Supergiant Games: A Retrospective

One of the biggest compliments I can give a creative of any kind is the ability to embrace new ideas. It’s even more impressive if they are able to pull those ideas off without sacrificing what made them good in the first place. One games company that not only strives to do that, but succeeds, is Supergiant Games.

"I think the general consensus is that the soul from our previous games is still very much intact. We don’t try to make something for everyone, I think our games are very specific."

- Creative Director Greg Kasavin

Since its founding in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon, they’ve made 3 games with the 4th, Hades (2020), set for full release in the second half of 2020. That said, I think now would be a perfect time to take a look at Supergiant’s current work to see what each one brings to the Indie game table. Both their strengths…

… and their flaws.

Kicking this off, we have their landmark debut.

Bastion (2009)

Bastion is ideal for people who are new to video games and want a simple but effective example of what the medium is capable of, both in its gameplay and narrative. It takes place in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event known as “The Calamity” after which there are only a few survivors. You, the Kid, are one such survivor. You head for the Bastion, a safe haven for survivors with the potential to restore the planet. As you journey out into the ruined world, you’re tasked with gathering materials to power the Bastion.

Each of these games have interesting ways of incorporating story in a way that doesn’t interfere with the gameplay. Bastion does so through the use of a narrator. You venture through the world, killing and collecting, all the while the narrator provides running commentary. It may sound tedious but it genuinely adds to the sense that this is a tale on a grand scale, and it's very efficient. Even in areas where you can grind for in-game currency, it's used as a means to slip in exposition about a character’s backstory without it bothering or interfering you. It also doesn’t hurt that the narrator’s voice is richly smooth and rugged making him hypnotic to listen to...like taking a swig of Bailey’s Irish Cream and sneaking in a cheeky piece of Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

Bastion’s gameplay is as simple as they come. You have 2 attack buttons, a dodge roll and a special move you’ll forget about. Boom. So simple you could port it to a mobile device.

...oh they have? Grand.

With those simple controls, you’ve an entire arsenal of weapons that you can combo with one another, from a hammer to a carbine to a spear to dual wield pistols. You can mix and match all you like to see what works for you and build your fighting style around that. Doesn’t matter what combo you choose, the narrator gives a complimentary line unique for every single one. 

You can upgrade your chosen weapons, picking one of 2 upgrades at each level (more damage OR more accuracy etc) except you can freely switch between them at any time just in case you picked one you didn’t like. The game is great at making you feel like you’re in control, and whatever weapons or upgrades you go for, you’ve got a sense of approval.

Throughout Supergiant Games’ repertoire, difficulty is managed consistently and efficiently. There are different modes, but difficulty is customisable through a unique mechanic. I’ll use Bastion as the example but this is present in all 3 of the games.

You can activate totems of the game’s ‘deities’ which give foes a specific boost, e.g. faster recovery, dealing more damage, etc. There’s even a totem which makes enemies explode upon death, forcing the player to hone their alertness and reaction time. As compensation, you will get a percentage boost to EXP and in-game currency. 

Not only does this let you pick and choose the means by which you meet your inevitable demise, but it also allows you to ramp it up or tone it down at any point. It's a rather simple idea but it's very effective in regulating difficulty and giving the player more choice. Despite its size, it doesn’t feel cheap, mainly thanks to the fluent art style that shows an array of bright natural colors along with the melancholic atmosphere. It’s rather difficult to describe, but it reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002), both in its charming, big eyed character designs and the overall feel of a maritime adventure. 

This atmosphere is only enhanced through the fantastic soundtrack. In composer Darren Korb’s words, the soundtrack boasts an "acoustic frontier trip-hop"* vibe, which adds to the atmosphere being both a serene landscape and a dilapidated battleground. There are few songs that feel like Country ballads that evoke a mental image of toiling on a farm or coal mine. It’s fascinating to listen to with its combination of acoustic and electronic beats.

