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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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.
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