turn mode, time freezes, the terrain simplifies, and you’re given a set limit of “potential” to plan out a series of attacks.

Admittedly, my initial reaction was disgust at a feature that allowed you to freeze time and plan attacks on immobile targets. In spite of my assumptions, the Turn system did not make the game as easy as I’d thought it would. Rarely does a single Turn wipe every enemy in the area, and your positioning before and after the Turn is executed is pivotal to your survival (since there is a waiting period before you can use it again). A certain tactical prowess has to be developed in order to make each turn as effective as possible. Backstab damage, and bonus damage for using combinations of skills (rather than the same one over and over), opens up new possibilities to creative players. There are even enemies that change position during the execution of the Turn, hide themselves during the turn planning, or disrupt and end your turn prematurely.

If that were not enough, the game continuously adds new types of enemies throughout your first playthrough, all of which upgrade themselves as you rise in level. You can also activate “limiters”, which boost the experience gained from each battle, but considerably raise the difficulty. Along with the ability and Turn systems, Transistor promises a wealth of diverse battle experiences.

Transistor’s plot is something I’ll let you discover for yourself. What I will say is that, for being in a digital world, it lives, breathes, and makes you feel as any great story should. The characters live in a bizarre world we’ve never heard of or imagined, but their actions are as human as anyone else’s. The distinction between what is right and wrong never truly settles as events unfold, and in the end, Transistor refuses to be a story that is easily defined or explained.

Lastly, Transistor‘s soundtrack is as much a work of art as the game itself – and in fact, the soundtrack is so well synced with the plot that I wouldn’t recommend listening to it unless you’ve beaten the game first (but if you’re itching for a sample, watch the trailers below). Darren Korb, who was also responsible for Bastion’s soundtrack, created an album that probably deserves its own genre – and although the sound is anything but mainstream, it’s not so unusual that its “inaccessible”, so to speak. Ashley Barrett lends her awesome voice for a few songs as well.

IN CONCLUSION

Whether you’re along for the artwork and soundtrack, or craving a new strategic challenge, or just really enjoyed Bastion, you really can’t go wrong with picking up Transistor. It doesn’t put all of its eggs into just the graphics, or just the gameplay; every part of the game feels polished, clever, and intentional. I fully support that it’s well worth the playthrough, and even a second playthrough after that.

REVEAL TRAILER

LAUNCH TRAILER

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– Roach