Transistor

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 921 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 736 out of 921
  2. Mixed: 121 out of 921
  3. Negative: 64 out of 921

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  1. Damian94
    Feb 15, 2015
    4
    Really confusing and boring game. I mostly didn't enjoy having 2 lector speaking at the same time, when I'm trying to read some text. I've just beaten the game and know almost nothing about what actually happened there.
    What I can recommend is trying out as many as possible combinations of abilities, I started to play with it close to an end and it was quite fun.
    But the game is boring,    Really confusing and boring game. I mostly didn't enjoy having 2 lector speaking at the same time, when I'm trying to read some text. I've just beaten the game and know almost nothing about what actually happened there.
    What I can recommend is trying out as many as possible combinations of abilities, I started to play with it close to an end and it was quite fun.
    But the game is boring, that's main drawback to me. I completed it, but barely.
    The sword never shuts up, he's constantly speaking, in some moments there are 2 guys commenting my every move, close to an end I stopped reading messages, couse it was quite frustrating hearing this 2 and reading at the same time, for me it's waste of time.
    I also didn't like the music, some probably will say that it's atmospheric, for me it was just sad music playing for 6 hours... Whole game is really sad, more or less in the middle of the plot I was just only looking forward to finishing it, it's sad, boring and makes no sense    … Expand
  2. chumpwithnoname
    Jan 2, 2018
    4
    Turn based Diablo for hipsters. Combat is hard and boring. You kite mobs and wait for time stop cool down, then you instantly deal OMG DPS. Then you kite and wait again. So bland and stupid that if feels like tablet game.
    Giving it 4 for good visuals and narrative.
  3. DeusXCom
    Nov 3, 2014
    4
    Oh man, what a disappointment. I love cyberpunk, recently I gave the full score to Shadowrun, the music is absolutely fantastic, including beautiful female vocals, the combat system is definitely interesting with really cool option to mix all your skills from active, to upgrades, to passive, even the art style screams creativity, although I'm not the biggest fan of all that rainbow colorsOh man, what a disappointment. I love cyberpunk, recently I gave the full score to Shadowrun, the music is absolutely fantastic, including beautiful female vocals, the combat system is definitely interesting with really cool option to mix all your skills from active, to upgrades, to passive, even the art style screams creativity, although I'm not the biggest fan of all that rainbow colors everywhere. But... first of all, the story never got me. I tried hard to get into it, read all the terminals and all the information about characters from the skill info's, but I just never really started to care. When you break down the activity that you're doing in this game, 90% of your time you're just going forward from one fight to another, that's it, another fight, another fight, another fight. It stopped being entertaining very soon, it got repetitive and the game doesn't have anything else to offer. On top of that the narrator (the sword) is just annoying beyond imagination, every time he started with his terrible voice I just wanted to tell him to STFU already, but he never did. I almost never had fun playing this game and even if I would, it just ends too quickly. I finished it under 5 hours, which for me was a salvation that it's over and I can move on to some other interesting titles, but for someone who likes the game, the length is another big minus. I never played Bastion, but if it's anything like this, I probably never will. What good is it that the game is unique, creative and has an amazing soundtrack when it all leads to such a boring, short and repetitive experience that does such a poor job in captivating you in it's world and in it's story. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately left very disappointed. 4/10… Expand
  4. UziDuzIt
    May 27, 2014
    4
    First of all I was totally stunned by Bastion back then, but Transistor isn't nearly what it could have been. Yes, it was beautiful. The art, the story, the soundtrack. Everything top notch. But 3 hours of play time? Really? I've even enabled all the limiters I got in that playthrough, but it obviously didn't slow down my progression.

    Now the big problem about this is: You've finally    First of all I was totally stunned by Bastion back then, but Transistor isn't nearly what it could have been. Yes, it was beautiful. The art, the story, the soundtrack. Everything top notch. But 3 hours of play time? Really? I've even enabled all the limiters I got in that playthrough, but it obviously didn't slow down my progression.

    Now the big problem about this is: You've finally experimented with most of the possible skill combos (MOST of them, not even all) and you feel like the story is just getting started and you'll finally understand what's happening in this weird world and then they just end it all of a sudden. The end kinda explains a lot you didn't understand before, but it comes way too early.

    I feel like I've been robbed of my money because it's nowhere near what I've expected. The fights in this game are few and there's a lot of talking and cutscenes in between. So when the game ends you've probably had ~30 fights that were less than a minute each and feel like you just started the game because gameplay-wise nothing happened. It's basically a graphic novel with some little rpg elements in between that make up ~20% of the game. The rest is storytelling, no more. This is also what keeps me from doing another playthrough, it's just not worth it without any actual gameplay...

    On a side note I've even bought the soundtrack because it's just that beautiful. But once you look behind the shiny disguise there's just no game to be played. I don't even know how to describe my feelings towards this game, because after all it is just BEAUTIFUL. But the abrupt ending combined with the feeling of "yeah, finally there was a boss fight, now the game is going to get started, right?" followed by the realization that this was the only and final boss fight after a meager 3 hours made me want to smash my PC screen to pieces.

