Transistor - Released & Review Roundup

Couchpotato

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Supergiant Games new ARPG game Transistor is now available on Steam for $19.99. I also managed to roundup a few new reviews that are mostly positive for the game.

Gamespot - 8/10

Transistor is a fun action role-playing game with a neat combat system, but beautiful moments like these make it more than that. They make it a game with a soul.
Hardcore Gamer - 4.5/5

Transistor is one of the strongest games of 2014 so far. Its unique take on standard video game practices make it feel undoubtedly fresh. With strong combat, great enemy design, and a lovely story.
Leviathyn - 9.5/10

For fans of Bastion, Transistor is even better, and a must buy for anyone looking for an exciting new take on turn-based combat and ability customization. Also Logan Cunningham.
PC Gamer - 80/100

A brilliant and rewarding combat system propels a story that never becomes as interesting as it seemingly should.
IGN - 9/10

Transistor is a wildly smart action-RPG that places all of its trust into your intelligence.
Only SP - 9.5/10

Transistor is a beautiful, confident exploration of art and music with rich combat and a heartfelt story.
Destructoid - 8.5/10

Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding it back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
Eurogamer - 9/10

Enjoy the artful approach to science-fiction, enjoy the hoops Supergiant's jumped through to position you in the right place to engage with its combat, and you can even enjoy the very fact that the game often struggles to get its deeper messages across.
Polygon - 8.5/10

Transistor may look like another pretty face favoring style over substance. It’s oozing with style and aesthetic charm, and it drew me into its weird and wonderful world immediately. But its beauty is outshined by combat deep enough to sink into for hours and hours. The game’s vision is intoxicating, and its execution is inspired.
More information.
 
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I loved Bastion so this is instant buy for me, but I probably won't be able to play it before weekend.Those are very positive reviews, looks like dev hasn't disappointed.
 
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ppl say its very much different than Bastion, so dont expect the same thing...
 
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Imho the game is quite overrated and gets a lot of sympathy because it’s from the bastion guys and because it’s quite artsy.
But as a Game I don’t think it works particularly well.

The German Magazine GameStar.de gave it a 74% and called it “too clever to be fun”.
Well, of course with the rating system which is commonly used today all games which actually run already get 60%+ upwards anyways.

Personally I wouldn’t recommend the game. Played it for 2-3 (out of the 5-7 hours needed to complete the game as it seems) and just didn’t have fun. This is what I wrote on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197997012035/recommended/237930

Where Bastion scored with simplicity and threw you right in an involving albeit abstract story where you had fun with the narrator, the spark in Transistor just doesn't ignite.

The story is even more abstract, and what gave you some familiarity in bastion (like talking about the inhabitants, telling you where they lived and what they used to do) you play a singer in Transistor, who was kinda attacked…and pulled a speaking electronical sword out of a dead guy which…eats souls which are actually programs…let's say it's very abstract or "artsy" and does not provide much familiarity. You don't really know/ understand what is happening and what you are doing.

It's about the same with the combat. In Bastion you run around having fun beating on stuff, testing out weapons, destroying objects in the game world. In Transistor there are no objects in the game world which can be destroyed (besides of white blocks) the enemies (evil programs) aren't as plastic as in Bastion and the combat doesn't feel really like one big working mechanism. You hit "turn", can plan for the next couple of seconds, and then hit "turn" again where all the actions are executed. However the planning doesnt feel very good, as it's inexact and you need to issue some orders multiple times "to get them right". It requires some fiddling with the controls and the "planning tool" (holding attack button) might show that it hits enemies, which it actually isn't. And after you executed one turn…you need to either fight in unprecise, hectical action combat or flee and run like a little girl and wait till the "turn" button is ready again. This just doesn't feel fun.

And there is the skill system. The skills are souls/programs which you can combine with each other which gives a lot of options and sounds nice on paper. But it doesn't really feel like "I need to try this out!" and rather "ok…now how do I built something with it which is at lease somewhat useful?" Also the overview and Interface of the skills isn't really well done and explained well.

The game is actually doing not a great job in explaining several of the mechanics and what is happening in the game. t throws you into the game, gives a hint now and then but you don't feel like you know what you are doing. Something which simply could not happen in Bastion.
Bastion scored with simplicity. You got a bow, shot with it, tweaked it, and it just felt "right".BEsides of that Transistor is also a really short game with it's 5-7h though it has an additional mode with random enemies to bring replayability if this is really what you want.

Therefore I do not recommend this game. If you don't mind the whacky combat and find the abstract story involving, you might be interested. And if you didn't play Bastion yet - get that one instead.

I am aware that some people won't like it if I write a negative review about a game which "must be good, because these guys made bastion" (and who might not even read these lines and downrate it right away) but I think I am intitled to say that Transistor does not live up to the expectations and just doesn't feel right. Switching to a more tactical combat isn't bad. I am a big tactics fan on my own. But it's not well implemented and doesn't feel good and fun.
 
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From what i read in your critic i can conclude that u expected a simple game to smash and destroy stuff and u cant get over this - ur criticizing skill system basically saying that its overcomplicated and u didn't bother to explore what different combinations do.

All in all u expected this to be Bastion 2.0 and u cant accept that this is actually a different game.

Is that it?
 