"For Bastion, my influences were certainly more tonal than specific. I drew stylistic inspiration from a wide range of things.  Everything from some of Led Zeppelin’s more acoustic music to old southern spirituals and a bunch of stuff in between!"
- Darren Korb

It’s very much a melancholic yet relaxed tone that’s present in Supergiant’s work. It’s very much an “it is what it is” feeling to it, where nothing gets dwelled on and everyone just keeps putting one foot in front of the other. I suppose that fits well with Bastion’s western aesthetic, like you expect to just come back to the Bastion, shrug, take a shot of whiskey and get on with it. It’s melancholic but never melodramatic, lighthearted but not foolishly optimistic. This casual view to devastation is also reflected in the naming of items and enemies, the upgrade materials for your weapons are just referred to as “something pointy” for your spear or “something greasy” for your pistols. 

Enemies are described like they were given slang nicknames, the windbag, the gasfella, the pincushion. Names that feel like they were given by blue-collar workers or foragers rather than academics with too much free time. Bastion hasn’t got time for your instruction manuals or catalogues, it simply asks “should I kill those things?” and “will this doohickey help me kill them?”

Nobody has any time or energy for order or the past, not anymore. This feeling pervades as you find the victims of the calamity, frozen in time in statues of dust, only to disappear at the slightest touch. It really creates a sense that this was a vibrant, breathing world where everyone was just going about their daily lives, unaware of their impending doom. Elements of the old world exist, grudges, race relations, the usual, but they gradually begin to pale in comparison to the sheer damage wrought by the calamity. That’s ultimately what Bastion is, at least thematically; it's a story of what’s worth holding on to when everything is seemingly lost. Do you try to get back to the way things were or do you just accept the world as it stands and venture onwards?

There are still some niggles; the special attacks get forgotten mainly because they’re finite, and if you pick up a potion for them while your gauge is full, you get some EXP instead so you’re always wanting to conserve them. Plus, there are a few technical issues, like how the narrator’s audio quality changes from time to time, mainly when he’s discussing collected items.

These issues never detract from the overall experience. Thankfully, at approximately 8-10 hours length, it doesn’t overstay its welcome nor require you to organise your whole life around it. It’s the ultimate casual indie game that also boasts story and atmosphere without any of them overwhelming the gameplay flow. So give it a go; at the very least, it’ll give you a glimmer of hope, or some bangin’ beats for when you’re gazing into the abyss.

Transistor (2014)

Transistor is set in the cyberpunk city of Cloudbank, where you, a red-headed singer eponymously named Red, get tangled up in a conflict with the city’s oligarchs, the Camarata. This group utilises robotic entities known as “the Process”, however the robots go full Skynet on them and engulf the city. You journey across the city, fighting the robot hoards of the Process and take on the Camarata. At your side is the Transistor, a giant technological sword capable of absorbing souls to use for various functions.

Right away, you can see some similarities to Bastion. Both are isometric and focus on a theme of a dying world, whether it be due to a cataclysmic disaster or technology going out of control. Transistor, however, builds on Bastion’s idea of coming across victims of their respective disaster. Instead of them being statues for information about the world, they are now downloadable husks that contribute to the Transistor’s power.


Despite those similarities, Transistor’s world is different from its predecessor’s post-apocalyptic fantasy. It goes for a Neo-Tokyo environment with all the holograms and white cubes you can hope for. Same composer of course, but Korb creates more of an "Old-world Electronic Post-rock"* soundtrack in Transistor. Melancholia is still pervasive, so it is fair to say if you like the soundtrack (which you do, don’t lie), you’ll like Transistor’s. One song in particular, “In Circles,” is hauntingly beautiful to listen to.

Fortunately, some of Bastion’s strong suits remained. Transistor clearly tries to retain Bastion’s success in integrating story and gameplay without one interrupting the other. However, Transistor swaps the narrator for a method made popular in Dark Souls (2011), where information about the plot and characters is told through item descriptions and little details. You’re essentially dropped into the middle of it and everything is inferred and spoken about as if you already know what’s going on. Frankly, it’s not as effective since you don’t have the full picture from the get-go, or how Red ties into it. I also think it's not the best method when you are a named character as opposed to an imprintable blank slate like The Kid.

