Transistor

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Transistor is a Top-Down Action-RPG from Supergiant Games, the same folks who made Bastion, and they’ve managed to build on the strengths of that title while striking out into new areas and creating something truly unique.

As with Bastion, this game is just oozing with personality, thanks largely due to its wonderful narration by the huge sword your character lugs around. However, this game takes it a step farther by placing you in a fascinating lived-in futuristic world, where you’re trying to piece together as best you can what has happened and where the protagonist fits into things.

The action here is really clever, with real-time combat interspersed with the ability to freeze time and set up a series of attacks to happen automatically at high-speed once time resumes. It gives a good blend of action and strategy as you decide how to best use your limited time, where to position yourself for the most effect, and how to best go about surviving as your ability to stop time recharges.

This in itself is already a wonderful approach to the genre that’s absolutely refreshing and unique, but it’s pushed even farther by the player’s ability to change your loadout between rounds, which becomes a game of finding the best combination of character abilities.

See, you can only have four abilities equipped at any given time, and remaining abilities act as enhancements for your active abilities, with each ability doing something different in action, and changing active abilities in different ways when it’s acting in supplement of that ability. The result is a wonderful amount of flexibility in changing not only what moves you have access to, but the details of how those moves work.

If I were to say one complaint regarding this game, it’s that your character is not only frustratingly weak outside of the time-stopping moments, but you have little ability to evade enemy attacks or fight back – often, your best bet is to find cover and hope enemies don’t work around it before you can stop time again. Your abilities can help here, depending on how you’ve prepared them, but it still makes the combat feel uneven.

However, that’s a small frustration in an otherwise wonderful game with a great presentation, a unique approach to combat and character customization, and an overall engaging experience. Transistor is well worth a look.

tl;dr – Transistor is a Top-Down Action-RPG where combat involves bursts of action interspersed with the ability to stop time and set up a powerful series of automated attacks. It’s refreshingly original and has a superb presentation, although the combat can at times feel a bit uneven.

Grade: A-

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