Transistor Previews

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Written by Eric Schwarz on March 29th, 2013

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Though Transistor shares certain visual trademarks of its creator, mostly in the form of its color palette and isometric view, the game itself feels very distinct. Rather than a quick reflex-based action title, Transistor is a turn-based hybrid. Enemies move in real time, but the heroine, Red, can pause the action to select targets and chain a series of attacks. She then releases them all at once with brutal ferocity.

"We just kind of build around the preoccupations of the people here," Supergiant co-founder and studio director Amir Rao told Shacknews. "There were people here that were really interested in taking the suspense of turn-based games, and bringing that into a more immediate real-time context. For us, we were all about the game we wanted to make and interested in a more futuristic setting and all that came together."

That's not to say that the similarities are absent or accidental, of course. I immediately noticed that two of Bastion's most iconic features, its music and throaty narrator, had returned. This time, though, each plays a more immediate role in the story. The soulful melody we hear in the opening cutscene comes from our lead character. Red is a famous singer who has her voice stolen. Wandering despondently, she finds the Transistor, a sentient weapon that carries the raspy tones of Bastion's Logan Cunningham. The weapon acts as a guide and protector for Red against the forces who are willing to kill to get it back.

As Red and her incorporeal pal travel through this world they find dead people whose souls enter the Transistor and grant the player new powers. Were all these people killed by this weapon? What does it do? Where did all these robots come from and why do they want it so bad? And how come nobody's around? There's clearly something strange going on in the neighborhood but ghosts seem to be your friends here, so busting them doesn't seem like the thing to do.

Transistor's biggest departure from Supergiant's fan-favourite is an all-new combat system that seems downright brilliant. Its central mechanic is a strategy component called Turn, which operates like a mix between Fallout 3's VATS and Splinter Cell Conviction's "mark and execute" system. At any time you can call a Zack Morris-esque time out, then perform whatever actions you would like to do. Each action - be it walking, firing a laser, or swinging your sword - uses up part of an energy meter at the top of the screen. Once you've rehearsed your combat plan, select confirm and watch as Red performs it.

It's incredibly intuitive. The transition from real-time combat to this strategy mode is handled as smoothly and unobtrusively as switching to the celestial brush in Okami - right down to it being triggered by a shoulder button. There's no grid, and enemies don't fight back in a turn-based manner. You can even cancel moves if you're not satisfied with your combat plan. In short, it makes you feel badass.

GZ: The visuals in Transistor are similar to Bastion but seem to pop a little more. You get a better sense of perspective. Was that a conscious decision?

Jen Zee: It's funny, we had the technology in Bastion, but we didn't really use it very much. One of the difficulties going into this project was like, how are we going to sell buildings? How are we going to sell a city? Isometric perspective is unforgiving with tall buildings. The way we got around that is we thought, let's put these buildings in the foreground and leave them on the edges, but parallax them so they feel like they're really close to you. You feel this added layer of depth as a result.

GZ: What's the concept behind the main character?

Jen Zee: I don't know how much I should tell you, but she is a woman of repute in this city. She's a singer and she's not used to wielding a weapon.

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