Transistor could be lauded for many things. It's a beautiful game with a great soundtrack and wonderful voice acting. The vast array of combat options that open up as you progress allow for a staggering degree of customization. Unfortunately, it is also held back by several areas of weakness. The story, while featuring some interesting characters and an imaginative setting, ultimately felt small, like something that could have been condensed into just a short story or short film. The visually vibrant world you travel through feels somehow empty, devoid of life aside from the enemies you encounter. Finally, the combat never quite develops a pleasing sense of flow to it.
Supergiant Games has again raised the bar on weaving a soundtrack into a game. This time it feels even more personal to the story since the main character, Red, is the singer. Just know before you choose to buy the soundtrack that only a handful of the songs have vocals, not counting the extended soundtrack which features a lot of Red humming. Numerous of the purely instrumental tracks have found their way into my music library, but they're not the main attraction.
Similarly top notch is the voice acting. Fans of Bastion will recognize the way that it is utilized. It adds atmosphere and brings these characters to life. I must, however, disagree with the decision to have Red's voice "taken away" right at the start of the game. She is a fully fleshed out character, not some blank slate for players to project themselves into. Yet some of that is lost by not letting her speak. It also reduces other characters in the game to mostly talking at you in monologues where there could have been conversations. I get why it was an appealing option for the developers though. It's interesting to consider how a singer would feel and react to having one of her most valuable faculties taken away. The world surely feels more bleak and lonely this way too. You even get to hear her through the songs and occasionally in written form. However, as it is I would say more was lost than gained by muting her.
While avoiding spoilers, I will say that I would have liked to have seen more out of the story. A lot of the right ingredients were there, but for the most part I would say the quantity wasn't enough or things were left too vague. I liked the characters that were there, but it could have used a couple more of them, particularly ones not affiliated with The Camerata (you're introduced to them early on). I was intrigued by the city of Cloudbank, was TOLD about some of its neat features and people, but I never SAW them. The game never fully convinced me that the place you spend most of your time in was ever lived in by everyday people. This may be a futuristic city where things like trash don't exist, but there has to have been more evidence of life left behind that could have been put into the visuals.
Finally, it seems that Transistor's most divisive aspect is its combat system. I was definitely in the camp disappointed with it at first but it does get better as you unlock more options. You have several primary "Active" attack slots that can each be significantly altered by two secondary upgrade slots. You also have passive buff slots. Every ability, or Function as the game calls them, can only be used once until you are in New Game+ and begin getting multiples. You have to decide how you want to utilize each function: Active, Upgrade or Passive? You rarely are able to use all your functions at once.
It is in the action of battle that things start to falter. The Active functions you bring into the fight and a unique ability to briefly stop time are the only tools ever at your disposal. There is no blocking or dodging aside from normal movement. In stopping time, you have an action bar that is depleted with each action you take. Once you unpause, all the actions you just planned play out at super speed. Obviously this is extremely powerful and it is counterbalanced by disabling all actions besides movement for a time based on how much of the action bar you depleted.
The problem is that it is unsatisfying to use. It doesn't take skill to stop time and wail on an unmoving target and it's not fun to run around waiting on a timer afterward. If you forgo this superpower then you're left with, at most, four Active functions to use, and that usually breaks down to spamming one or two of them. If the game had any form of defensive maneuver, I think the developers knew you'd be far less likely to use the time stop. Yet that is the gimmick they went with. The most joy I found in combat was in frequently trying out new builds, including ones others suggested online.
Transistor teeters on the edge of whether I'd recommend it or not, but ultimately a couple of its strengths are SO strong that it belongs in the thumbs up category. I will add that if you haven't played Bastion, that is the better game to start with and to get a feel for if you enjoy how Supergiant Games crafts their products.