Transistor - Review (Final Thoughts)

Having played this game in 2014, I considered playing it again this year since I had such an enjoyable time playing the game. A game developed by Supergiant Games, this game got everything right, sure there were some areas it could have done better or improve, but everything it tries to do, it delivers in a beautiful, captivating game that is both easy to play, yet lets you have tons of fun when you master it. The design and concept of this game catches the eye, the scenery and art style very refreshing and new, making you want to explore more of the world, it keeps you playing.

Its premise? You play as a woman named Red and she has people coming after her, thankfully she has with her a sword, that also happens to be her lover (whose name was never mentioned), to help her fend off any harm.

The people causing her harm and killing her lover? That's what you'll have to find out in the game. As you go through the story, you'll discover the reason behind the attack, how the sword (which is called the Transistor) works and explore the beautiful world Supergiant Games has made for you. It may seem a bit difficult to swallow, but the game eases you into the story as you go through the it. 

Game Mechanics

The game mechanics are extremely easy to pick up, and thankfully there isn't an extremely long tutorial you have to complete before you start playing the game, they are explained to you as you go on. Controlled by mouse and keyboard, you can have a total of 4 attacks, shown in slots at the bottom center of your screen. Point and click allows you to move around, the numbers 1-4 allow you to use your attacks (also known as functions in the game) and these are the primary controls you use to navigate Red in the isometric landscape. (all drawn, mind you) The game initially plays in real time (by initially I mean the first one minute or so) then introduces you to its turn based aspect, which is done brilliantly I must say.

"Not good for your knees, but I guess it gets the job done," - Transistor

You can attack enemies in real time, using your mouse to fire, and pressing the 1-4 buttons select your attacks and right click to use them when already selected. You can go through most of the game this way if you favour a more real time experience. However, doing so means you're wasting a very powerful mechanic given to you, Turn()

"Ok Red, don't panic... or you could just do that"

By pressing the space bar, you activate Turn() which stops time in the game, allowing you to plan your attacks and moves, to a certain limit shown by a gauge at the top of your screen. Pressing space bar again ends Turn() and Red unleashes those commands given at hyper speed (which is Faruq jargon for you move around really fast and watch her smash enemies to pieces).

Also for those who: enjoy destruction, smashing things, and whacking the life out of stuff

For one, IT'S SUPER AWESOME TO LOOK AT and also allows you to chain together attacks. If you chain Crash() (which allows you to stun enemies) and follow that up with another attack, you can deal more damage. The same goes when you attack an enemy from the back, which gives you backstab damage. Like I said, once you get the hang of the mechanics, its simplicity and depth make Transistor really exciting to play and it keeps you thinking of new ways to attack and plan attacks.

Another aspect of combat I like is how you can augment your various attacks by adding unused functions to them. Doing so applies effects of the otherwise, unused function to enhance the functions you want to use. With over 20 functions at your disposal, the combinations are endless.

You can mix and match, discover wonderful combinations and even produce effects that would be so overpowered it shouldn't be in the game. The choices available to you are really what make the combat so enjoyable and it should be staple for every game.

Visuals and Soundtrack

Never have I played a game in which the soundtrack and art actually added another layer of comprehension to the game. The music not only captivates but also acts as an audible queue to your actions. Take for instance when activating Turn(), the music changes to a version of her humming the tune, which makes me imagine she's taking her sweet time, planning out her actions.

Here's the normal one

And here's the one playing when she activates Turn()

The soundtrack is also used to tell the story, several have vocals sung by the very talented singer, Ashley Barrett and the music direction by Darren Korb is very unique, the vocals are sung in style of old music, yet the music itself from electronic and digitally produced instruments. Supergiant Games has graciously added the whole soundtrack to YouTube so if you want you can check it out, but be warned, there are spoilers.

Red, herself, is a singer, so it makes sense that she would sing along as she travels through the game. The art and concept are very unique but I can't explain much (as it is visual information) so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Again, this is all drawn and not rendered by 3D software

Both work in tandem, really bringing the world of Heightmap to life and I am happy I got to explore it!

