Transistor - sci-fi action-RPG from the makers of Bastion

[Grunker]

Honestly I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who didn't like Bastion. I felt huge shame when I had to drop this universally acclaimed boring game.

Bastion had some nice art, some great music and the narrator gimmick was fun for a bit. Actual gameplay however was utterly boring. I felt it was quite a letdown. From all the raving reviews I get the distinct impression that Transistor is the same. All show and no substance.

You'd be wrong. The combat system is much more fleshed out than Bastion's. The amount of ways you can combine ability sets to do fun shit is pretty staggering. You might not like it of course, and it's a fuckton more pretentious than Bastion, but the gameplay complexity is much greater.

 

[1451]

Combat is fun until you figure the optimal way of fighting. Then it becomes repetitive. I used Breach and had Purge+Void in passive slots. This allowed me to kill people from afar, it was very useful against those stealthy types who launched bombs at you. Additionally melee combat is tedious in this game because of the cubes growing from the ground and of bad controls.
My other skill was doggie(Help). I empowered it with Jaunt to use while my super power bar was recharging and Spark I think to make two doggies.

Every time I had to fight I spammed my lighting and then spawned doggies. Doggies are dumb as is AI in general in this game. Playing it again is too boring, same places same skills and no items at all. At least in Diablo you play for new items but here it's just for the feels.

I'd say it is worse than Bastion, I liked Bastion's ending more.

 

[Jestai]

I found the skill combo idea awesome. It gives lots of room for experimentation. The problem is that you need to enable all limiters for the game to be "a little" challenging, but since it prevents you from using all your memory slots, you have less combos available. The gameplay is fun and fucked up at the same time. "Turn" is nice, but spamming jaunt for 5 seconds during cooldown gets old right away, combos' visualisations are far from accurate and I felt like the game should have had more diverse encounters (only a few fights try something different than "popamole RTwP, rinse and repeat" and you don't really need to adapt to your enemies).

I didn't have a real problem the art direction, but i agree that it gets a little bit too artsy "for the sake of it" sometimes.

Now, fucking Transistor, how about you SHUT THE FUCK UP for a second? What the fuck with this sword really. A stupid voice telling 24/7 the most stupid love story I've ever heard while a stupid scenario unfolds. It's maddening how this game is in love with itself. It was ok most of the time with Bastion (I even found the narrator fitting in it), but they went 100 times over the top in this one. Oh my god, a little humility please.

I had fun with Transistor, but I was also clearly fed up with it when I reached the ending. That said, i'm pretty sure 90% of my enjoyment came from the skill system.


What's frustrating is that this game could have been a lot better.
IDEA: "Press X to random all your skills!".
IDEA: "Press Y to try unused skill combos!".
IDEA: "A real arena like in Bastion!".
IDEA: "Selecting your skills shouldn't be a 100 clicks chore!"
How hard was it to implement really?

 

[Infinitron]

Sales numbers:

Transistor Earns 70+ Industry Accolades, Sells More Than 600k Copies

 

[Blaine]

That's right, I'm a sizefag.

Where games are concerned, I'm a horny bitch, and you'd better last long enough for me to get mine. If you cum after two minutes, I'm kicking your ass to the curb and finding someone else.

 

[Roguey]

Another accurate (initial) prediction. It took a couple of battles to adjust, but I liked this isometric VATS more than than Bastion's pseudo-Diablo. The ability combinations were great and I liked how you had an additional narrative incentive to change your loadout (otherwise I probably would have stuck with the first combination that worked well enough with only minor variations). I liked the difficulty curve, though the final area dragged on a bit too much with samey-battles against those hair-exploding men. The narrative, art, and music were also comparable in quality to Bastion's. I'm guessing this wasn't received quite as well as that because the novelty of those elements wore off (this definitely feels like a game from the same studio). Good thing it was a success or I'd feel guilty about waiting so long and buying it from a sale.

As for whether it's a role playing game, it is not, you don't really make any significant decisions through your character that change the outcome of things in the world.

 

[pippin]

Judging by those numbers I guess I'm halfway through the game. Transistor is very good when it comes to aesthetics, both in visuals and sounds, but the combat itself was a bit dull and repetitive. Mixing the abilities is fun, but fighting monsters goes by pausing the action and stacking abilities. And you do that a lot.

 

[CryptRat]

Not a great game, and even less worth $20 but worth a (very short) playthrough.
The combat/enhancement system is fun ; the enemies are cool, but they are overused (the game would need a little more different enemies). The art and music are good. The story is OK.
It often feels too close to Bastion, the ending is disappointing (but not horrible) ; the lack of exploration is probably the only horrible point.
I preferred Bastion (better story and storytelling, especially the ending part, and it was not that ridiculously short), but I really hope they'll use some cool combat system again (similar to this one or not) for their next game.

 

[Severian Silk]

I could not find any threads discussing this game.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/237930

User reviews are very high. Graphics are nice.

 

[sullynathan]

music is pretty great and I just pirated it. Will try it out in several months.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I could not find any threads discussing this game.

Enjoy: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ipster-game-from-the-makers-of-bastion.81450/

Transistor is only marginally an RPG, but it does have an interesting customization system that allows for trying out many different builds in combat. It's lacking on exploration-related aspects, though, and it's also quite short, to the point where you need to continue in New Game Plus mode just to obtain all the combat customization options.

I suspect that most people's opinions of Transistor are ultimately determined more by their feelings about its atmosphere, music, and story than by the actual gameplay.

 

[abnaxus]

I want to be a thyristor.

 

[Llama-Yak Hybrid]

I want to be a thyristor.

You don't. Thyristor lyfe is tough one, everybody's concerned about shutting you down.

 

[Severian Silk]

It just occurred to me that the graphics look like a cross between Banner Saga and Shadowrun Returns. But I'm not able to really tell what's going on in the videos due to the bright colors everywhere.

 

[DraQ]

The title and titular transistor made me wince IRL due to causing me physical pain.
This is all I need to know about it and that qualifies the game as irredeemable turd without any need for further scrutiny.

tl;dr:

 

[RuySan]

The game looks amazing and has a great soundtrack. Gameplay is only ok though, and it's quite short. It's sales fodder basically.

 

[DraQ]

I want to be a thyristor.

You don't. Thyristor lyfe is tough one, everybody's concerned about shutting you down.

But once triggered you just keep going, which would make for a very politically correct game.

:feministrobot:

 

[Popiel]

Out of two Supergiant games, Transistor is the worse one. Music, art and atmosphere in general are spot-on, setting is interesting and believable for what it is, but game itself is fairly short (it's very well-paced story methinks, at least), and as for the plot, it's a simple revenge story with a little twist near the end. Gameplay is smartly done and for myself I liked it really much, but I surely get why some don't fancy Transistor's mechanics too much.

Would really like someone to give Supergiant Games some money. With Bastion and Transistor they showed us a lot of potential. About damn time they do something with it.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i like transistor more than bastion for some reason. love em both, but transistor has better feel and atmosphere, and the story is explained a little better.

 

[Llama-Yak Hybrid]

But once triggered you just keep going, which would make for a very politically correct game.

Good point.

 

[Sukhāvatī]