I don’t play a lot, and finishing a game is something that happens so exceptionally that I thought I would mention here that I finished Transistor.
This is not the first game I’ve played by Supergiant Games –I had played Pyre before, but didn’t get far on it–, and I had listened to different podcast episodes commenting their games. When I saw that Transitor was very discounted on GoG, and that it should play fine in my machine, I jumped straight in. And I loved it!
The Wikipedia article says Transistor is an action role-playing video game, but that sounds too generic and I’m not completely sure it fits this game. I would say it is more a turn based RPG, but I see that it can be played like it was an action one. For me it was more a strategy game: you plan your turn, Red –the main character– executes it, and then you need to wait until you can run another turn. The enemies act in real-time and, although Red can move, she is vulnerable until you can plan your turn again.
It is a beautiful game
The world building and the mechanics on this game are fantastic. You fight against the process –some sort of computer entity that controls mechanical creatures and is invading the city–, and all the abilities your character gains in the game are “functions” in a programming mood that you can use in different forms: as a main move, as a modifier for an existing move, or as a passive move. As you gain more and more abilities, mixing those functions and knowing how to equip them to keep progressing is a real treat.
What I really loved in Transistor was the story: beautiful and tragic. The game looks amazing –isometric, all 2D!–, the voice acting is perfect, and the music elevates the whole package to a different level.
Is not easy, but not too hard either, because I’m not a great player and I managed to finish it. Is not a long game, but I found it a bit stressing and I played in small bursts of one to two hours. I think it was the right size for me, but even if I wanted it to be longer, I’m not sure how much they could have done considering the mechanics. The end affected me in a way that I didn’t feel like I wanted to do a game+ –as offered–, but may be some day now that I know the full story.
I have been playing more games, on and off, but nothing really for long enough to feel I wanted to mention it here. The last game I had finished was The Hand of Fate, which is quite different to Transistor!