No. of Reviews: 20
Review 1
Purchased!
TRANSCRIPTED. LAUNCHED IN 2012, STUCK ON A LIMBO FOR 4 YEARS NOW BACK AGAIN TO
THE STORE SHELVES.
Question: did the game age well?
I'd say yes.
Transcripted is a:
- single player
- twin stick shooter
- puzzle game (very similar to Zuma and Luxor)
That also features:
- an amazing soundtrack that becomes better the more you play the game
- actual plot and voice acting
- varied levels of difficulty: for both the puzzle and shooter part of the game
- an upgrade system with unlocks relevant to the progression of the story
I have played this back in 2012 and once more today in 2016 and the game still
feels good, both with a gamepad and mouse and keyboard controls. Like any twin
stick shooter it has a decent enemy variety to keep you on your toes and the
puzzle part feels extremely satisfying instead of feeling like a chore. Mind
you, I am a fan of games that mix both so its possible that my bias is showing.
Nevertheless, a worthy entry on the genre. Not a perfect game by all means, but
very well made and the effort put into the game really shows. For the price you
are looking at about 3 or 4 hours of fun gameplay on the normal difficulty at
the very least if you are decent at this kind of game.
Review 2
Purchased!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Easy to look at and I loved the gameplay.
Review 3
Purchased!
yes, what can i say, it ticks all the arcade boxes that i like
Review 4
Purchased!
Recieved this game in a humble bundle many years ago. The concept was so
intriguing and the soundtrack compeling, I played it through non-stop until the
end(approx 12 hours). Then given the potential continuation of the story, went
searching for the developer to see what was next and learned about the criminal
antics of their publisher Topware and at the time it sadly appeared that the
developer would shortly be out of buisness. I have boycotted that publisher
since, and am now happily suprised to be able to buy another copy on Steam from
the people who actually deserve my money. Put up an OST for this game and I'll
buy that too.
Review 5
Purchased!
Transcripted was taken off Steam for three years as a result of Alkemi
terminating their publishing agreement with their scummy publisher and engaging
in a prolonged legal battle over the rights (and the profits) to the game. I
played and quite enjoyed this game before it got taken down, and now that it's
back on Steam, I feel somewhat obliged to put in a good word for it after all
these guys have been through.
This is a genre mashup between twin-stick bullet hell and "Zuma"-style match-3,
and it actually works. I love it when a mashup actually works like this. Add in
some creepy organic visuals (think of Metroid Prime’s title screen), a
surprisingly great soundtrack, and surprisingly good voice acting, and you’ve
got one solid, decent game here.
You play as a microscopic probe performing tests on plasma samples that are
swarming with alien cells. The cells will attack you like an immune system.
Shooting at them will sometimes yield colored blocks, which you can pick up and
fire into the level’s unusually colorful DNA chain. Score enough clears on the
DNA chain, and you win the level. Take too long, and you’ll likely get swarmed
by alien organisms and die. Interestingly, when holding a cube, the alien cells
believe you are one of them, and you will become temporarily invulnerable as you
are given a few seconds’ reprieve from the bullet hell madness to aim your shot.
The game features a ridiculously deep upgrade system. Using EXP you earn, you
can upgrade a few dozen aspects of your probe, like shot power, speed while
holding a cube, speed at which you shoot cubes, health and energy capacity,
energy recharge rate, extra weapons – all kinds of stuff. And the real cool part
is that you can go back to previous levels anytime you want to complete level
objectives you might have missed, which can give very high EXP bonuses. And if
going back to unlock more upgrades isn’t enough to relieve the difficulty, the
game is also thoughtful enough to feature two separate difficulty toggles, one
for the match-3 aspect and one for the shooter aspect.
If I had to take off points for anything, it would have to be for the way some
stylistic aspects of this game don’t seem to add up. The idea is that the game
is taking place underneath a microscope, so it makes some sense that the
gameplay would feel surreal; movement feels a bit strange and things like
explosion sound effects are believably muffled by the plasma. However, this
doesn’t excuse the lack of good tactile feedback when taking damage – you only
get a barely-audible sound effect when colliding with an enemy, which you might
not even notice as your health drains away. And despite the fact that enemy
deaths and taking damage are sorely missing proper SFX, the game sees fit to
throw in some silly sounds that nearly break suspension of disbelief, such as a
“pew pew pew” when some cells fire at you, a “beep” sound when hitting switches,
or the sound of shattering glass when you clear matches in the DNA chain.