Transistor boasts the option to set abilities as attacks or passive buffs to other attacks. For example, let’s say you have fire, ice, lightning, and water attacks (not really the game’s powers, it’s just a simplification). You can have them as 4 distinct attacks, or you could equip the ice attack to the lightning attack, making it do lightning damage with an ice-related buff.

Another mechanic is the ability to basically freeze time and execute a combo. It works rather similarly to the VATS system mechanic in the open world Fallout (1997-) games, though you can take into account movement as well. You’re given a bar showing how much you can move and how many attacks you can execute while in frozen-time mode (not what it's actually called, but it's basically that). 

ZA WARUDO!!

Each attack takes up a different amount of the bar and you can set up combos or angle yourself correctly so your ranged/AOE attacks hit the most enemies. Both the attack variations and the time-freeze mechanics allow for a greater level of strategy than Bastion, which is good enough to distinguish itself from it.

However, it is with no pleasure that I must confess the following.

I didn’t like playing Transistor.

It hurts me to say that, really. Nonetheless, hear me out. 

The time ability is great, but the core gameplay is real-time, minus a dodge roll like in Bastion. The time ability also leaves you unable to attack while it recharges. You don’t have to use it, but why would you not? When you’re swarmed and incapable of moving very fast, the time attack is your most efficient bet. This means the game is a cycle of just hitting, then running away, hitting then running away. Which is about as fun as it sounds. You can just do normal attacks, but the time power and running away is your best bet for keeping your health. It also doesn’t help that you lose your attacks when you run out of health. You’ll stay alive but you won’t have one of your useful moves. 

This ends up causing a negative feedback loop where you’ll just keep losing your stuff because all your best attacks are gone. I understand the idea that it forces you to change your tactic, but nothing is stopping you from just reloading from the last checkpoint with your loadout intact. Ultimately, aside from maybe the final fight where losing attacks won’t matter, it’s redundant and frankly just discouraging.

That casual style I mentioned in Bastion is still present here. The enemies are given rather emasculating names like Creep, Clucker and Jerk. The Transistor voice has the occasional dry wit but the voice actor doesn’t sell it. He needed more of a deadpan demeanor or better timing, something more akin to Rowan Atkinson-style delivery. Instead, it just comes off rather stale, like they’re reading off a script. 

Wait, they're voiced by the same guy?! What the hell happened?! No Bailey’s/Terry’s Chocolate Orange for you!

Even when you use the slow-time mechanic and set up a combo to clear a path through the enemies, it doesn’t account for the knockback enemies get with each attack. So you’ll end up setting up everything to take out one foe, hit them once, they’re pushed out of the way of everything else, now you’ve done bugger all damage and can’t fight back for a while. It completely defeats its point.

I’d be more forgiving if the gameplay was fun, but since it’s awkwardly going from real time Bastion-style combat to slowed-down tactics, it doesn’t succeed at either. Personally, I think they should have settled for one or the other; either have it like Bastion (aka give us a goddamn dodgeroll) or go all tactical and make it akin to turn based games like XCom (1994-) or Fire Emblem (1990-). As it stands, you are powerless after using the time tactics and your movements are noticeably slow in real time. The latter could be considered immersion as you are literally dragging a massive slab across the floor. 

Doesn’t make it fun to feel like it.

Cloud Strife would be ashamed.

Maybe this sounds interesting to you regardless, or maybe you’re looking for a more atmospheric/visual game. In which case, by all means go for it. But in the end, it’s a game I would not play again, nor would I recommend it, especially over Supergiant Games’ other titles. It’s a game of great ideas, but they’re not strong enough to provide enough icing to mask the taste of the core, which is awkward, repetitive and rather clunky.

Part of me feels similarities between Transistor and the Wii U, as both are awkward middle grounds. Both try to mimic the success of their predecessor but get so wrapped up in the mechanics that they forget the core. Bastion was the Wii, rather simple but still a step forward. Transistor feels like a stumbling step towards the next thing, a new game which takes the positives, irons out the negatives and genuinely gives us a fine new generation to look forward to. The Nintendo Switch of the analogy, if you will.

Which, in this case, is... 

Pyre (2017)

Do you ever get that experience with a game or even a film that feels like someone took everything you personally liked and condensed it into a cohesive piece of media? Pyre is like that for me. The 4 of you who read my “Games of the 2010s” know that Pyre is THE game out of that whole list I most encourage you to play. 