Storyline

There is a reason I chose to talk about the story last, it's fairly straight forward, the key aspect of her journey explained to you as you move through the paces, but there are a few things left unexplained, or in this case, a conscious choice to leave the rest to the imagination. The game also explores various methods of explaining itself to you, from the sword narrating and giving you advice along the way, to the various OVC terminals spread throughout the game, to the backstories of the people you take along with you as you progress, to even the conversations you have with the antagonists. This indirect approach allows you to piece together what you know and also invites you to play the game a few more times so you can finally grasp its whole premise. I understand the decision but I would like more explained, haha, especially with the ending =,=

The story does not hold much, but the characters are definitely endearing, you sympathize with Red through her endeavor, you sympathize with the sword as he tries to make light of his situation to cheer Red up and you can see that Red is distressed but refuses to show how fragile she is in order to defeat the villains. Which brings me to another point, the sword is the only thing that is entertaining about this game, contrasting greatly with the melancholy the game portrays. Both admirable how they've managed to make you feel that way yet frustrating because they made you feel that way. Confusing? Exactly. play the game, it will all make sense.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game, the soundtrack I still listen to and sometimes I go for a quick run through the game to enjoy its excellently put together combat system, trying to find a new combination that would work. If you're a casual gamer, I'd suggest you play this game, if you're a pro gamer, you should try this game. And if that's not enough to tell you how I feel about this game, IT'S A REALLY GOOD GAME!!!

That's all and have a nice time playing games, especially this one, you should play it, don't have it? Buy it. If not, you know there are other ways (not that I'm saying you should but you know...)

5 Reasons Why Heroes of the Storm is Better Than Dota 2

MOBAs (Multiplayer online battle arenas) have always been one of the few genres of games that I really enjoy and continue to do so. Be it either playing the game itself or watching other games, I haven't really gotten bored of it. The one I play and know how to play (to a certain degree) would be Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2).

That game that was a map in Warcraft 3

Then I heard that Blizzard, the company that made Warcraft 3, was making their own version of DOTA (or in this case a MOBA) called Heroes of the Storm (before that is was Blizzard Dota, then Blizzard All-Stars) and I even managed to get into the alpha, which was sooooo cool!!! 

I downloaded the game, played it a few times and I realized I loved it more than DOTA 2. Here's why:

1. Away with Gold and Items

The first thing I realized after playing dota was how imbalanced the gold system can be. Gold gives the player the ability to purchase items, which then strengthens their hero. Imagine this scenario, if a pro player is pitted against weaker players, the sheer skill and understanding that pro player has would definitely amount to better gold gain as compared to the other players. That player then proceeds to killing more (which grants you extra gold for killing an enemy hero) and farming more (killing weaker monsters to obtain gold), which allows him/her to purchase more items and the cycle continues. This "snowball" effect can get out of hand if the game is matched wrongly and can lead a one sided game of bully (which is no fun for the team being bullied).

Cheater!! Cheater I tell you!!! And then she laughs at your frail attempt to get away, and the laughs even more when you die... Ughhhh

I hate to say that the earlier days of my playing dota usually ended up to this. How I overcame that is beyond me but it is an issue with the game. It may not seem so apparent when watching competitions because the players there are all more or less of the same level in terms of skill (experience may differ though).

On top of that the first time I played DOTA, I was confused with all the gold and items and creeps and wards and so on. Not to mention recipes which I didn't know how they worked at first, it was dota 1 anyways and I was one of those people that  bought the recipe thinking I would gain all the stats it listed. Plus I hated the fact that when I played against an enemy, at first they wouldn't even dream of getting into a duel with my hero, but then halfway through the game they would then proceed to kill me with just two hits. Only after that did I know how much items truly impacted the game.

Which leads me to my second point,

2. Sheer Simplicity

Gone are all those gold and items. Away with last hits, denies and warding. Heroes of the Storm (HOTS) also has simpler skills with more straight forward effects. All of which come together to bring you a game that is much friendlier to newcomers but also easier to pickup with a lot of leg room for mastery. Blizzard is one company that upholds one thing for their games, it's that a game should be easy to pick up, but hard to master. DOTA is hard to pick up and hard to master, it has a lot going on in the game all at the same time, HOTS, however, trims all that down to bring you a simpler game you can learn 5 minutes into your first game.

