Transistor

Transistor (2014) is an action role-playing game where you explore a futuristic fantasy world. It mixes real-time fighting with an unusual turn-based system that allows you to pause time, plan out your combat in advance, before unleashing your powers on to unsuspecting enemies. Running through this is a game about the distractions of social media and the allure of celebrity.

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The game starts by throwing you immediately into a mystery, which involves the main character discovering a talking weapon on a dead body - the Transistor. You uncover secrets about the character and the world around her by exploring, finding upgrades and fighting a myriad of digital enemies.

As the game develops, you can equip your character with a wide range of upgrades that can be applied actively and passively to achieve different weapons and combat advantages for your character. As you develop, so the enemies develop keeping the combat challenging all the way through the life of the game.

This game manages to perfectly balance together a well thought out combat system with an intriguing story that develops as you play. Add to this the beautiful visuals and the clever interplay between image and music and you have an intriguing game that is also fun to play.

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Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Transistor 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.