Transistor

Supergiant Games' second title, Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that carries over the core spirit of what made Bastion great all while innovating new mechanics without leaving narrative behind. The game was released for the Windows and PS4 on May 20, 2014, but also saw a Mac OS X release on October 30, 2014. 

everyone has a voice in cloudbank

If you've read my thoughts on Bastion, you might remember me writing about how much I enjoyed the game. It's been awhile since Transistor came out, but I've finally had the chance to experience playing the game.

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music, linguistics

From the devs: "Note: We highly recommend playing through the game before listening to the soundtrack, since the soundtrack is deeply connected to the game's story."

Red, a citizen and influential artist of Cloudbank, finds herself with a mysterious sword-like artifact and namesake of the game, the Transistor, after an attempt on her life. People are disappearing from Cloudbank and the digital custodians of the city, the Process, are beginning to wipe the city back to a white void. With the Transistor in her possession, Red will piece together what is happening to the people and city by tracing the Transistor's previous owners. Players will take on the role of Red as she traverses through the various locations in Cloudbank in a linear fashion, combat encounter after combat encounter.

Combat is based around four active abilities that Red can use called functions- these can include simple melee attacks like Crash() and Cull() or more utility based like Jaunt() (a blink) and Mask() (invisibility). Functions can be used in one of three ways: active, upgrade, or passive. Active abilities are the primary abilities you use in combat. Functions being used in an upgrade slot can augment active abilities. For example, I can upgrade Crash() with Mask() to give Crash() a bonus to backstabbing enemies. Finally, functions can be placed in a passive slot to give Red various effects depending on the theme of the function. Transistor has 16 different functions for players to experiment with and any function can be combined with another. You'll also unlock slots for additional upgrade, more memory to hold stronger functions, and extra passive slots as you level up.

"you always have a plan"

Transistor also features a mechanic called Turn(). Instead of fighting real time, you can also freeze combat with Turn() to plan your next set of moves. You only have a limited amount of actions you can spend on movement and using your abilities that you "program." After you're satisfied with your sequence, end Turn() to have Red execute the sequence at blinding speeds. The Turn() mechanic adds a healthy degree of strategy and opens up another option for players to alter their gameplay if they so choose to. By no means do you have to use Turn(), but it sure is nice to have, especially in convoluted fights to plan every move to get everything out of your abilities.

Red has a traditional health bar, but once that hits zero, you aren't done. Instead, your Transistor will overload, causing one of your actives to be disabled until you hit a certain number of checkpoints called Access Points. Once all four abilities are overloaded, you're out. Luckily, Access Points are plentiful but just right in scarcity to encourage you to swap out broken functions and experiment with different abilities, upgrades, and passives. Additionally, each function is actually the consciousness of a person trapped inside the Transistor. A full bio of the person can be explored by using the different functions in the three slots to unlock more information.

mask() and cull()

Similar to Bastion's shrine system of customizable difficulty, Transistor features Limiters that can be toggled from Access Points. Limiters allow you to increase the difficulty of the game but offers a small experience boost in return. Some are simple whereas others are huge game changers. Keeping up the encouragement of exploration, each Limiter also features a file on an enemy type for you to unlock and read up about once you have completed an encounter with the Limiter active. You'll most likely be turning on a couple of these at least, for Transistor suffers from Bastion's problem of end game balance- combat without the Limiters becomes absolutely trivial once several devastating function combinations are discovered; I'm talking two-shotting bosses kind of devastating.

One of my most favorite features of Transistor was the Sandbox, a kind of hub area that Red can retreat to from several backdoor access areas. Here you can listen to the Transistor's thoughts and unlock musical tracks through a variety of different challenges that are sure to offer you different gameplay experiences. Given a preset of abilities, you must then satisfy each test's conditions to win. They start off easy, but will provide a fair challenge in no time.

"you have something more"

This all amounts to what I absolutely love about Transistor: instead of simply crafting an experience for players, the developers of Transistor have provided the tools for players to craft their own experience. I thought that gaming commentator and critic John "TotalBiscuit" Bain put it well when he said in his review of Transistor that the game "respects the player." Transistor does not force exposition or train you onto a "this-is-what-you-need-to-do" kind of hand-holding and instead allows the player to explore the game's deep mechanics and narrative at his or her own pace.

With regards to pacing, however, I do have a complaint that the first thirty minutes of gameplay was pretty confusing to me. Figuring out how the function system worked and navigating a fairly clunky user interface to swap abilities was a bit of a frustrating struggle.

spine of the world

I just want to emphasize how well meshed Transistor's mechanics and narrative are. Digital consciousness is a hallmark motif of Transistor and it is reflected in the game's atmosphere, presentation, and gameplay. Transistor's visuals, sound design, and soundtrack are all beautifully and masterfully done. Once again, the narrator plays a role, albeit a smaller one this time, proving that Supergiant Games don't have to rely on a simple gimmick to propel their games forward. The world of Cloudbank is interactive: terminals and observation points provide tidbits about the world and if the player plays detective for a little bit and place the puzzle pieces together, nuances and fine details about Cloudbank become clear. Isolation is also a theme in Transistor as only fledgling contact with peoples in Cloudbank and other players are also subtly felt and seen if you pay attention.

