Transistor offers ‘Recursion mode’ for after you beat the game

As was the case with Bastion, Supergiant Games is taking steps to ensure that your fun with Transistor will continue long after you actually beat the game on your initial playthrough.

"Our philosophy on replayability comes down to this: Our foremost goal is creating a complete-feeling, well paced game that’s respectful of and rewarding of the time you put into it. That means we really want for players to experience a sense of satisfaction at getting to the end of the game. If most players get to the end of Transistor and stop there, we’d be very happy, as they will have completed the story. But then again, there’s more to it than that," said creative director Greg Kasavin.

"As part of our goal, we wanted to build rich, deep-feeling game systems for Transistor, such that it’s impossible to experience the full breadth of the gameplay on a single play-through. This helps us ensure that first play-through will be as packed with as much interesting stuff as possible. At the same time, it creates a lot of opportunity to extend the game in ways we think are exciting. Enter what we call Recursion mode."

Recursion mode, which is unlocked after you finish Transistor's story, offers the option to "recurse through the experience" with your User Level, Transistor functions, and all other progression data already unlocked.

"This immediately opens up a lot of new gameplay as you’ll be discovering new function combinations all the way through your initial play-through of the game. You’ll also find some new surprises (that word again) in the content itself the second time around," said Kasavin. The most notable difference in Recursion mode will be the composition of the enemy forces you'll encounter.

"The Process, the enemy forces you’ll be dealing with in Transistor, operate as a faction," explained Kasavin. "The different varieties you’ll encounter have complementary roles. As we experimented with fighting against them in different combinations, and in different locations throughout the game, we found a ton of interesting variety. We hope you’ll enjoy it as we have. If you’re familiar with Bastion’s New Game Plus mode, we think Transistor’s Recursion mode pushes some of those ideas even further."

Transistor is due out on May 20 for PS4 and PC. You can pre-order it on PSN, Steam, or from Supergiant Games directly.

[PS Blog]