Transcripted

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.

If you like Shmups, Puzzle games & Match 3's you're going to love this game. Initially I though it was a basic twin stick shooter with a biological theme but soon discovered it was much more; incorporating puzzles with match three elements. Destroying antibodies release's cubes of various colours, which you then have to shoot at barriers made up of other coloured cubes (took me some time to realize this). To progress you have to solve the various puzzles, mainly based upon matching coloured cubes together. It's quite a challenging game once you've passed the initial tutorial levels. You'll become increasingly aware of growing numbers of antibody enemies, bullets, clouds of corrosive gas, lasers and more flying at you whilst you try to solve the simple task of matching three colours amidst these distractions. The concept of combining these two genres in a theme that's relatively new to gaming (i.e. biological systems) works brilliantly.

You probably didn't noticed Transcripted in 2012, just like me. But you should totally check it now that it's coming back on Steam. And you should read the story of why Alkemi pull it off the store from its **** publisher. Transcripted really surprised me: art is gorgeous, gameplay is unique and I love the music. I really like the fact that despite having all the codes from the shoot them up (upgrades, weapons, hitboxes, etc) and match 3 (color matching, combos) genres, the game is still very surprising. Every few levels it adds new rules or twists existing ones. Oh, and there's voice over! And upgrades. And a lot of levels. And a good story! That's so uncommon nowadays for indie games. My only issue with the game so far is the inertia of the ship, a bit too strong, but I think it's totally part of the gameplay as you can reduce it with upgrades. So have a look at this little gem and prepare for a good but rewarding challenge.

What first seems to be a weird mix between multiple gameplay works very well indeed. Transcripted offer a great story mode that keep you coming back or more levels and more surprises.

how to play this ? "After 3 years, Transcripted the illegitimate son of Zuma and Geometry " i still dont know how to play it

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!

A game that needs some love.... Transcripted was taken off of steam for 3-4 years due to legal battle with their publisher. It has finally returned to steam and you purchase it now. What kind of game is it? The description does pretty much sum it up, a twin stick area shooter, where you are also playing match three Zuma, with a story line of manipulating cells at a microscopic level with upgrades to get for your ship. If you're a fan of zuma and twin stick shooters, do give it a try.

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.

a cute fun little shmup with some nice visuals.

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.