When the dice called up this game, I had no idea what I was getting into, but the concept intrigued me. Turns out it was for good reason: it's been a while since a developer got the concept of Lovecraft quite this well... come on in.
Story: Welcome to the city of Providence: the last bastion of mankind. The events that lead us here are murky at best, but the very way it attempted to be that last bastion muddied the waters for everyone inside. It is a bleak place to see as mankind teeters on the brink of extinction and hope is all but lost. As a result, mankind has dethatched itself from reality. With the level of cybernetic augmentation available, people literally choose to live in their own worlds rather then face what the real one has become.
It is in this dismal situation that you find Randolph Carter. He is a member of ODIN: a team of hackers for hire within this doomed city. Using Shamanistic techniques to hack not only servers hosting all these cyber-enclaves, but even the subconsciouses of individuals connected, they have quickly become the top of the top... and they just got out of their biggest heist ever against a major medical company. You would think they would be patting each other on the back (if laying low while the heat died down) but now is not the time. Someone or something took notice. Now, whatever they grabbed the attention of is slowly hunting them all down, one by one... and if Carter wants to survive, he needs to figure out just what's going on.
But if it were that simple, we could call this just another cyberpunk adventure telling a story we see often in this space. No, Carter's situation is a little more complex. For starters he remembers they made the heist, but what they stole, why or even how, has illuded him, as if he himself might be the victim of the very hacks he and his team are infamous for. Further pushing this are other-worldly experiences and visions that start invading his living world... but is it the hack? or something more?
I am legitimately asking as the game will give you clues to put it all together, but in true Lovecraftian fashion, a lot of it is up to interpretation for you as the end player since the source of the story may not be so reliable, so your view at the end may well vary from mine.
I refuse to explain any further as this is the kind of game where discovery makes the experience. But if cosmic horror is your thing, you are gonna like what the curtain rises to reveal to you.
8/10
Graphics: While the graphical style may unify the look of Transient, this game is going to throw a lot to look at directly in your face during it's short run. It will start you in a dystopian cyberpunk office with grotesque grimdark scenery followed by an endless void with jellyfish and graphical glitches and immediately following it up with an ancient alien building now in decay... before you wake up in an old apartment complex... and that's literally the first 15 or so minutes.
This is a game that will never tire of giving you more to see. Sometimes it will appear to be random, but over the run of the game will knit all the places together in a gloriously horrific view of an apocalyptic future.
And it's going to look great doing it. Seriously this game looks absolutely stunning, taking a "real feeling" approach over the photo-realism so many developers obsess over pushing these days. And it is a reminder of how this honestly may be the best way to do things as it works great for the rather fantastic worlds it will show you. Everything is well designed, well decorated, realistically lit, and oozes the atmosphere of the place it is supposed to be.
Sadly I can not say the same for your company.... when you have it. Most of the time, you will either be going solo and maybe visited by some kind of abstract monster or force at best, and these look just as good as the world, oozing a creepy, awe inspiring, or both vibe as a constant unexplainable essence. However the few times humans are involved, they can rather disappoint in comparison. For example while he looks "good enough," Carter himself looks relatively simple with an outfit that seems over shiny and could have almost been an afterthought in the few times you will see him. The same can be applied to any other human or human body you run into. In fact the very first human you see will make you doubt how good this game is going to look as a guy with a clearly mechanical jaw's face moves like it's just normal skin, completely breaking the look and setting expectations deceptively low for what the game will show you. Although like scenes where you see Carter instead of from his eyes, these moments are pretty rare and it will be come apparent VERY quickly how much worse they are then everything else you will see.
8/10
Sound: This is not going to be a game you are going to look at for it's sound track in the slightest. If there is music playing, it's really designed to be otherworldly, but background tones. It is not meant to dominate scene, but rather sit in the background and enhance the feel of the scene it's in... or even more, to notice when it's suddenly gone. But it's not so much music as tones.... very well done.