Everything's self explanatory and easy to play with friends

DOTA tries to make each and every hero unique by giving heroes different abilities that also function differently. Heroes in HOTS have abilities that work similar, but ultimately make the hero unique despite all that (more on this later). A good example would be Icarus, the phoenix hero in DOTA, one of the skills it has is Fiery Spirits which conjure up 4 spirits when you first cast the spell, then allowing you to use them as projectiles when you cast the spell again, exploding and dealing damage over time to any enemy cause in the area targeted. The mechanics of the spell is basically a point and click skill shot. In HOTS, you have a number of heroes with the same mechanics but its exactly as it is supposed to be, a point and click skill shot ability. Not a skill you have to cast first giving you 4 shots, of which you have to use within a certain period of time before they expire all together. I get it, you want to make your heroes unique but I'd take simplicity over variety in game mechanics any day. A little bit is fine but most of the new heroes have quite a learning curve to them as opposed to the older heroes in DOTA. The room for mastery I mentioned is due to the fact most of projectile based skills in HOTS are skill shots, meaning you have to anticipate where you opponent would be when the projectile would hit, as opposed to a homing missile mechanic where you simply click on the target and the spell seeks them out.

You must be wondering, no items, similar spell mechanics, where's the fun in that Faruq? For which I say to you,

Patience human, let me finish

3. Talents and Trait System

How Blizzard overcame the lack of items and unique spells is the talents and traits system, which is quite brilliant given how simple the system really is yet it makes a huge difference. In DOTA, items allow heroes to change or enhance their role in the game, a support would buy items that augment the other heroes' stats and attacks, heal or provide resource regeneration or if you want to be a tank, buy items that increase your health and defense. In HOTS, you can do this by selecting talents as you level up in game. In DOTA, as you gain levels, you get to unlock or strengthen you abilities with points, in HOTS though, you have access to all your basic abilities at the start of the game, and you gain talent points every 3 levels. Talents can do many things, it can enhance the ability, give it a new effect or do something else entirely, some talents even give heroes new abilities, passive or active. Each hero has a unique trait that no one else does (duh, unique), and a trait can differ from a simple additional ability you can use in game to allowing you to speed up your resurrection time.

The fact that each hero has its own set of talents plus its unique trait, really differentiate each hero from the rest. It was one of the things I found that DOTA lacked, try as they might to make each hero different from the rest, in the end, a carry always carries the same set of items, which means it doesn't matter what hero they're using, in the end, the heroes all look the same. Take for example a sniper, his late game item would be a manta style, but so would a Luna or an Anti-mage or even a Templar Assassin. Sure the heroes start off completely different, but they follow the same route to get stronger, because they buy the same items. I hated the fact that most abilities in DOTA can be replicated by items, need a cleave? Battlefury for ya, need crits? Here's a Daedalus. This makes the hero feel less unique and once you know the basic formula, you can play most heroes of the same attribute exactly the same.

DOTA addresses weaknesses by using items to cover up those flaws, HOTS expands on a hero's potential by allowing you to concentrate your talents towards how you want to play your hero. (At least that's how it seems to me)

4. Scaling and Team Relevance

DOTA allows you to overcome your hero's weaknesses by buying items, something a support class hero would have difficulty accessing. All MOBA's have support class heroes meant to support the team by means of abilities and early game capabilities. In DOTA, the support classes babysit carry heroes (a hero that starts out weak but with the help of items and levels allow them to dish out a lot of damage, carrying the team to victory, hence the name "carry"). When you play DOTA, it's important to always have a support on your team, or else the carry hero would die too easily without getting the sufficient amount of gold to buy the items needed to start carrying. But as soon as that hero obtains the items needed, your help as a support hero greatly declines. By playing a support, you are expected to give up gold gain and kills to the carry, forfeiting your claim for any yourself, the bad thing about this is that as soon as your carry is strong enough to kill on its own, the enemy's carry would do too, and you are left weak with no items to strengthen yourself. I usually play the support class because normally people wouldn't want to play the support and they like to get kills, so I am very familiar with those situations, you are basically a sitting duck filled with gold for enemies to kill, the only help you can give is by disabling enemies with your spells and items (if you manage to get any) or warding the map. Any damaging spells you have now basically do nothing and so does your basic attacks. You are just a wandering sack of meat, under leveled, penniless and itemless waiting to die.