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No, what I am saying is, that this would have been a better choice.

I am a tactician by heart and on paper I should prefer Transistor over Bastion, but I didn't. I was hooked by Bastion due to it's weird style and humor. While the combat was not my thing it felt good. Maybe you played any of the Diablo games. One reason for their popularity is because the combat "feels good", you get good audiovisual feedback. That is completely independent on whether you like the combat system or the rest of the game at all.

But this is not the case in Transistor. The combat doesn't feel good, it's not implemented well, it's fiddling, it's components don't work together. You don't have a good idea about what you are doing and in addition it is also quite easy.
Yes, there are skill combinations and as I wrote it sounds good on paper. But the interface for that isn't good and also due to the unprecise fight and low difficulty they don't really feel important or relevant.
It's like I give you 4 skills with 3,4,5,6 damage and you need to add them together to 2 skills. Will you chose a 7 and 11? Or a 9 and 9? At least to me it felt exciting like this.
The combat feels repetitive and boring. And even the music, one of the highlights of bastion, isn't on par here. I almost felt annoyed by the music change every time I hit turn() to get into the planning phase.
 
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Just as an example I uploaded a snippet from one of my recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAXF9S37ek

These targeting discrepancies don't happen all the time, but they represent very well how the combat as a whole feels.
 
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I see, hopefully they will fix these issues with commands not working properly etc. in upcoming patches.

But u were saying that combat is easy - isn't there a way to increase dif. in similar way as those totems in Bastion?
What if u dont use pause at all, does this make game more challenging?
 
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Yes, you can increase the difficulty by adding "limiters". They add something nasty and at the same time they give you more experience. They are not explained really in the game though as many other things aren't. Btw: as with tipps like "you can press to enter planning mode", you also get a hint like "When not in combat, press Q to flourish". But it never tells you what this does. The answer is in the forums: A Developer lifted the mystery and said, that it does nothing. Great. As I said, the game is artsy and forgets to be practical.
But back to limiters. While it is possible to use them and increase difficulty later on (you don't have these limiters available in the beginning or not to an extend to make it hard), at some point this would also feel like crippling yourself.
Personally I prefer to set the difficulty right in the beginning and make it unchangeable. I always set games on hardest to force me though it, even if it's just for own satisfaction to achieve something and maybe a steam achievement. But here you don't really have such an "hardest setting". Or at least it rather feels like "ok, now play doom with chainsaw only". I mean, such a mode is a cool addition. But the base difficulty should be ok.
In transistor you have HP and when you would die, you get an additional pause mode, and when you die again, you lose one skill temporarily and when you die again, you lose another one temporarily, and then when you die, you lose another and then…when you die again…you lose the last one.
This again - is never explained in the game.
I didn't even play that long as I mentioned before. I had two limiters (both active), played about 2,5 of the 5-7h and had one situation where I lost one of these skills temporarily (btw, you get full hp after each fight - something most of the old-school gamers hate in shooters, but here suddenly nobody bothers about it).

Let me quote PCGamer here
(http://www.pcgamer.com/review/transistor-review/)
Combat is on the easy side, though—I only died twice throughout the game, and I played at least half of it with a combination of "limiters" equipped.

Limiters unlock throughout the game and make the Process spawn in greater numbers or hit harder or gain protective shields. Fighting with limiters engaged earns Red more experience. I could've made Transistor even tougher, but I enjoyed the balance I found with three out of 10 limiters equipped. I never want to use the limiter that reduces my memory pool, for example, because then I couldn't have as much fun combining functions.

With three limiters engaged, I did bottom out my health bar in some of Transistor's more intense fights. But that's not a death sentence—it overloads and disables an active function, restores your health, and lets you fight on. This led to some of my favorite battles, as I suddenly had to figure out how to finish off the Process with my go-to damage abilities disabled. I finished one battle with a single active function left. When they're all gone, it's lights out.

I guess in the end the thing about limiters and difficulty is a matter of taste.
But personally I don't like this way of doing it - and in the first hours (again, this game is only 5-7h long) you don't have a choice anyways.
 
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What if u dont use pause at all, does this make game more challenging?

Sorry, totall missed out that one.
The developers mentioned in a presentation that people who don't like the planning phase can just not use it and play in action mode.
While that is possible in theory, it's impractical.

First, units are moving in a speed which makes them hard to hit. In real time it's much harder to hit anything. Skills take longer and remember that all enemies kinda hover, which gives it a little bit of additional uncleariness about where your strike needs to land.
In addition the "turn" mode isn't just to plan like the next couple of seconds. Everything you plan will be executed in a compressed timeframe. Meaning you hit faster, you run much faster and so on. In addition you can make sure you hit everything as you can plan every single strike in a way that it hits (well, some might not hit due to movement, but that is the exception due to the compressed timeframe).
Meaning out of the turn mode you don't do much damage but die rather quickly. The Game is designed arount the planning mode. So your job in the 4-5 seconds or so is to not get hit aka "running like a little girl". It's not really fun, but maybe necessary to appreciate the turn function more.
 
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Bastion was meh (with some style) - and I wonder if this will be any better....
 
yeah, its pretty weak

dont feel immersed at all. maybe its for hipsters

combat is smart, but needs work. probably the next game will nail it
 
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