GameSpot | Transistor Video Review

A dead man. A weapon. A dress, torn and discarded on the ground. A voice says, "What a night. You're still in one piece; that's all that matters."

Transistor begins with remarkable confidence, throwing you right into the life of nightclub singer Red at what might be her lowest point. There's no immediate explanation for who she is, or what this world is, or what happened the night before, and all this mystery only makes your journey more captivating. Transistor asks you to trust in it, to come along on the journey even though you have no idea where you're going. And it rewards your trust, weaving a beautiful and unconventional sci-fi tale with a human heart, and empowering you with a wonderfully flexible combat system that fuses real-time and turn-based action to create something that feels unique.

[AKissFromDaddy]

No mention of any cons whatsoever. It gets an 8.

Don't games start at 10 and go down from there?

Doesn't this review come across as 9 or 10? She loves Transistor. There is nothing wrong with Transistor in her review. Nothing, lol.

Go to the site, on the "cons section", it's totally blank. So what marked it down 2 points? Glitches? No mention. Load times? No mention. Story? It's praised. Gameplay? It's praised. What's wrong with Transistor then, lol.

The same-sorta thing happened to Wolfenstein w/ GameSpot. It came across as a 9 in their review. It gets an 8. Confusing.

[Blues Cowboy]

Each site has their own criteria - and more to the point, not all reviewers use numerical scores in a strictly numerical sense. Numbers represent benchmarks or specific criteria as opposed to "knock one point off for graphics, another point for this or that."

Still, I agree though. Seems low.

[ikkokucrisis]

This article is interesting because one of Gamespot's finest reviewers Greg Kasavin left the videogame website to make this game.

[anticlimax]

I like the idea that a really good game gets an eight.

A 10 is perfect, you can't do better. So you can only give a 10 when you actually believe that a game could not be better in any way. Absolute perfection.

A 9 means not just a great game, but a revolutionairy game. A game that we will still write about in twenty years.

With those standards, an 8 for Transistor might even be high. I mean it is good, but is it The Witcher 2 good? Or AC4 or GTAV in their respective genres?

With all the 8s, 9s and 10s being reviewed these days, I think this is good.

[AKissFromDaddy]

In your opinion, what do you think is bad or flawed about Transistor that another game perfects, preventing it from being a 9 or 10 to you? Just curious.

Update: If you answer that, what could Transistor additionally do for you to earn a 9 or a perfect score?

[anticlimax]

It isn't particularly innovative, the ending isn't to my liking, you can't control the camera.

I'm not saying it isn't a great game, it is. But is it a probable game of the year? Game of the decade?

To update: to earn a 9 it should stray more from what I know, (and from Bastion), it should do something that hasn't ever been done.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Understood. It's just me then. I'm just really not picky and I start at 10 and work down.

You're right that Transistor isn't Game of the Year. However, I link that to Supergiant Games budget.

Supergiant doesn't have $500M like Bungie. Their budget isn't a Triple-A budget.

Nonetheless, you're right. 9 and 10s are for GOTY titles.

Doesn't that mean games w/o Triple-A budget can't be GOTY? If so, budget is key.

[anticlimax]

Unfortunately, budget is pretty much key. More money means you can have more time, the most talented artists, more people working on it...

[brich233]

They start from 1 then go up.

[miyamoto]

I have never seen an indie game look so beautiful!!!
Graphics does matter!

[jc48573]

looks pretty cool

[Skate-AK]

Can't wait to try this.