Transistor (PC, PS4, and Macs.)

Introduction

 In a far distant future a rabble-rousing singer, Red, stands on a cold balcony. Her friend lies dead nearby, his chest pierced by a blade from another world known as the Transistor. The only way to get answers is to take this blade and fight the people who used it to kill him. Between you and them are a horde of beings from this other world that are trying to Process the city and everyone in it. I mean, you fought against it’s totalitarian policies but that doesn’t mean it’s citizens deserve to die.

History

Information about this game’s development is scarce. I could only find cursory information about its music — he says “only” as if the music wasn’t incredible. The music was once again composed by Darren Korb. The female vocals were performed by Ashley Lynn Barrett who also lent her talents to Bastion.

Supergiant’s Greg Kasavin said that they, “Have no plans for what comes next.” A bold and risky strategy. They originally created their small team so that they’d be able to be quick, so that they wouldn’t get bogged down. I think if they’re as quick as they want to be then they won’t need a plan, just a goal.

Fun Fact: Transistor won IGN’s award for Best Graphics in the Art category.

And I think it’s well deserved.

Transistor was released on May 20th, 2014. It’s competition was Thomas Was Alone (iOS), Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC, PS4, PS3, XBox 360, and Xbox One.), and Battlebock Theater (Win, Linux).

Experiences

There’s an adage I’ve heard of in the games hobby, “there are some games I stop playing because I’m bored and some games I stop playing because I should have eaten dinner two hours ago.” This game definitely falls into the latter category. I stayed up until 4 in the morning finishing it on a Friday night. I spent the whole time thinking, “This couldn’t get better, it’s gotta end soon,” but it didn’t. It kept going, ushering me along. I expected to get mad like it was yanking my chain but I was just so excited that I didn’t want to sleep before I’d finished it.

Gameplay

Red spends her adventure on the move — there’s no Bastion to run to this time. While you take in the sights from the city of Cloudbank you’ll be spending most of your time trying not to get utterly destroyed by these creatures known as The Process. The Process comes in many forms the dog-like Fetch, the large lumbering Jerk, and the artilleryesqu Clucker to name a few.

I just love the concept of a large bothersome enemy literally being called a Jerk.

Those large white walls are cover and it’s your best friend — besides The Transistor itself. Different enemies interact with cover in different ways. Fetches will walk around it whereas Jerks will smash it out of existence, leading other enemies right do you.

Cover is super important because of the Turn() mechanic. When Red uses Turn() she enters a turn based tactical combat mode. Each of her abilities and moving itself takes up time from the Turn(). When you’re done planning then you can execute your Turn() and Red will move very quickly running circles around the Process. After Red executes a Turn() however she’s unable to use any of her abilities until Turn() comes back online after 10 seconds. Most combat is a series of Turn() and then hiding until Turn() comes back.

Behold, the Turn(). I really like how it puts a reverb on the music and how Red starts humming along with it.

The Transistor has the power to reconstitute processed individuals into programs. These programs are used to fight The Process, augment Red, or augment other programs. The game even rewards you for trying out new strategies by giving you more information about Processed individuals for using them in each category.

Behold all these programs. Each program can be augmented by two other programs and Red herself can be augmented by four. There’s room for four attack programs so that’s 16 slots to put programs in. There are thousands of programming options.

 

The Gush

The music in this game is so good. Korb really outdid himself this time. The music is this sort of Electric Noir that masterfully meshes the neo-archaic atmosphere of the game. I mean, you’re fighting with a techno sword.

One thing that I actually liked about the game that got a lot of flak was the dying mechanics. When Red gets dropped to critical health she automatically Turn()s if it’s available and if it isn’t then she’ll go down. The game will then take away the program that takes up the most memory and then continues the fight. It can make the fight really tough if you go down but not impossible. You can reequip that program at the next Access Point but it can still be a slog if you lose your heavy hitting program.

Spoilers

I really loved the final boss of this game. I got so pumped when he started talking about using my power against me. I was really surprised by how good the AI was in this fight. Watching it perform Turn() and then back out and try to do more damage with a different set of moves almost made me feel like I was fighting an actual human.

End Spoilers

After you beat Bastion you could play through the game again with all the stuff you’d already unlocked but not much changed in the game. When you Recursion through Transistor you keep picking the programs where you unlocked them in the first playthrough, while already possessing the programs from the original run. That’s right, you can augment your programs with themselves — programception

There’s a lot of information and lore in the game. Unlike most games I read it all. It’s not like Elder Scroll’s long and drawn out books. Lore is conveyed through concisely written paragraphs when it comes to processed people. Every so often Red will run into Cloudbank’s plentiful terminals, each of which presenting her a survey or some other insight into how Cloudbank runs. I mean, it doesn’t really answer any of the big questions about the game but I’m not mad.

The Kvetch

I lied. I’m mad. The mystery of the game feels more obfuscated than interesting. The politics of Caelondia are never explained because they don’t matter. The purpose of the Process and what their world is is of critical importance and I didn’t get it. It feels like there are some bread crumbs missing.

CLOUDBANK! How will I unravel your mysteries?

The Verdict

This game is absolutely worth the 20$ price tag and even if you don’t buy the game I can’t recommend the Soundtrack enough. I had just as much fun exploring the world of Bastion as I did the World of Cloudbank. I wish Cloudbank had had more closure than it did but it was a helluva ride.