In the world of Pyre, the imperial country known as the Commonwealth has outlawed books. As you are one of those dastardly scoundrels who actually enjoy reading, you are banished to the Downside, a barron dimension for exiles and prisoners. In this world, one must compete in a tournament called ‘the Rites’ to gain their freedom and return to humanity, their past crimes forgiven. You join a group called The Nightwings and become their ‘Reader,’ a commander and strategist who coordinates the other members of the Nightwings during the Rites.

The game is half visual novel, half 3-on-3 sports strategy. The novel elements take place as you journey to the next arena, utilising 2D stills of the characters, then comes the match where you orchestrate 3 of your chosen buddies to win the game. 

Half is this...

And half is this.

I say with certainty this is officially the closest I’ve ever come to caring about sports. This is primarily due to the characters and the strategy you must develop using their unique strengths and abilities. Among them are a demon woman, a dog with a fabulous tache, a jovial worm in a knights helmet and a nomad who looks like the stoner cousin of Roy from Fire Emblem.

I love the ragtag group of misfits in games like Mass Effect (2007-) and Persona 5 (2016) because it emulates what it’s like to actually have these “friends” I keep hearing about. However, one issue with some games of that ilk, like Mass Effect, is you will get characters late in the game that you won’t use much and therefore won’t be too invested in. Pyre’s unique mechanic is that the rite only saves one person and you must choose a single member of your team to set free each time. This creates a dilemma where your strongest characters are the ones you’ve had at the beginning, or the ones you most like using, meaning you’re more invested in them. Do you set them free because you care about them, or do you keep them because they’re your MVP?

Keep in mind, that’s only if you win the Rites in the first place. It is possible for you to lose and miss your chance altogether, meaning you’ll have to go back, look your friends in the eye and tell them you failed. Also, the game autosaves after each match, so no restarting for you, boyo. In Supergiant’s words, they wanted to convey: 

"what happens when you face defeat, and have to come back from it the next day, look your friends in the face, look yourself in the mirror, and deal with the consequences of the decisions you made".
- Greg Kasavin 

It certainly achieves this not just on an individual scale, but on a much larger one.

It’s not just releasing them for the character’s sake. Your mentor character and head of the Nightwings aims to start a rebellion against the unjust Commonwealth and the rest of the crew serve as important pieces in a larger game. If you don’t free enough people, the revolution will fail and this torturous procedure will continue.

Heavy enough for you? There’s more.

Your opponents are rival teams, also fighting for their chance at freedom. While you will come across the odd stone-cold-twat, many just have the same goal to win freedom, but just happen to be on the other side of the pitch. It really creates the sense that you’re all in the same boat, just trying to fight for your dwindling chance at freedom. The game makes you aware that in order to win, others, and their hopes, must lose.

Hell, even some of the more antagonistic opponents have moments of humanity to them. Take Ignarius, a rather boastful foe. Yet, as you begin to prevail in your match against him in the Rites, you get this internal thought.

*Heaves knife out of chest*

This sticks out to me as it's one of those small yet efficient moments that tells you everything you need to know about a character. And that guy’s just an opponent. 

But that’s not the only thing that elevates Pyre beyond Bastion and Transistor (in my opinion anyway). I mentioned earlier that the story should aim not to interrupt gameplay, to be as unobtrusive as possible. The previous games use a narrator or have the story inferred from fragments of information. Pyre is the outlier. Instead of merging gameplay and story, they separate them outright - which they do brilliantly. Some big titles like Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017), Spider-Man (2018) and even the Witcher 3 (2015), for all their highlights, execute story through cutscenes and overdone dialogue that feel more like a necessary evil. It's very likely the gameplay is the selling-point, so the overabundance of cutscenes is detrimental. They almost feel apologetic, as if the developers are going “sorry, we know you love the gameplay but could you wait for a few minutes?”

