Transistor (PC) review "Brilliant."

Trust me, you don’t know what you’re in for. Transistor’s savoury reality and lavishness are all a warm, incandescent, honeyed trap in the style of Art Deco beauty. Supergiant Games can do no wrong, even when they layer a preposterously complex ability system and purposely leave out the tutorials.

Oh, I know they did that deliberately because good design is well understood - and professionally executed - by the developers. I could ramble on about that, and fans have delved deeply into the discussion of lore, which is meticulously written but also sketchy. The characters in Cloudbank live as we do, so there is no exposition; we, as players, are meant to draw our own conclusions. So we shall.

Having just come from Bastion, I trusted that Supergiant knew how to weave story, action, and mechanics into a good play, but I’ll be honest: As with any good love story, this is about a girl. In the introduction, a gorgeous painting of Red kneeling in front of a slumped male figure run through by a glowing sword ... that there is the mystery.

Let’s not be singular about Red’s beauty; she and everyone else are. It’s significant that “pinnacle” describes every attribute of Cloudbank and its inhabitants. Take your cue, player, because this is a game you play with your brain switched on.

We are acquainted with current events quickly, but mostly through osmosis – what we now call environmental storytelling. Life, and the lack of it, is all around us, and we discern important information as we play. We learn quickly that the dead fellow is now trapped in the sword, the Transistor. He guides us by responding to the world, just as we might.

Combat will set you on your psychological heels as you choose between real-time and pre-planned actions. Are you confident enough to react with your reflexes and customized abilities, or will you lean on a time-pausing system that quickly executes your attacks? Beware, as each has its vulnerabilities. Naturally, playing real-time means you’re only as good as your reaction time; pre-planning has a cool down after activation, during which you cannot retaliate against attacks.

Combat is as deep as its lore, and this rabbit hole can confound any player. As you obtain new abilities, an act of mercy, you can decide how best to use them. You have four slots into which they may fit as primary abilities or as augments to other skills. As you do this, you learn more about the cast of characters, a subtle yet notable reward.

Supergiant implements a “soft class” system here by allowing you to choose how you play and create the bonuses you want as your needs change. Play stealth or go toe to toe if that suits you; the choice is yours. The price for this, of course, comes in the form of the cost of death. Red never says die, but each time you run out of health, an ability is disabled until you can regain it by restoring your lost experience.

Most of the writing was too much for me, most of the time. I recognized it was brilliant, eloquent and detailed. Verbose when required, curt when not. Reflective of the personalities and of its reality. If Transistor is about one thing, it is the sanctity of love. Play through, tell me I’m wrong. Disagree, that’s perfectly fine, but I’m right.

I was at first shocked by the ending of Transistor, but as I pondered, it made sense, and I was profoundly grateful. Still am, in fact. When your needs are met, and you require nothing, only the needs of another can raise you above your comfort level to face the opponents of all you cherish. What does it say of Red that she is content to hum when she has lost her voice, her greatest asset?

She’s doing what she can to comfort the one she loves in their time of solitude and melancholy. The game got me in a way that few rarely have: I cried at the end. There is a very short list of games that can do that, and I’m glad this game is on it. Here’s me raising a controller for the games that take real risks instead of tossing played-out mechanics into a compiler.

The vocal and music performances in Transistor are top of the industry and deserve the accolades they have received. At first enrapt by the detailed artistry, I was swept up in the curious 1950s-themed musical score. Red - voiceless throughout the game - does not sing, but her luscious vocal performance sent chills through me. Without a doubt, the soundtrack is a worthy standalone purchase.

A New Game+ mode allows you to keep all previously acquired abilities. If you weren’t satisfied with your options on the last play-through, you’d get new copies of the same skills to mix and match with your inventory. How do hundreds of configuration possibilities sound?

If it wasn’t hard enough the first time, enemy difficulty is also ramped up. I should mention that this is a side note to the existing difficulty adjustment system that grants permanent bonuses that increase mob toughness. Supergiant knows how to scale difficulty, too, as it happens.

Transistor is a traditional love story in an unconventional setting. Everything about the game is gorgeous; it is a work of art and is supported by a carefully interspersed story. Such is its presentation that discussion is warranted, and that’s what art does best: communicate. On the technical side, it has relatively low system requirements, an award-winning soundtrack and challenging combat mechanics. All this, and it’s not overpriced.

Complexity is also the main drawback of Transistor. I would have liked a guide to help me understand exactly what I was doing with all those abilities, but I don’t regret figuring it out myself. It harkens back to old-school gaming but softens the blow of defeat, too. There are skill-based challenges to test your skills, but these don’t reward you with the satisfaction of improving them and access to world-class music.

The soundtrack sells copies of the game arguably better than any review can, so you might start there if you’re unsure how you feel about it. Hint: It’s a free listen on YouTube. This game is worth every bit the price of admission, and if you pick it up on sale, be sure to use the change to pick up the soundtrack because that’s probably on sale, too. Enjoy.

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Community review by hastypixels (December 28, 2016) Wisdom comes from effort and mistakes.