Next Week: Hotline Miami

Bastion (PC, XBox, PS4)

Introduction

 The city of Caelondia has just been rocked by a catastrophe of calamitous proportions — a Calamity, one might say. The Kid has apparently slept through it all and wakes on the other side — End of the world NBD, just napping. The city of Caelondia has an, apparently, paranoid enough culture to justify the construction of some sort of indestructible bunker known as the Bastion. The Kid’s got to get to the Bastion and fix it up to get it to do whatever mojo it does. The whole while he’s guided by this smooth talking, raspy voiced, narrator.

Behold the Bastion. From left to right we have the armory, forge, distillery, monument, shrine, and the Lost-And-Found. At the center of it all we have the Monument. It’s a nice hub, I’ve got to say.

History

Bastion was developed by Supergiant games. The team was composed of seven people if you include the voice actor of the narrator. They had previously worked for Electronic Arts but wanted to work on a smaller independent project in which they could do what they wanted. They privately funded the game and things were done on the cheap but didn’t seem it — the narration and music was recorded in the music director’s closet after all.

Fun Fact: Supergiant wanted the character to have a map but they figured the way platforms rose into the air would serve as direction enough.

Other Fun Fact: The Narrator, voiced by Logan Cunningham, voiced three thousand lines of narration — whatever you do, there’s probably a line for it.

Bastion was released on July 20th, 2011. It’s competition was Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PS3, XBox 360), Limbo (PC), and Captain America: Super Soldier (On goddam everything. PS3, Wii, XBox 360, DS, and 3DS.)

Experiences

I can’t think of any other game that makes me feel more like I’m in a desperate battle. Between the occasional horde of enemies and how they surround The Kid I feel like the battle is bitter and hard fought. Most enemies don’t go down in one hit and much of the time The Kid is actually fighting retreat to get away from something. One fight with an Ankle Gator lasts for an entire stage as The Kid evades it until it begins to rain — the narrator muses, “An ankle gator can only be killed if it’s raining. And it ain’t raining.”

Gameplay

The Kid’s adventures take him scavenging in all parts of the world for pieces of the Bastion’s power core. He might walk a little slowly but he’s got a mean dodge roll that can actually damage enemies — just be careful, living in a world floating in the air is pretty dangerous. He can carry two weapons at a time and they’re generally split between melee and ranged. The game typically gives The Kid one weapon of each type but there’s no reason you can’t use two of the same if you like the playstyle enough. In addition to The Kids arsenal he’s also got access to some Secret Skills passed on by the Caelondians who have passed.

He’s not just an offensive powerhouse, he’s got a shield. If he brings up the shield as he’s being attacked he’ll shield bash dealing damage based on how much damage he would have taken. The shield also serves as The Kids lock on ability, he’ll automatically face the nearest opponent when he brings it up. Attacking brings the shield down so you can snap from blocking to attacking.

A typical combat situation. The turrets on the ship have been charmed, you can tell by the dancing hearts above them  — functional and cute.

The Kid levels up by defeated enemies and completing challenges. Completing challenges also earns The Kid items and Secret Skills. Every level earns The Kid another Spirit –as in the alcohol– he can consume to give him cool powers. In addition, there are mementos and fragments scattered across the area. Mementos unlock dialogue and other useful things like pets at the Bastion. The Kid can spend fragments to purchase weapon upgrades and other things from the Lost and Found.

You can tell a challenge area by the cages with items underneath. The goal of this challenge is to break all the stuff. Be quick!

The Gush

I really like the upgrade system in this game. Every weapon has five levels of upgrades. Each level has two mutually exclusive upgrade. Each column generally serves other upgrades in that column but it’s sometimes encourage to mix and match. You can also switch between each of those upgrades so if you don’t like them it’s just a matter of getting to an Armory.

This game looks gorgeous — but you’ve been able to see that from all the pics I’ve posted. The game is colorful and wondrous. Some things are even incredibly detailed in ways that the player wouldn’t necessarily notice.

I mean, just… look at this. This is awesome.

I tip my hat to Logan Cunningham’s wonderful narration. His vocal stylings constantly make me feel awesome and emotionally involved. The Kid’s a silent protagonist but he’s really got the narrator to speak for him.

There are a few objects in the Bastion that will take The Kid to “Who Knows Where,” where he’ll fight waves of phantom enemies. Each wave of phantoms the kid defeats unlocks more narration about one of the survivors in the Bastion. Even thought the fights are tough I want to keep going to hear what happens next.

Spoilers: There are other survivors.

If you’re looking for a little extra challenge then you can go to the Shrine and invoke an idol. Each Idol gives the enemies a new ability which makes them more powerful. The Kid gets more fragments and experience points for his time but it’s really just a little reward for wanting the game to be a little harder — even though I think some of the idols make the game absurdly harder (Seriously, who thought making the enemies incorporeal at random intervals was a good idea. [Then again, I just don’t invoke that idol]).

The Kvetch

This game has a new game plus option, to play through the game again. I appreciate it and I love this game but I don’t really see the reason to play through it twice. There’s no new weapons, no new skills, and no new story events. The narration’s a little different as the narrator experiences Deja Vu but it’s mostly similar.

The Verdict

Goodness gracious this game is on so many platforms because it’s so good. The gameplay and combat is simple but the different weapons and skills add that spice that keeps it all mechanically interesting until the end. I was also drawn in by the plot, the politics between Caelondia and the Native Ura, what the Calamity actually is, and who the Kid is. In short, it’s totally worth the $15 price tag.

Next Week: Transistor