Pyre doesn’t deceive you. It tells you outright this is how the game is, half visual novel, half 3-on-3 sports. This has 2 benefits. The first is that it puts you in the right frame of mind. It sits you down and tells you directly “right, this is how it's going to be” so you accept it and prepare accordingly. The second point is that it effectively builds up tension for the next match, especially considering you know the consequences if you lose the next match. I can say without shame there have been several times I tense up as one of my teammates charges towards the enemy’s pyre goal (The Curmudgeon full-on screams by the way). It essentially gives you 2 types of games in one, and they compliment each other.

Like the rest of the Supergiant Games' titles, it's the little mechanics that make a strong difference. For instance, Pyre utilises a green motivation bar alongside the experience meter. If a character is not selected for a match, they gain motivation which multiplies the EXP gained in their next match. This helps underused characters catch up to the main game so there’s no need to sideline any. At the end when you acquire the latest characters, they have no experience but full motivation bars, meaning all it takes are a few quick matches to get them up to speed.

His heart is slightly filled with determination

Of course, I have to mention the soundtrack. I’m sorry, I know I’ve talked about it ad nauseum but I have to. Pyre has some of the best trekking music I’ve heard. You know what I mean, the kind of songs you can listen to while you’re walking somewhere or undertaking a journey to a faraway land. Not to mention that each team has their own theme which can vary from punk rock style to sea shanties. 

Pyre is the biggest game they’ve made so far and definitely the longest. I would say it’s main flaw is that the middle section gets repetitive: match, rite, release etc. until few of your players remain. However, like all great stories, flaws can be forgiven if the characters and motivation are strong enough. So if you enjoy the games I compare Pyre to for those reasons (Mass Effect or Persona 5), or want to truly feel a sense of weight on your strategy capabilities, or you just want a good story to get invested in, then I implore you to play it.

Also one of your squadmates is this little guy.

Look how cute he is.

LOOK, DAMMIT!

So there we go, we’ve got a casual Chibi-Western with surprising depth, a cyberpunk escapade with some good ideas, and a character-rich road trip through the underworld. Quite the portfolio Supergiant has accrued in a decade. 

So that now begs the question…

What do I want from Hades?

I must say that I know nothing about this game aside from a glance at its Wikipedia page because I want to go into the game blind. Nonetheless, it is fair to say the bar is set rather high for Hades. Knowing Supergiant is able to make each of their games distinct, I’m definitely anticipating something fresh. However, there are still some elements I would be interested to see.

First and foremost, it shouldn’t fall into the Transistor trap of having half-measures. It needs to outright state what it is and how it’s going to go. I do know the game is a roguelike dungeon crawler, so I’m curious what elements it will incorporate e.g. permadeath, preparation and the chance to lose lots of progress and start all over again. Being the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (2005-) fan that I am, I’m definitely up for a dungeon crawler. 

I’m curious how it will approach the story since all 3 games have so differently, in a way that is efficient and isn’t at the expense of the gameplay. I’ll admit the 3 games aren’t great at replay value, mainly since they’re story-driven. Unless you really fucked up Pyre, you’ll play them once for the story but feel no need to revisit for a while. Therefore, having multiple playthroughs of perhaps different endings would be interesting and unique to the portfolio so far.

The fact that it’s based on actual mythology should be interesting. Greek Mythology is always an interesting realm to explore, as there’s certainly a god-size banquet table of ideas to utilise. I like to think the end product will be a middle ground between Disney’s Hercules (1997) and God of War (2005-). Not exactly “Hercules killing his teacher with a harp,” but “Hercules has at least considered it once or twice.” 

In any case, it’s a game to look forward to. I hope my thoughts have succeeded in giving you a retrospective of Supergiant’s work and have at least raised your curiosity for each of the games. You got plenty of time to play them all before Hades comes out, and maybe your thoughts will be different to mine. Maybe you’ll prefer Bastion to Pyre, or don’t think the flaws of Transistor outweigh its strengths. Whatever the case, you’ll remember the games and, like me, you’ll be keen to tell others to play them.

Also, if anyone from Supergiant Games is reading, I have a favour. Please make your game titles more unique, or at least add a “the”. So when I Google “Bastion” or “Transistor”, I’m not met with Wikipedia pages of fortifications, semiconductor devices or characters from Overwatch (2015).

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