To represent your value to your team and how the enemy sees you

When I entered HOTS, things were greatly different, your spells scaled as you gained levels and with no gold or items, you could do a lot more than just support, your attacks still packed a punch and your spell can still hit hard no matter what stage of the game. Heroes also leveled up as a team with shared experience instead of individual experience gauges in DOTA, and your abilities greatly mattered because there were no items that could produce the same effects. All heroes can contribute by "soaking" up experience in lane, so the job isn't specifically aimed towards you as the support only. This meant a lot to me, as I felt that support class players are not always given the credit they deserve. It may be personal, but support heroes in HOTS can really make a huge difference as compared to DOTA.

5. Focused Objectives and Pacing

DOTA fails at highlighting the true intention of playing the game in the first place, to destroy the enemy's ancient. Destroy the ancient, finish the game. But ask your friends the point of playing DOTA and they might have a hard time coming to that conclusion. You see, DOTA highlights and rewards killing other enemy heroes, a task at which you are not first needed to do, but allowed to do so because it would make piercing through the defenses easier. The whole point of the game is lost because most play the game for the kills, true enough, if you kill the enemy heroes a number of times, you will have nothing left to stop you from destroying the ancient, allowing you to win the game. The reason I say it's lost is because most just play it to get kills, which if you kill a large number of enemy heroes, you and your killing streak will be announced for all the players to witness, earning you that GODLIKE STREAK, proving your mastery of the game and how excellent you are. It's like you've just bought a Lamborghini and the news network just decided to announce it for the whole world to hear. OF COURSE YOU'LL GLEAM WITH PRIDE. And that's why there's an emphasis on killing more than objectives. (it is a fan started game after all so you can't really complain)

Rampage is a greater honour, meaning you've managed to kill 5 heroes within a short period of time

But HOTS isn't, they've had time to plan and troubleshoot before releasing the game. And the result is a game that still rewards you for a kill streak, but awards your whole team for having done so with the coveted HERO OF THE STORM after 20 consecutive kills. It's simply amazing that by omission of just the player's name, a game is more team motivated than individually motivated. Less of a "I want to get the most kills!" and more of a "let's beat the other guys!"

From this,

To this!

Another problem DOTA has is its pacing. DOTA starts off really slow (unless you're playing pro matches) with the laning phase or early game, mid game is where fights start to happen a lot and late game is mostly a battle of the carries. DOTA's laning phase is about 6-12 minutes long depending on how good the players are, and most of the time you'll be just killing creeps for gold and experience. Do you need to engage the enemy heroes? Not at all. Actually you can win the whole game without needing to engage the enemy. The reason why people engage other enemy heroes is to gain a gold and experience advantage or cripple the enemies' advance, like I said killing enemy heroes awards you with bonus experience and gold. Which brings me to an excellent example, in the 2014 DOTA Internationals, the chinese team Newbie, played one of the longest games of DOTA in the history of TI finals. The reason, simple, being, they never needed to engage the opposing team, most of their time was spent farming gold and experience in the jungle. The only time they would risk getting into battle was to get the Aegis of Immortality to win team fights, if the attempt fails, they would go back to farming, wait out the Aegis and rinse and repeat.

HOTS has map objectives that can influence an enemy's push into the your defenses. These objectives force engagements and at the same time, indirectly remind you of the point of the game. The ancient (or core in HOTS) is protected by 3 lines of defenses, which are towers that deal heavy damage should a hero come under fire. The objectives either disable these towers or weaken them sometimes destroying them all together, forcing you to contest and forcing engagements. This, combined with your heroes having all their basic abilities from level 1, shortens your laning phase to around a minute and making the game move much faster. For comparison, a game of DOTA usually takes 30-60 mins and a game of HOTS takes an average of 15-20 mins. This makes it more exciting as there's always action somewhere on the map and you can play more. One of the things I didn't like about DOTA was how much time it took. So HOTS was a welcome change especially if you can risk spending a whole afternoon playing DOTA.

