Transistor videogame review

Time for another game review, time for playing Transistor.

The game is developed by Supergiant games, makers of the RPG Bastion, which one I played on the Xbox and it is really good. So Supergiant made a new RPG, is it as good as their previous game or it's not. Well let's begin.


The story

The plot is quite linear, you play as Red a famous singer in a futuristic world. The game begins when some mysterious group tries to kill you with some futuristic sword but your agent/boyfriend saves you sacrificing himself.

In the confusion of this events you get your hands on the sword (The Transistor) and you discover your friend's mind is trapped inside the sword. From this point the game begins as well as Red's quest for justice and revenge. As I said, at the core the plot is simple, Red wants justice and you advance through the game dealing with the villains one by one uncovering the secrets behind this mysterious group motives.

What makes the game good is how this futuristic game is portrayed and the side stories you'll find across the game and the narrative style. For example most of the story related information is told to the player by the friend trapped in the sword who takes the role of the narrator and from time to time you'll find small but beautiful animated cutscenes. Also as you advance through the game other people ends trapped in the sword, with this come new powers, abilities and story. As every character that end in the sword come with a small story of his own in the form of a small text that can be read at any time. This subplots are quite interesting and help to develop the world in which the game takes place.


The gameplay

You play the game like some other action RPG games, from an isometric view you move Red in a mostly 2D world and use your sword to use different abilities and fight enemies. This is similar to many other games, whats interesting are two things you have the option to use a turn based system along with the real time action, this allows you to stop time and give a series of commands and attacks. The when time goes back to normal this actions are executed instantly. For avoiding this mechanic to be exploited it has reload time after you use it while you are mostly defenseless so it must be used with caution.

The other thing that makes the game really fun, is that you can equip and use only four abilities at any giving time. But more importantly is that the abilities you left unequipped can be used to upgrade the abilities you are currently using. This allows for and incredible amount of combinations and the game makes it fun to try and experiment.

The game also have some distractions, as you play you eventually find a place that works as your base, where you'll find practice battles to test your strategies and there are also challenges like beating some enemies within a time limit, or with a specific number of attacks or with some specific abilities.

Also once you have finished the game you can venture in the new game plus where you begin the game retaining with your level and abilities and facing more difficult enemies. I still need to finish this mode to see if there is any change in the story, but something I have noticed is that you receive again the same abilities you get in the first play but thanks to the upgrade system you can upgrade abilities with the copies of them, making all the duplicates you get quite useful.


Graphics and sound

Even being a PSN game, the graphics are quite good and several cutscenes are shown using really good drawings. Also as is the style of Supergiant's games the soundtrack is really really good. Even they added a mechanic where at the press of a button Red takes her sword and start to hum and sing to the rithm of the music, allowing you to enjoy the soundtrack.

As a final note as a game that costs 15$ on the PSN it totally worths it. And excellent story and gameplay, beautiful style and sound. Probably the only minuscule downside is that the gameplay with its strategy elements can feel difficult to more casual players. Specially in the late parts of the game and in the new game plus where more planning and strategy is required.