Transistor demo footage shows strategic planning, talking sword

Bastion creators Supergiant recently revealed their next game, Transistor. In it, protagonist Red finds a giant USB stick, and promptly destroys a legion of robots while trying to figure out where their input port is located. I can sympathise. You never get the bloody things the right way round first try.

You can also see that same footage, this time with Total Biscuit interviewing Supergiant's Greg Kasavin . Kasivin details Transistor's planned combat, which expands from Bastion's real-time ARPG nature with a new strategic planning mode. Here you use action points to plan movement and attacks, which can be quickly executed, letting you pull off complicated plans without relying on twitch keyboard skills.

Enemies will have specific weaknesses to target in strategic mode. In the video, you can see the Young Lady robot type has, like many of us, a weakness to backstabs. But the same enemy teleports away with each hit, leaving a shadow copy that also opens fire. "This is a game in which you start with the ultimate weapon right at the very beginning," Kasavin says. As a result, enemies are designed to keep you thinking through the sword's abilities, and constantly switching between real-time and planning modes.

Transistor is out Early 2014. Platforms are still to be announced.

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Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.