When comparing Hotline Miami vs Transistor, the Slant community recommends Hotline Miami for most people. In the question“What are the best Top-Down games on Steam?” Hotline Miami is ranked 6th while Transistor is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Hotline Miami is:
The overhead view allows the player to see much of the level in order to plan how to attack each situation, in violent and gory aplomb.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent, ultraviolent close combat
The overhead view allows the player to see much of the level in order to plan how to attack each situation, in violent and gory aplomb.
Pro Great, tense soundtrack
The soundtrack has a very 80s electro flare to it that helps flesh out the feel of the game and its violent story.
Pro Unique, neon-soaked art style and surrealist, gritty story
Playing off of themes seen in movies like Scarface, Hotline Miami features a crazy violent story that exudes a very 80s feel.
Pro Makes the player question why they love killing
The game is super violent, but the player loves it, and questions themself because of it
Pro Beautiful soundtrack
The soundtrack is mostly a type of electronic music called "trip hop", which is heavily influenced by jazz, punk and soul. Most of the songs are very mellow and have a melancholic feel to them, giving Transistor's cyberpunk world a very distinct and memorable feel.
Pro Excellent narration
Transistor uses narration to move its story along with the help of a talking sword. While it may seem strange at first, it really gives substance to an otherwise empty feeling world. The soft voice of the sword is also pleasing to listen to. If you ever feel like the sword is too talkative, you can disable the narration.
Pro Awesome hack and slash action with an interesting twist
Transistor is primarily an action RPG, but it has turn-based combat elements. You can use the ability ()Turn to pause time, which allows you to plan out your moves. This adds strategic depth to the combat, giving you ways to quickly take out all enemies or to get out of a tight situation. It's very fun to use and feels really unique.
Pro Deep customization that rewards imagination and strategy
In Transistor you'll get abilities called Functions(). They have three primary effects: the active effect, the upgrade effect, and the passive effect. These effects can be combined to produce really fun to use skills.
For example, the Get() active effect pulls an enemy close to you. If you add the Bounce() upgrade effect, it will jump to more enemies, pulling them all to you. If you add the Crash() upgrade effect, the enemies pulled will also fall asleep.
The game can be beat with simple combos that don't require much setup or strategy, but thinking up great combinations feels rewarding.
Cons
Con Buggy
Even after all the updates, AI in the game is still very buggy.
Con Light on story and can be difficult
There is really no reason given as to why the player is doing what they are doing and the game itself has a fluctuating difficulty level that can be frustrating.
Con Very simple story
The story focuses too much on the revenge plot and too little on the characters themselves. Even the ending wasn't a particularly satisfying, leaving way too many unanswered questions.