Playing A Game Transcripted PC

Transcripted is a creative, fun, flawed, fascinating game.

At its core, Transcripted is a hybrid match-three puzzler and twin-stick shooter. Imagine if a game like Luxor was played by flying a spaceship around and shooting floating enemies to collect game pieces. That, plus a generous helping of more minor game concepts, is the abstract of Transcripted. It's fairly original, as far as I know, and some excellently-implemented controls and mechanics (like upgrades and secondary weapons!) make it an immediately fun experience. There are even varying level objectives, including some where the goal is effectively to prevent the AI from winning the puzzle. Yeah -- creative.

The game's production values are pretty impressive on the whole, with slick visuals and a pleasant soundtrack. It even has a sizable game script and substantial voice acting, although the initially-interesting sci-fi plot veers into awkward implausibility pretty early on. (And the ending is distinctly of the "hey look we ran out of time" variety.) But those gripes aside, it's obvious that a lot of care and effort went into this release.

What ultimately holds Transcripted back is its relative brevity - at around three to five hours, depending on skill level - and narrow focus. The core gameplay is fun, and the campaign has a surprising amount of level variety; but the story is a throwaway justification for introducing new level constructs. And optional offerings, such as earning higher scores and completing extra-narrative challenges, aren't really compelling. The story mode has just enough of Transcripted's puzzle-shooter formula to satisfy, and so there isn't much reason to re-tread that formula just for a high score (especially since the optional challenges don't include any of the campaign's cool upgrades).

Transcripted looks, sounds, and plays great. Its narrative framing is a bit lackluster, and its replay value doesn't amount to much. But within its relatively narrow scope, it definitely delivers; and most levels (except for one near the end, with one-of-a-kind insta-kill obstacles) are a unique joy to play. It's quite unlike anything I've played before, and a fine production at that.

Better than: Ikaruga
Not as good as: SpaceChem
Oh, uh, also: apparently it is no longer available. That sucks. Pretty hard.

Progress: Beat on Normal shooter difficulty + Normal puzzle difficulty.

Rating: Good