You gain access to new functions by increasing Red’s level. You can only have four functions on your hot bar at a time but you can combine different functions to grant extra effects such as pulling your enemy right up close to you or switching the allegiance of your foe for a time. However, only a certain amount of functions can be equipped depending on how much memory Red has.

Battles can sometimes be quite unforgiving and if your health bar completely empties you will lose access to a function until it is repaired by visiting functions terminals. If you have no functions left to sacrifice, you will die and restart from the last checkpoint.

Value For Money

For all you completionists out there, you will be pleasantly surprised by how long you get to play Transistor for. Everyone else though, will only get around six to seven hours of play out of Transistor.

There really is a lot to see and do in the city of Cloudbank and beyond, so if you really want to stick to it and unlock/read everything you can, expect to be sitting pretty for at least fourteen hours.

I managed to snag Transistor during a sale on Steam for around $10AUD so in my opinion that is great value for money. And don’t forget all of the Steam achievements/PS Trophies that go along with it.

Aesthetic Charm

Immediately upon launching Transistor will you be impressed by the graphics and smooth animations. Personally I was surprisingly awed just by the way Red moves around the screen. The animation of her running with the Transistor dragging along the ground behind her looks really great. Incredibly simple but at the same time quite intricate.

Enemies are fun to watch and discover. I especially like the Jerks which pummel the ground with their piston-flattening arms and the way they persistently pursue Red.

Once again Darren Korb has composed the soundtrack for Supergiant, accompanied by the beautiful vocals of Ashley Barrett. Every song in this soundtrack is amazing to listen to and I must admit, I was hooked on the soundtrack before I even played Transistor. Each piece of music plays it’s role really well throughout the game, and if you’re also a bit of a Darren Korb fan, you can listen to the pieces of music in a place called the Sandbox which is accessed via ‘Backdoors’ that you gain access to once Red reaches level four.

The Sandbox also acts almost like a home base where you can hone your battle strategies in mock battles or practice your planning in timed challenges. Very similar to the challenge levels found in Bastion.

Final Thoughts

Transistor is a visually and aurally stunning piece of gaming that draws you into Red’s mysterious world. The voice of Logan Cunningham is thankfully quite pleasant to listen to which is quite a relief as you will be hearing his narration for what feels like the entire game.

The story itself is fairly hard to get into which I find to be quite a let down, but once you start to weave your way around the intricacies of what happened and what is happening, you will find yourself wanting to keep going in the hopes of unraveling even more of the enigma that is the city of Cloudbank.

If you love an engaging storyline with lots of questions to be answered, Transistor is right up your alley. But if you want a game that has a different type of strategic combat you haven’t experienced before, you will also be greatly impressed.

Score

4 stars – really fun to play but slightly confusing.