Nor are the voices going to wow you this time around. Everyone is playing their part good enough, but they outside of Carter himself, you wont hear them often. And even Carter is usually going to be makig commands to his cybernetically linked computer PHI, and these might just break the immersion a little as it seems these lines were designed for reuse rather then the emotion of the moment.
Rather this is one of those rare cases where the sound effects and the mixing of it with the tones of the soundtrack mentioned above are what you will remember as a whole... well outside of puzzles. Those are pretty generic, but the worlds themselves will absolutely speak as you crunch through them and that almost indescript sound track snaking around them to effortlessly create the audio sensory to go with the world you are seeing. It is absolutely breathtaking and I honestly couldn't recommend a headset for a game faster than this one to immerse yourself in the world you will witness. I wish I could say more, but since your time will be relatively brief so (about 5 hours or so), just enjoy this ride while you can.
8/10
Gameplay: And this is where the game is going to fall apart for some. Transient is very much a walking-sim horror game and, as such, offers much more atmosphere then actual gameplay. But that doesn't mean there is nothing here. You will spend your time viewing the world from Carter's eyes as he navigates his dreams, the cyber world, and places beyond. I am hesitant to call it exploring, however, as you will not be doing so freely. Transient is a very linear affair, so if you are expecting to explore, you are also going to be sadly disappointed as well.
What you will do is wander from place to place solving the few puzzles that get in your way by trial and clues you find in the world around you. These puzzles tend to be pretty direct with the instructions to solve them never too far from either the puzzle it self or where you got the pieces for it. If you are willing to pay attention to the world around you this will make it exceptionally easy to get through, and as a lore fiend who has to read everything I find, I can vouch for this.
However this is also a game that loves it's minigames as well. These take the form of either a hacking game for you to play a couple of times or literal games your team members were making on their own and hid messages in that you will need to get by finishing them. The hacking game will show you a grid with yourself and various security entities on it. The mission is simple: get the data, and avoid being caught. Though getting caught is not the end of the world as the penalty is a password hacking phase where you will be given three possible passwords and a combination lock-style display to pick letters to match the one you think it will be. One column is locked before you start, and it's always made which password you need a dead give-away. After you pick one, all you need to so is click to lock in each letter when it scrolls into place and spell out that code. It's actually really simple, even when you are playing under a time limit (which you will once).
When you are playing the mini/meta games, its even easier as you will either be playing a simplified survival horror or a retro-looking first person shooter, winning each bringing you closer to your goal by unlocking new information.
The end result, however is a game that, if you are here for gameplay alone, will not satisfy you. There is interesting stuff here, but being a walking sim, doesn't offer nearly enough on this front to keep any player satisfied without leaning on it's other aspects heavily.
6/10
Bugs: While I couldn't find any real bugs in this game, I did find an odd issue around the tab button. This is often an inventory button in modern games, so you might hit it on habit to check what items you have and find for a little bit none of your keyboard commands will work. I do not know why, but it is entirely avoidable and will never get in the way of the game itself before you regain control.
Digital Rights Management: This is also another game with absolutely no DRM included. The store you buy it in is just that: the means it's downloaded through and nothing more.
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: If you are here to play a serious and challenging game, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. This is a walking-sim and as such you will do a lot more observing and learning about the world then taking on anything else, and even when you are playing the mini games or puzzles, these tend to keep things relatively simple.
However, that is not what this game was designed to do. Transient delivers a cosmic horror you are to experience through the eyes of an elite hacker in the distant and all but dead future. It is here to tell it's story, give you a world to experience if not explore, and move on.. and it does this phenomenally. Personally I would have liked a little more time and a chance to explore rather then be guided all the way, but I am not sure how loudly I want to voice this. One of these complaints is a minor issue considering how good it is at delivering what it does and the other... might just be a monkey's paw wish considering how succinctly it ties itself together at the end, even as it leaves you still wondering.
System Requirements:
- 3.60 Ghz Intel Core i3-4160
- 6 GB RAM
- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 480/570/670 or ATi Radeon HD 5870/5850
- Windows 7 (64-Bit)
- 15 GB Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
Source: gog.com
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