Introduction

What is Transistor?

Transistor is the second game by indie studio Supergiant Games. They made their debut with Bastion, a story-driven isometric view action-RPG where you must discover the truth behind an apocalyptic scenario. Transistor is a story-driven isometric view action-RPG where you must discover the truth behind an apocalyptic scenario.

Well, at least they're sticking to what they know.

In any case, while some may see Transistor as a Bastion clone, I consider them two separate games altogether. In Transistor the details of the combat and upgrade systems are very different from Bastion's, ranging from weapon selection and actual fighting, even if Bastion veterans will feel like they've seen some of this stuff before. The story of Transistor unfolds little by little, but unlike Bastion, it is told almost in a circumspect manner, never quite stating outright what was going on. Since much of the lore is hidden behind game functions, the narrative lends itself to a lot of theorizing about the whos, whys, and ifs.

Why LP this game?

Bastion has already been LP'd by Chip Cheezum (check it out in the Archives), but Transistor is another game that people should check out. The gameplay elements, soundtrack, voice work, and story are all top notch, if needing a bit of a polish here and there. It's a game worth playing. This LP aims to go through the story, and show off everything (or at least, almost everything) the game has to offer.

How is the game being LP'd, and what are the thread rules?

Rather than do voice commentary, which I feel would interrupt the game's atmosphere, I opted to do subtitled commentary explaining game mechanics as we go. At points I'll also make one or two personal observations about the game.

There is only one thread rule: no spoilers!

Videos

Functions derived from contact with Subjects. Trace data encrypted in Functions. User access granted for Subject file data.




Limiters remove restrictions on the Process but improve User access permission to Functions. Encrypted comments detected in source control. User access granted for Process file data.

Extras

Here are the extra Royce lines that didn't make it into the game for some reason.



And here are two official trailers for the game, the reveal and launch trailers. Check out how Red moves on the reveal, it's actually kind of silly. There's also some gorgeous art that I used for the video thumbnails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTik6sYT_BE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT55lch6y_U

Soundtrack

The game also comes with an amazing soundtrack, both hummed and normal. Here's the official soundtrack without humming...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zA1jRmAYfU

And here it is with humming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cOmxB12XI