Now before I end this post, I'm not saying I no longer like DOTA, I'm just listing 5 reasons why HOTS is better than DOTA, I'll write about the counter argument in a later post.

Have a good one and keep playing DOTA or HOTS! (Or LOL, or HONS or SMITE)

Bluetooth Headphones Experience

Since, I've done my final thoughts and impressions for the Audio Technica M40X's, I think I should follow up with giving my opinion for my bluetooth headphones as well. Although these are not even in the same league as the M40X's, there's still something captivating about headphones that are cordless. My first experience with bluetooth headphones was rather sad. Sad in the sense, they were cheap headphones, not comfortable at all (on top of that on ears), the sound they produced was mediocre at best. The sadder part was I swore by those headphones and thought they were the best thing ever invented since the wheel. They were the Rapoo H6060, and like your parents when your friends come over, imma show you some pictures~

Rapoo H6060

When you look at those, I think you'll get their initial appeal, I mean, they look sleek and simple with that all matte black build. but the choice for materials could be better. The soft touch plastic they used was of a cheaper quality, the fact proven that after a while, they started feeling sticky and dust would gather on them (ugh). Plus the headphones' foam cups were made of poor quality faux leather so they started peeling off, exposing the itchy spongy layer beneath them, adding to their already discomforting design. They sat on your ears (on ear headphones) and ergonomically they could be better. All that lead up to me just ditching them after a year of use, though it was a good one year journey we had together. Having your hands free from obtrusive cables was really convenient to the point you didn't expect it would be THAT convenient. You can control media and volume all from your headphones so you can leave your phone charging and still listen to music without being tethered to the power plug like your phone~ All that nostalgia brought me back to trying them on again, I stopped using them after the foam cups started peeling off, thankfully the buttons still work but before I put them on, I noticed ants coming in and out of the ear cups.

My literal face, I kid you not

The condo I was living in had an ant problem, if you left anything sweet out in the open, 15 minutes later, ants would swarm it! So because the ear cups were exposed, since the faux leather was peeling off, they made the inside of the headphones a place to make a nest... All that nostalgia and love I had for those headphones went down with the headphones as I tossed it into the trash. (I broke the band that connects the two cups together as well since it already had cracks, I've always wanted to do that, and I hate ants, especially when they bite you, it was kind off therapeutic to be honest) After that I was left there with no bluetooth headphones, so I was all like "I have got to get me a new pair of them bluetooth headphones!" And I didn't want to just buy any old bluetooth headphone I could get off the shelves, no way, at that point sound quality already mattered to me. So I did some window shopping after going through lists on the internet. The thing about bluetooth headphones are that good pairs don't come cheap. The Sennheiser Momentum were over RM1000, I don't have that kind of money so obviously, I didn't even dream about getting them, next were the Sony MDR-10RBT, RM700-800, nope, lower, their older brother the Sony MDR-1RBT were more expensive so I didn't consider those as well. Bose was just as expensive as the sennheisers, and there was no way I'm going to buy a pair of Beats headphones which were overrated and overpriced all the same. The Jabra MOVE Wireless were the best for the price according to reviews but they were still too steep for me. In the end, I settled for the Avantree Auditions. There aren't really a lot of reviews for them online, most of them were in forums and there was only a couple of youtube channels reviewing them. But the gist of all my reading amounted to the fact that these weren't bad and for the price, these were decent enough~

So I got them, and here they are~

I've been using them for over 11 months now, I'll post my final thoughts in a coming post, I got them before my M40X's and these don't come close to the Audio Technicas but they aren't half bad.

I got them at lelong as well, link here. The seller had good reviews so I chose them even though there were cheaper options. You really have to be careful when purchasing online so I wasn't taking any chances. I bought them for about RM150, including delivery so it was cheap considering the Rapoo's were RM115.

When I looking up reviews, here are some of the good lists I've found from:

TechRadar

The Wirecutter (you should look at their other lists, their lists are pocket friendly)

The Sound Guys

And that's all, have a good one~