Twisted Transistor

I’ve been on a pretty big hiatus from Gamer Basement over the past few months because I haven’t found the free time to play any games, let alone blog about them, but my fantastic PS Plus subscription threw a free game at me this month that hauled my lazy ass out of retirement.

I was extremely pleased to see that one of my favorite developers, Supergiant Games, released their newest game, Transistor, in May of last year and it was released for free on the PS4 for PS Plus subscribers this month. I had already played their first title, Bastion, last year when I picked it up off a Humble Bundle and I was blown away. They stepped up their game this time with Transistor. I’m only roughly 5 hours into the game but I had an extremely hard time putting down my controller.

Supergiant Games had a great formula for Bastion. They stuck to what they’re good at and amped it up for this new one. Bastion was a work of art more than it was a video game. That game didn’t try and dazzle you with over-rendered graphics and pretty flashing lights. The essence of these titles is the artistry. It’s not about frames per second, projectile physics, DLC or season passes like all those AAA titles. It’s about immersing yourself into a story. The environment is visually captivating in a minimalist kind of way and the dialogue has me hanging on to every word. It’s been a while since I’ve gone through my schedule to see where I can clear a spot just to play games, but this one has me cancelling some lesser activities. Who needs groceries, right?

I won’t get into the story very much but it revolves around the main character, Red, who is a singer in this weird world and she wields The Transistor. The Transistor is a strange weapon that looks kind of similar to a circuit board fashioned into a sword. The weapon has a voice of its own; actually, it’s the only voice because the premise of the story is that some people have stolen Red’s voice. He serves as a narrator and also tells you where to go. The game slowly starts to piece together a back story as you move along because they just throw you in from the get-go with very little explanation as to what’s going on. Red is under attack by enemies called “The Process” and you have to fight your way through waves of different types of them.

The combat system for Transistor is pretty cool. I haven’t figured it all out yet because it’s incredibly customizable. As you advance through the game you’re given different moves to assign to your X, Circle, Triangle and Square buttons. Each button can hold one active move plus up to two upgrades and there’s 4 slots for passive skills that are always in use. Each skill is called a “Function” and they do different things based on how you use them. For example: the “Breach()” function, when placed in an Active slot, allows you to shoot enemies through walls but if you have it as an Upgrade function it will accelerate most functions and raise their range and velocity. If you add the Bounce() function as an upgrade to Breach() you can have your Breach() projectile bounce to other targets. As a Passive function, Breach() will gain more planning potential for your “Turn()”. Your “Turn()” is a really wicked turn based form of attacking. You’re free to button mash your functions all you want but if things get dicey and you need to take out multiple enemies fast you can active Turn(). This will allow you to map out your next few moves. It stops time and allows you to plan your attack strategically. Most functions can cause effects that will complement the power of your other functions. Each function will take up a different amount of Turn() time, depending on how strong they are.

It’s been interesting trying to combine all the different functions to see what different moves I can create. They each take up a varying amount of memory in your memory bar so you can only use so many but the bar is upgradeable when you level up. When your health bar hits zero during a fight you don’t die. Instead, you end up losing a random Function for that fight and don’t get it back until you reach a special terminal that allows you to change up your skills.

I can’t wait to dive back into this game when I get the time because I am thoroughly enjoying it. If you’re a PS Plus subscriber do yourself a favour and get this game. Even if you’re not a subscriber it’s only $20 on the PS Store and it’s also available on Steam. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have.

Later Days.