Transistor does a great job in the broad narrative strokes, but it becomes something truly special in the little moments along the way that establish the relationship between Red, her lover, and the world they lived in together.

The narrator’s confident, sultry tones are a great fit for the dark atmosphere and help ascribe a satisfying level of emotion to events. As Red cuts through Process bots and explores the neon-lit streets of Cloudbank, the sword talks at regular intervals, commenting on enemies and locations and offering up plenty of background information that gradually unravels the ongoing mystery behind the events taking place. Much like how Bastion had a narrator describing events as you progressed through the adventure, Transistor tells its story almost entirely through the voice of Red’s lover, which emanates from the sword she wields. Right from the get-go, Transistor does an utterly fantastic job of setting a sombre and mysterious atmosphere, and it does this largely through its unconventional approach to storytelling. Left with nothing more to lose, Red then sets out on a quest for revenge against the mysterious organization responsible, as well as the strange force of robotic creatures - called ‘The Process’ - that they command. The plot follows the story of Red, a kind-hearted jazz singer who’s lost her voice in the wake of a terrible tragedy which also saw her nameless lover’s soul absorbed into the eponymous Transistor sword. Transistor takes place in the far-future cyberpunk city of Cloudbank, a towering high-tech urban landscape where everything from the architecture to the weather is decided by the people on a day-to-day basis. Amazingly, the company managed to do just that with Transistor, an ARPG in a similar vein to Bastion that not only met the standards of its predecessor but surpassed them in some ways. It was a tall order, then, for the studio to follow that act with something that could raise the quality bar again it’s tough capturing lightning in a bottle once, let alone twice.

Supergiant Games made its name when it released Bastion in 2011, producing an unforgettable RPG with a strong art direction and compelling story that would go on to become an indie classic in later years.

Bastion nintendo switch review