    So after all, this is a beautiful piece of art, but really lackluster as a game. While the RPG elements are all there and have potential you never get to really use them because of the actual lack of gaming content. If you are looking for an indie graphic novel beautifully disguised as a video game look no further. But to all the serious (RPG-)gamers out there that want CONTENT, stay away!
    I would have enjoyed this way more than I did if it was a comic book, maybe Supergiant Games should think more about what they want to achieve and use the correct medium.    … Expand
  5. SethEvandor
    May 25, 2014
    4
    Where do I start? The travesty. Random lines which the Transistor gives you get really annoying because they don't contribute anything. It's a case where 'less is better.' The way this game is unique. You could say the features of most games are unique even if they are really similar.

    The combat system is somewhat interesting, utilizing an unusual form of real-time with pause-on-turn.    Where do I start? The travesty. Random lines which the Transistor gives you get really annoying because they don't contribute anything. It's a case where 'less is better.' The way this game is unique. You could say the features of most games are unique even if they are really similar.

    The combat system is somewhat interesting, utilizing an unusual form of real-time with pause-on-turn. You can choose when to take a turn, you can move whenever you actually like (besides during the execution of a turn). You can take many actions or you can forgo it altogether, so the system gives you a choice or flexible experience, it can be played in different ways. The issue with this system is that a turn based system has more strategy and a real-time system feels less frustrating. Because turns let you do so much, it still ends up rather spammy and there is a lot of lee-way besides when the game is not difficult, so when the game is easy, it's just a bore, the game has to always be challenging and it wasn't. I get the feeling that most people enjoyed the system just because of the execution of turns (result of actions plus eye-candy) and the fact that it was fresh or unique.

    The skill system is great and for people familiar with games such as Path of Exile, Diablo, it will be familiar and easy to grasp. I don't have any particular complaints about balance.

    The music is, well, some parts are great, sometimes the music distracts from the game. In the field at some points it gets really repetitive. If there was more minimal ambient, it would of helped the atmosphere a lot and avoid a lot of the repetition, and take out the cheap beats. The humming was actually my favourite thing, although that could of been minimized when you pause. Less is better.

    Ultimately, repetitive, music and sounds could of been so much better, graphics are gorgeous, story is okay but put forward well. I didn't enjoy it much and I think it is overrated.    … Expand
  6. Matseb2611
    Jun 22, 2015
    4
    Unfortunately I couldn't really get into it. None of the game's aspects seemed to appeal to me. The combat gets repetitive very quickly, with most abilities doing nothing more than simply dealing damage, there's not much of a story, and the narrator's voice is pretty distracting, and I wish he'd stop talking because he never has anything interesting to say.

    I couldn't really enjoy the    Unfortunately I couldn't really get into it. None of the game's aspects seemed to appeal to me. The combat gets repetitive very quickly, with most abilities doing nothing more than simply dealing damage, there's not much of a story, and the narrator's voice is pretty distracting, and I wish he'd stop talking because he never has anything interesting to say.

    I couldn't really enjoy the art or the music either. The visuals don't look cyberpunkish to me. They don't even look general sci-fi. The main character looks like she belongs in a Final Fantasy game, the enemies all look pretty identical, and those white-grey blocks... I don't know what they're supposed to be, but they look like candles to me. And the music doesn't fit the sci-fi theme either. It just sounds... romantic.

    Also, nothing was ever explained. I was thrust into a confusing special abilities menu and had to figure out how on Earth to equip them and so on.

    I can see why some people would enjoy this game, but it's most certainly not for me.    … Expand
  7. Zarafan
    Oct 8, 2016
    4
    Is like a Taste of the best Sweet cake you could have tasted... just a taste. While the game provide great concept, history and gameplay, will end too short and too fast for you to understand what just happend. And i tough Bastion was short...

    I cant accept that a company make his 2nd big game Shorter than the first one, i would have waited 1 more year, if i could at least get twice the    Is like a Taste of the best Sweet cake you could have tasted... just a taste. While the game provide great concept, history and gameplay, will end too short and too fast for you to understand what just happend. And i tough Bastion was short...

    I cant accept that a company make his 2nd big game Shorter than the first one, i would have waited 1 more year, if i could at least get twice the hours...    … Expand
  8. hypernewbie
    Jun 26, 2017
    1
    It's like an action game except it is terrible at being one. It's also a turn based game except it's terrible at being one. It's an atmospheric game except it's terrible at being one. This game manages to be consistent levels of terrible at everything it tries to do at the same time, and that takes some real talent and effort to achieve.

Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Best PC Game of 2014
41
#41 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
68
#68 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 35
  3. Negative: 1 out of 35
  1. Riot Pixels
    Aug 4, 2014
    70
    Besides killing enemies, there is not much to do; the entire game is a linear path from one small arena to the next one. Yes, there is a story, but in Bastion it was seamlessly integrated into gameplay, and here it only breaks the pace.
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  2. CD-Action
    Jul 25, 2014
    80
    After completing the game I almost instantly returned to it for another 9 hours of New Game+ and after I’m done with it I’ll do 9 more. Or maybe twice as much. [07/2014, p.52]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 8, 2014
    100
    Breathtaking presentation plus creative combat plus a metaverse of metaphors equals a romance that is brief, but oh so captivating.
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