The attention to detail and direction all point to how much love and passion has gone into the development of Transistor. Without giving away too much, the story is satisfying and explores ideas such as transcendence and voter efficacy. Bastion set a grand standard of excellence for Supergiant Games and sure enough they deliver once more with Transistor.

Depression Quest

Developed and written by Zoe Quinn utilizing the Twine Engine, Depression Quest is a choose your own adventure interactive fiction that explores the themes and experiences of living with depression.

is this just a stock logo

“Depression Quest is a game that deals with living with depression in a very literal way.”

“The goal of this game is twofold: firstly, we want to illustrate as clearly as possible what depression is like, so that it may be better understood by people without depression.”

“Secondly, our hope is that in presenting as real a simulation of depression as possible, other sufferers will come to know that they aren't alone, and hopefully derive some measure of comfort from that.” 

“After all, that's all we can really do with depression - just keep moving forward. And at the end of the day it's our outlook, and support from people just like you, that makes all the difference in the world.”

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To me, one of the most fantastic things about video games is the active role of the audience; the experience presented is interactive and (hopefully) engaging. Games have been able to mold and explore all kinds of themes and messages both lighthearted and grim. Depression is certainly more on the grimmer side, but it’s such a fragile and personal experience; how can one even begin to explore it? —It’s like trying to explain what chocolate tastes like to someone who has never tasted chocolate before. Although Depression Quest holds good intentions in acting as a tool for someone to begin to understand depression, the game’s limited narrative presentation and lazy execution fails to uphold its goals of exploration and understanding of depression.

So here’s the premise of Depression Quest: you’re a male in his twenties working a dead-end job while juggling relationships with family members, a girlfriend, all while trying to stay motivated to continue functioning. As with most choose your own adventure games, Depression Quest offers you a prompt with options on how to act. There is musical accompaniment that is mostly a looping track with subtle changes in tone when the story takes place in differing areas and paths. And that’s about all you can say about gameplay, which is fine—by no means is complexity a singular ingredient for success. So what about the narrative and the depth of the choices available?

which one is the paragon branch

The choices in the scenarios are all black and white and carry no weight to them. Every time I was given a prompt, I knew what the “good” and “bad” options were. Now, I’ve never been clinically diagnosed with depression, but I think it would seem patronizing to any with depression to give a “right” and “wrong” response to everything so blatantly. The focus on actions rather than what prevents you from taking other, more positive actions (you can’t do that because you’re too depressed) is a hugely wasted opportunity to actually explore the intricate emotions associated with depression other than simple lack of motivation or stress. With a condition like depression, there are rarely any clearly defined paths to take and trying to present depression to people who have never experienced depression before in such a manner feels like a huge injustice. The choices in the game are boiled down so much—“Do you want to go to therapy?” the game will ask you; “Yes” or “No”? It’s a no brainer; there’s no point in thinking about the actions you take. Depression can be a chronic, lingering lull and to reduce it to such a small frame of reference is hardly effective in representing depression to others.

That isn’t to say the game isn’t noble in its intention. You have to remember: this game is meant as a tool for understanding and, despite its simplification and superficial outlook on depression, it is exactly that. Depression Quest gives a window into the world of depression forged by the developer but that window is small and murky. But Depression Quest is still an outreach; it’s an extended hand to show people with a similar case that they aren’t alone, and that is cause for applause.

I can’t shake off the feeling of disconnect between myself and “You.” I was thrust into the shoes of the protagonist “You,” but I didn’t feel like I could really empathize with “You” as a player. There was just such a disjoint knowing that “You” wasn’t me. It felt like the narrative was imposing a character onto me rather than me placing myself into the story, but in a forceful and unnatural way. The game was telling me how I should feel and that disconcerting notion simply did not resonate in my understanding of depression.

You know, in retrospect, maybe that’s what the game was going for all along: the seeming image of control and knowing what’s good for you, but having the simple inability to act on them because of unexplainable reasons. There isn’t a why or how, there’ just a you-just-can’t mentality associated and ingrained with depression. Perhaps this is what Depression Quest was trying to depict, but maybe I’m reading between the lines a little too much.

you can click to enlarge photos

To understand the abstract, it is often helpful to create a simplified model. Unless you have experienced depression first hand, there may never be an adequate recreation of the emotional and physical experiences associated with depression. Depression Quest tries to simplify depression with good intentions of deconstructing depression for better understanding, but instead it may have gone too far in its demolition.

There are a lot of reviews and critiques out there bashing the game for various reasons- it’s too short; I have depression and this game didn’t help me; the game misrepresents depression; I can’t get into the story—I can’t help but feel that these people have missed the point of what Depression Quest is really all about. The game is the amalgamation of the experiences of the developer and several other people; it’s like a case study. Depression Quest isn’t supposed to be a voice for people with depression. The game isn’t going to be representative for all cases, but it’s one of the small keys to unlocking an image and understanding of what really goes on with depression.

I’m all about taking anything from a bad experience so I’m just going to finish with this suggestion: Depression Quest, like depression, isn’t something you have to experience alone. Tell some friends about it and go through it and maybe talk about the game’s merits or demerits. It could be the worst game you’ve ever played, but maybe you can find something worth a pat on the back.