Finished Transistor yesterday. For a while now I’ve wondered whether it’s possible for a game that I’ve not been getting on with to turn me around, because I don’t recall any game ever doing that; if I’ve not enjoyed the first quarter/third/half then I’ve not enjoyed the rest. Transistor has proven that it’s worth pushing through sometimes.
Early on there wasn’t much of a story to get a handle on or… hook to pull me in. It’s a very slow beginning (and middle). And as much as I like Logan Cunningham and Ashley Barrett’s voices, it just felt too familiar after Bastion. And god, neither of them stop, whether it’s more commentary from Logan or Ashley humming constantly during turn planning. It’s clear Supergiant were trying to mix things up but that’s tough with the same ‘pieces’ being played so prominently. I can handle the return of Zee and Korb’s gorgeous visuals and sound though. I love the mashed up Art Deco/Art Nouveau and Gustav Klimt aesthetic.
The combat in particular stuck out. For a long time, and I mean, for a good 8-10 hours of play, the stop and start nature of the combat–choreographing your moves, executing them, then running around avoiding enemies and hiding behind cover until your Turn() bar replenished–just killed any flow or momentum I had. The planning and chaining stuff together was fun, the running, hiding and waiting wasn’t.
Then, somewhere, around the last half/third of the game, the story started to pick up pace and the various threads started to weave together. We also got a couple of new voice actors to break up the Cunningham, one of which, the weirdly hypnotic Royce guy, had such a great performance behind him. The combat too, now rich with different ability combinations and ways of offsetting the downtime (or enhancing the real-time bits) between turns felt more alive.
I wasn’t sure about the dual Transistor duel at the end for a final boss fight, that seemed contrived, but it still worked, and the ending itself was great, which isn’t something I say about games often. The abilities menu remained clunky given how often you have to switch things around and the targeting/queuing was finicky at times too but, by the end, these feelings didn’t really hold much sway.
So, yeah, I enjoyed Transistor and I’m glad I stuck with it! I wouldn’t mind playing through it again now because you can’t really do everything the first time, even with all those limiters enabled. The story structure and delivery means there’s probably a lot more to pick up on a second time. I’ve heard several people say the songs fill in the backstory too. I probably ought to look into that.
Bastion I played through twice and did everything, all dreams, all deities/idols invoked, and I don’t remember that much about it now. I think Bastion’s a more crisp and assured game mechanically, but I think Transistor will stay with me longer. It’s definitely a slow burner that doesn’t benefit from rushing and skimming over the details and lore.
Heh, and Pyre released the other day. Looks very cool and I’m keen to pick it up.