Before we get started, this is a mixed review, there are positive things about Transistor and if I were writing this review after Transistor released I would give it a Positive as a show of support but since the release of Hades has propelled Supergiant Games into "big boy" company territory I'm not pulling punches on what I think. If you disagree, that is fine, I'm not here to invalidate your opinion, I'm just giving mine. The negative review is based around whether or not I would recommend this game to a friend and the answer is I would not.

Transistor takes place in a beautiful, musical, but shallow and empty virtual world. You will meet no one save the two protagonists "Red" and her mysterious companion, and the antagonists. Immediately you are tossed into the game after the antagonists have attacked the protagonists and somehow managed to let them escape. Okay fine, that needed to happen to "let the game happen". Red is obviously afraid and anxious but after acquiring the eponymous weapon "Transistor" she has the power and not a moment to soon as she is attacked by the mindless thralls of the bad guys known as "The Process", which she easily dispatches.

From there, and without the slightest bit of exposition, Red goes on a quest to find the antagonists and put a stop to them, the process, and restore the world which the process has been devouring, back to the way it was. Simple, straightforward story. Or it would be if it weren't for some, and I do not use this word lightly, I do believe it, pretentious story telling which kneecaps the antagonists, before you even know anything about them and their motives, spiraling down towards [spoilers]a bleak ending[/spoilers].


Hours of Gameplay: 6-8hrs
Replayability: Very little unless you just really enjoyed it and wanted to give it one more go. There's a new game plus which lets you and the process keep abilities unlocked throughout the game.

Pros

• Soundtrack. The soundtrack is worth the price of the game, in my opinion.
  
• Art & Character Design. 100 points, nailed the cyber-art deco style.
  
• The "Functions" (aka Combat Abilities) are interesting to mix/match.
  
• Combat is service-able but not great.

Cons

• Relatively short. I'd be more forgiving if the story were handled better.
  
• Antagonists. Man, what a let down. I really can't say more without spoiling but they may as well not exist. I suppose you could argue it's more "real" the way they chose to handle it, but in the early game they're painted as imposing threats and they just... aren't.
  
• Lack of exposition and protagonist synergy. I apologize, this is long. Red is a silent protagonist. Why you ask? Because that's what the writers wrote. Okay, it's an arbitrary choice, fine, there are plenty of good silent protagonists who let their actions speak for themselves. The issue here is that Red doesn't do much beyond fighting and you have no ability to interact with your partner. You've heard the old quote "show, don't tell" and likely suffered through a lot of media using dialogue as a vehicle for exposition (explanation of an idea or theory) instead of having people talk like people and not ChatGPT. Obviously, we want to avoid that but on the flip-side Transitor's writers do not provide adequate context for the world and it's rules. Perhaps more troubling, is the dynamic between Red and her partner, implied lover. Throughout the game, Red's partner provides very minor exposition and quips about things you encounter but it's just him. Red has the ability to type on consoles, and is the one way she has to talk to him but she does not directly address him until late in the game. She reacts more to the news reporter and that is genuinely shocking to me. Screw voting on what color the sky should be, this is the one place the writer's can have Red emote and they choose to have you vote on what kind of food to deliver to your apartment. Wasteful. Even at times when her partner appears to be suffering, Red's animation makes her appear ambivalent. What few cut-scenes exist, such as the pizza shop, while presumably intended to be funny/lighthearted, reinforce this idea for me as she appears happy and like... the most important person to you is trapped [spoilers]inside a hunk of metal[/spoilers] and the world is falling apart. The dissonance bothers me greatly.
  
• Locking backstory of characters behind functions (aka combat abilities) to encourage mix-matching is dumb and I spent way more time swapping stuff than I otherwise would in other games just to get these ultimately meaningless bits of information.
  Each "Function" you acquire is associated with a person whose back story you can unlock by using it in different combinations with other functions. This is used to encourage you to mix and match them to reveal different gameplay styles but there is so little combat it frankly doesn't matter nor do the back stories. TLDR, most of them are individuals the antagonists went after for ill-defined reasons and have no impact on the game whatsoever. If you don't like reading or just don't care, mix and match whatever you want and ignore the backstories.
  
• Backdoors. Oh, how I loathe them. They transport you to a "safe place" to practice moves and listen to music but I argue that they ruin the pacing and mood of the story. Throughout the entire game stakes are high, the "city is on fire" metaphorically, but then these doors appear and you stop to go lounge in a hammock next to a virtual beach and listen to tunes. It's jarring. I understand why it exists but there's no good in-game explanation for them and while cute, they frequently disconnect you from the story and emotions playing out. In my opinion, if you want to enjoy the game to the fullest, ignore the "Backdoors", or at least the first few you encounter. They are unnecessary, you really aren't missing anything.

• Once you meet Royce Bracket in the late game, turn on subtitles. I don't know what happened with the audio mixing here but between the quiet nature of the character and the music playing in the background it is impossible to make out what he's saying.

Transistor is more art piece than game and should be treated as such otherwise you're likely to be disappointed with what you get relative to other games. It is impressively made for a company that isn't some AAA studio so I don't mean to detract from their achievement here, I'm just speaking to game in isolation. If they had more resources perhaps this would have turned out much differently. Transistor has been generally well received so maybe I'm a curmudgeon but based on achievements, only 25% of players have completed the story and this game has been out for 10 years so that tells me that the "impression" of the game has had greater impact than the game itself on people.

The game's visuals and storytelling are good, but oh my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ god I cannot stand having someone whisper into my ear every 5 seconds. It's actually maddening, and a unique deterrent to completing a game.

I put this game down 7 years ago, tried to give it another chance and yeah... not happening. I'm gonna try to continue with the voice volume set to mute but that also mutes bosses. So that sucks.

Edit: Yeah, can't do it. Not even with the voices muted lol the constant pop up of subtitles is surprisingly just as bad. Oh well. A lesson for me to try games within the 2 week refund period.

El arte, música y diseño es espectacular, pero la historia me pareció sin sentido. El combate tampoco me gusto