Overall, I give the game a 7.5 / 10 for great visuals, great music, suitable
difficulty options, and for a successful presentation of a novel idea. I also
found it a great game for achievement hunting, providing a nice spaced-out
variety of challenging objectives, some of which might make you rage for a dozen
tries or so, but are very doable with skill and practice. I wouldn’t call it one
of my favorite games, but it definitely deserves to be back on Steam, and I’m
very happy that Alkemi might finally get to see some long-overdue appreciation
for their work.
Review 6
Purchased!
It's not a bad idea but the weak graphics do not make the game that compelling.
Plus, why is there such an elaborate and tedious story full of mumbo-jumbo, that
totally dominates proceedings, when I just wanna shoot things!?
Review 7
Purchased!
I was lucky to see this gem on sale because basically nobody has ever heard of
it. This was immediately fun and well worth the $2.50 I paid for it on sale, and
is well worth the $10 even. It's like a combination of Bejeweled and a space
shooter and is a real blast and a lot of fun to play. The farther I play into it
the more it keeps impressing me. The fun comes from the nicely balanced tough
challenge and how huge the changes are from level to level, while never being
unreasonably difficult. This game is really well made and thought out, easily a
8/10.
Review 8
Purchased!
Awesome music, simple but addictive game play. Found myself losing hours playing
this fantastic game.
Review 9
Purchased!
This game was a very pleasant surprise, it combines prefectly the mechanics from
color matching game like Zuma with a bullet hell game.
From a technical standpoint the game has very polished graphics and from a
gameplay standpoint the game remains interesting as you progress by introducing
new elements such as new enemies, new rules, boss battles and also there is a
neat upgrade system.
You should download the demo and give it a go.
Review 10
Purchased!
Well, I'm just publishing it just to add my recomendation. For now I can say
that's a great game and well done.
I'll update this at some point with a more detailed and better worded
recomendation. Give it a try.
Review 11
Purchased!
Match 3 + Geometry Wars + creepy, yet calming music + great visuals = strangely
addicting.
Review 12
Purchased!
Transcripted - an amazing symbiosis Zuma and Scrolling Shooter. Destroy one
another virus-infected cells (sphere) and sort by color glowing blocks. Amazing
primarily because the image. Screenshots did not pass effect, but believe me,
the game looks fantastic: a riot of colors, glowing "jellyfish" (infected
tissue), gently fluttering in weightlessness, power beams, the magic chamber
music, slowly gaining momentum. The perfect blend!
Review 13
Purchased!
If you like twin-stick shooters like I do, you will love this game. It starts
off easy, but introduces new mechanics rather quickly, which gets pretty frantic
(but not overwhelming). The controls are tight (360 controller or MotionInJoy of
COURSE), graphics are bright and colorful, and the sound/music/voices are very
well done.
The ship starts off really weak, but you earn credits throughout the levels and
as awards at the end of each level, which you can use to upgrade your "probe"
however you feel. Some upgrades are fairly useless, however.
Preview shows what type of game it is, so if it looks interesting to you, pick
it up. The game mechanics are rock-solid.
Review 14
Purchased!
A nice match 3 puzzle with a good story, good voices and an enjoyable music. The
difficulty is sometimes excessive to get some achievements.
Review 15
Purchased!
A fantastic mix of Zuma-style match 3 and twin-stick shooter action with an
interesting story to boot! Some of the levels are quite challenging, but there
are plenty of power-ups and upgrades to unlock that'll help you along the way.
Highly recommended!
Review 16
Purchased!
Very pleasantly surprised by this. Why is it that games from 3-person teams so
often surpass blockbuster releases when it comes to writing and voice acting?
Review 17
Purchased!
This game is like if Bejeweled fucked and cummed inside of geomotry
wars...Bejeweled and Geomotry wars raised this prodigy child. On its eighteenth
birthday it was brutally raped and impregnated by a schizoid who couldnt decide
if he was a Civ5 technology tree or the magic school bus journeying through the
human body at a cellular level. This bastard child conceived through
legitamatish rape was known as Transcipted, and he was grand and received 9.5
out of 10 review score.
Review 18
Purchased!
I beat this game years back only to recently find out it had been removed
altogether from steam. For any of you that haven't gotten the chance yet, treat
yourself and buy this game!
Review 19
Purchased!
A solid, satisfying combination of twin-stick shooter and match-3 puzzle
gameplay, Transcripted is definitiely worth a try for fans of both genres.
Review 20
Purchased!
Nice game, shame about the difficulty curve.
