‘Tis the season for playing more mobile games! Let’s face it, as much as we all love the holidays, they usually come with some downtime while hanging with family and friends, and as Comcast has taught us, even Grandma’s house …
With Bastion,Supergiant Games proved it doesn't just know how to make a game, but how to think about them. Games tell stories with cutscenes and dialogue because "that's how it's done." New Game+ is a trope because "games just have those now."Reactive narration, story justifications for design tropes: it was clear Supergiant put a great deal of time into thinking about how to make something different with Bastion on top of what was otherwise a fairly standard action-RPG. Oh, and it had fantastic music.Transistor doesn't play to Bastion's strengths - that's one way to put it. You might also say "Transistor doesn't try to copy past glory and past success." You'd probably be right.Instead it's content with being a pretty good cyberpunk-noir-fantasy-mystery-romance-action/turn-based-RPG with great art and zero handholding. If you're into that sort of thing.Oh, and it has fantastic music.
I was an enormous fan of the addictive action and light RPG elements of 2011's Bastion, and have fond memories of playing the game late at night in my college dorm room, while my roommate wondered who my new friend was with that deep and intimidating voice. So when Supergiant Games pulled back the lid on their latest gaming project this morning, I didn't need a voiceover narrator to tell me how excited I was.