Transistor Review

Once you enter the world of Transistor, you are immediately playing the game. There's no hand-holding, explanation, or long-winded tutorial. There's the protagonist Red, her companion, which comes in the form of a strange sword that also serves as the player's narrator, and the road ahead of you.

Transistor is set in the city of Cloudbank, a futuristic metropolis with a cyberpunk vibe. Cloudbank is presented through a set of cameras that gives an overhead, isometric viewpoint of the world. As you progress through this city, you will encounter various terminals that convey brief updates on the current events in Cloudbank.

The terminals sometimes allow players to participate in a survey about the city's social events or even select the type of weather. These interactions give the player the feeling that the entirety of Cloudbank is actually run by a computer program, but leave enough ambiguity to avoid a definitive answer about what Cloudbank really is.

Within moments of entering Cloudbank, you encounter your first set of enemies, which the game largely leaves you to deal with on your own. Once the combat begins, a white boundary line appears, marking the start of a battle within an arena-type area. You are able to move about this area freely to attack or evade the enemy.

You will have the choice of attacking your enemy in real time with quick button presses, or you can opt to freeze the action for a more deliberate approach (or simply catch your breath). If you choose to freeze the action, you will be presented with a bar that represents how many actions you can take during your turn.

While you are planning your attack, you can see precisely how much of your bar is being used with a particular action, as well as how effective an attack will be against your enemy. If you're not satisfied with what you see, it's a simple button press to rewind and try something different.

Throughout the campaign, Red will level up and gain new attacks and abilities. You will have the option to assign the abilities as an attack or use them as a modifier on another attack.

Combining these abilities creates a new offensive ability, and up to two modifiers can be used per primary attack. This system enables extensive exploration to discover new, more powerful attacks.

Transistor also includes a negative modifier, which can be utilized by the player. These do things such as make Red weak to a certain type of attack, or when an enemy is defeated, shorten their potential respawn timer.

This negative modification comes with the positive effect of adding experience earned after a victory. It's a balanced risk-reward system, one in which the punishment isn't too harsh, yet the gains are also just enough to make you want to equip the modifier.

The enemies encountered throughout Cloudbank begin with the very simple, but ramp up steadily through the game. These enemies become tough enough that by the end, I was convinced that I wouldn't make it through any more encounters.

By utilizing the modification system to ensure I was using the best attacks for my play style, and methodically attacking and retreating, I was able to emerge victorious from these fights.

Playing through Transistor is an enjoyable, if formulaic experience, with the player advancing down a linear path, engaging in combat, and then advancing further down that path.

While there are some interactive points along this path that will give the player a glimpse into what happened to set the state for Transistor (as well as life in Cloudbank), there's not a lot of exploration or variation in the game.

With Transistor, Supergiant Games created a beautiful, unique, and enjoyable world. Unfortunately, the game is so focused that you're not offered the opportunity to really explore or experience this world.

I can't help but feel Cloudbank has more mysteries to experience and villains to combat, and that Transistor was only the beginning of something larger than this single game.