Rebel Transmute is a Metroidvaina, taking its inspiration straight out of the original Metroid and Hollow Knight games, and it shows in its presentation, its music, and its exploration. But there’s enough originality under its hood to hold its own from what inspired it, and I am excited to get into why that is.
You would be forgiven for not knowing anything about this game. I myself was unaware of its existence until two days before its release on the Nintendo Switch, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to play it. Making its way from PC, Rebel Transmute is the work of a single developer, Evan Tor, who took five years to create this Kickstarter funded game. In that time, Evan has created something special, managing to capture the magical essence of Metroid and giving it something of its own personality.
You play Moon, the daughter of a scientist who was working on a planet that suffered a terrible fate. She believed her mother to be dead, but fifteen years after the events, she discovers a life sign matching her mother on the planet. Moon decides she needs to rescue her, and after crash landing on the planet and being encased in her suit, she embarks on a journey to find her.
Its not long before you find your first augment, which is scattered all over the world. These augments give your suit different abilities and are the biggest mechanic in the game. Its just not the suit these will affect either, with some giving your blaster the ability to fire quicker or with more blasts per round. Others will give you the power to cling to walls, project tentacles while healing, or get a small jet of air after a jump, which helps you reach higher areas that are a little out of reach for your standard jump. It is described in the trailer that these will give you the power to play how you want to, and that is true to a certain degree. These will give you the chance to play to your preference, but of course you can’t use them all, as each one uses a percentage of your battery. Fear not, though, as you can find more batteries as you explore, boosting your ability to use more augments at the same time, but be prepared to spend a chunk of time mixing and matching to get to where you want to be.
Augments are not the only power ups in the game, as straight out of Metroid come upgrades, or trans mutations, as they are called here, which you can gain after defeating one of the major bosses. These transmutations give you more power to explore the land, from a dash, the ability to bounce on objects and enemies, or even the power to fly across from one side of the room to the other. Most of these come from the books of previous Metroidvanias, but there are a couple of innovative ones to discover. Vendors are also scattered around for you to buy new augments, upgrades to the power of your blaster, map pins, and a couple of others I won’t spoil for you.
Exploration is the key to any good Metroidvaina, and this is at the heart of Rebel Transmute. There is so much to discover as you explore the five main areas of the world, I was so curious to see what may be lurking in the corners of each room, especially the parts I couldn’t reach. I had such a good time just roaming around, trying to uncover as much of the map as I could through some fun and unique areas. The map is pretty good, being uncovered as you go and marking out venders, save rooms, and fast travel points, but its still a little vague when it comes to items you find that are inaccessible at the time of discovery, expecting you to use one of the pins you’ve bought. I didn’t quite get on board with this and would of preferred, in Metroid fashion, a dot to appear on the map so I knew what was there instead of a map covered in pins. I also felt the save rooms could of been positioned a little better. Some are, what feel like, miles away from the vendors, which did put me off visiting them as I didn’t want to traverse that area again.
This game does not hold your hands; there are no big clues or NPC’s around to tell you where to go or what to do next. The game relies on you to remember areas you may now access with certain upgrades you’ve gained or to realise something you’ve missed. Although I appreciated this, I did spend a ton of time roaming different areas, trying to find where I should be going. This did lead to some frustration, especially after exploring the same area umpteen times, but what a feeling when you stumble on a door or room you had missed and open up a massive new area to discover! The sense of discovery is strong, and I was here for every step.
While out exploring, you’ll come across many platforming areas. These are some of the most challenging platforming experiences I’ve experienced in a Metroidvania. You will die many times! Boss fights are also very challenging; you will die many times! Rebel Transmute is not an easy game, but thankfully, the game comes packed with some impressive accessibility options in case you are having trouble. Want more health? No problem! Infinite spark blood, let’s go! You no longer want hazard damage? Sorted!
One area I haven’t mentioned yet is the health and currency systems within the game, which are both tied to defeating enemies. Health is earned by filling up a syringe with spark blood that defeated enemies drop, and one full syringe will bring back one health core. You can gain more health cores by finding pieces of them scattered across the world, and you can gain more syringes so you can heal more of yourself at any one time. As I mentioned, currency, or flux, as it is known, is also dropped by defeated enemies or by shooting blue-rounded plants. I can only remember a couple of times where I did not have enough flux to purchase what I wanted, as there are an abundance of plants in the game, and with the enemies returning after a certain time, it certainly wasn’t a problem to gain more flux in a short amount of time.
Presentation-wise, Rebel Transmute is gorgeous. The pixel art on offer here is just top-notch. I really loved the work Evan had put into the graphics, as each pixel oozed detail. Moon’s suit design was great; emphasising her helmet was a great choice and really made it stand out. The different areas all have their own personalities, with what looks like great care and detail going into everything you see. Enemy designs are also really good, with a wide variety of different creatures and machines out to get you. Most have their own attack too, so it’s really important to pay attention when entering a new area.
The music that accompanies the action really sets an atmosphere, with mellow, laid back pieces in the background, out to not take over the game or to stand out, but to just compliment the visuals, exploration, and combat. I really respected this decision, as there was nothing I would hate more than bombastic audio to distract me. The music never gets tiring either, which has to be its biggest compliment, considering the amount of time you will spend in certain areas. The mine track in particular was a standout, as were the first areas.
Of course, no game is perfect, and Rebel Transmute is no different, with the biggest hurdle being its bugs. I came across a few during my playthrough. Some examples were once I found myself wedged in a corner of a room that I couldn’t get out of; I got stuck on a wall and had to force respawn; and in one case, I died while attempting a difficult platforming area only to respawn at the end of this section instead of at the beginning. The biggest bug I encountered completely locked me out of the game for some time. This one caused the game to crash, and then every time I reloaded the save file, it would just crash again, going round and round in circles. Thankfully, a patch was recently released that fixed this and hopefully others I have mentioned, and I was thankfully allowed back into my seventy two percent completed game. I feel like I needed to report these, but I also want to stress that these should not put you off purchasing the game. Don’t forget that this has been made by one person, so we are going to stumble on some bugs, and I also would like to stress that there are so many more positives to negatives here, and hopefully as Evan continues to work on the game, more of these types of bugs will be a thing of the past.
Rebel Transmute may take over you as it did me. If this lands for you, then there will be nothing else you’ll be thinking about apart from when the next time will be that you can play it again. Its challenging, varied enemies, exploration, and no-hand-holding nature might just grab a hold on you and not let go until the final boss is done, and that speaks highly of its level design and mechanics. With its strong accessibility options and that glorious mellow soundtrack, even with the bugs, I can’t recommend this game enough.
Rebel Transmute
Release Date: Out Now
Platforms: Steam & Nintendo Switch
Price: £17.99
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