Info about Transience:

Official game description:
In **Transience**, you become the hunter - an **Accountant**. Armed with the latest weaponry and tech, your job is to keep the books balanced... By any means necessary. Only this time, _you are the intended target_.
**Single-Player Campaign**
A story told through the lens of Eli Reed, an accountant-for-hire who ends up on the wrong side of the gun. Redlisted and on the run, you must uncover the mystery of who placed the bounty and why. Utilize near-future weaponry to take out your enemies as you take steps to clear your name.
Heavily inspired by gritty narratives we played growing up, the story unfolds in a way that keeps you at the edge of your seat. 9 missions spread out over 9 incredible hand-crafted environments, telling the story of one mans journey out of Transience.  
_Fully Voiced Dialogue_  
_Combat and Stealth Gadgets_  
_Multi-Approach Maps_
**Tactical Stealth Action**
Inspired by many tactical games from back in the day, we aimed to combine the maneuverability and fluidity of a Third Person Stealth game, with the slower pacing of a First Person Shooter. Become the spectre in the walls, the shadow picking off survivors one by one. Sometimes staying out of sight is only one way to complete the objective. Sometimes a more active and aggressive hand is required. Transience offers the player a ton of ways to approach objectives, from Stalking in the shadows, Running and Gunning down corridors or a blend of both. Utilize an arsenal of customizable weaponry to make your enemies fear your presence. You are the accountant.
**Deep Weapon Customization**
Powered by NWS™ (New World Systems) this industry-wide standard has allowed weapons manufacturers to interchange attachments and core parts at will. Take an SMG and turn it into an Assault Rifle or take an Assault Rifle and modify it into a DMR. Throughout the story, you will find attachments and weapons via stashes found around the environments that allow you to build and customize weapons on the fly. With 13 base weapons to discover throughout the campaign, NWS™ makes your survival odds that much easier.
**A Whole New World**
Take on the city of New Houston in the year 2056. Peace has been torn apart by a sudden conflict overseas, resulting in war-time prosperity. Government contracts are king, and advancement at any cost for the war effort drives industry in America. Corporations have gained so much influence from the new status quo that they have become the de facto law of the land. Currency is shifting towards digital under the government’s nose, funded by the innovative new technologies in their most dangerous forms being researched and shipped out to the war. Propaganda insists that the scraps of progress trickle down to the citizens, a half-truth. Access the advanced technology of corporate influence, from shrinking forms of medical tech to quieter suppressors and magnetic subway lines, the city is full of gadgets to use and weaknesses to exploit.
**NNCG "Eclipse" Suit**
Developed by NOVASKIN™ - This Nitro-capsule Gilded Undersuit was initially built for the war efforts overseas. The suit provided the wearer with solid kevlar-superior protection for quick engagements, featuring lightweight armor panels attached to a thin form-fitting undersuit. Powered by N-caps, this low-energy-consumption equipment is one of several premier front-line suit designs in existence today, always outperforming its competition by a country mile. The secret is in the underlying layer of specially developed Non-Newtonian Colloid that temporarily provides the wearer with reactive armor. Hardly anything can pierce this extremely effective protection whilst it's active. This suit will also give you access to a number of gadgets to help you along your journey: from a distraction tool, to a Flash Pulse for blinding enemies. And, of course, Night Vision.

Release date: Dec 4, 2025

Categories: Single-player Story, Tactical, Stealth Gameplay, Weapon Customization, Exploration, Real-time Combat, Wave-based Survival, Tools and Gadgets Gameplay


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Impressive Indie Debut & Value (weight 0.82): Players are highly impressed with the game's overall quality and polish, especially considering it is a debut title from a small, passionate team. Many feel it offers exceptional value for its price point and is a complete, enjoyable product.
- Authentic Retro Tactical Vibe (weight 0.42): Players appreciate the game's strong resemblance and homage to classic tactical shooters like Splinter Cell, Deus Ex, and Rainbow Six. It successfully blends an old-school feel with modern mechanics, appealing to nostalgia while offering a fresh experience.
- Polished Animations & Smooth Flow (weight 0.33): Reviewers frequently highlight the game's smooth and weighty animations, particularly for weapons and first-person actions. The overall gameplay flow is described as smooth, contributing to a polished experience, and the game generally runs well.
- Engaging & Replayable Gameplay Loop (weight 0.32): The core gameplay loop is found to be fun, challenging, and offers good replayability. Players appreciate the versatility of combat encounters, the simple yet engaging design, and the depth provided by exploration and interactable elements.
- Stylized & Impressive Visuals (weight 0.28): The game's graphics and art style are noted as decent, stylized, and often impressive for a small indie team. Lighting and environments are frequently highlighted as strong visual aspects that contribute to the overall aesthetic.
- Deep Weapon Customization System (weight 0.25): The weapon attachment and modular modification system is highly praised as a key highlight of the game. Players enjoy the ability to customize weapons on the fly, with lootable attachments encouraging exploration and adaptability.
- Strong Sound Design & Voice Acting (weight 0.23): The game's sound design and voice acting are consistently rated as very good, often being called one of its strongest elements. Dialogue and ambient sounds contribute significantly to the atmosphere and narrative immersion.

Common complaints:
- Inconsistent & Predictable AI (weight 0.99): Player feedback consistently highlights significant issues with enemy AI across both stealth and combat scenarios. AI is frequently described as janky, inconsistent in detection (sometimes instantly spotting, sometimes oblivious), predictable in patrol patterns, and generally lacking tactical depth, which negatively impacts immersion and gameplay balance.
- Slow, Linear Early Game (weight 0.86): Many players found the initial levels and opening sequence excessively slow, linear, and tedious, often lacking tactical depth or engaging action. This protracted introduction led to early disengagement and a perception of the game feeling rushed or underdeveloped.
- Unpolished Graphics & Performance (weight 0.63): Players report significant visual inconsistencies, including mixed texture quality, dated graphics, and poor character models, especially in cutscenes. Furthermore, pervasive performance issues like inconsistent frame rates, stuttering, visual artifacts, and questionable optimization detract from the overall experience.
- Unengaging Story & Protagonist (weight 0.56): The narrative is often found confusing, uninteresting, or poorly conveyed, with dialogue described as cheesy or unpolished. The main protagonist, in particular, is frequently criticized for talking excessively and constantly, which often breaks immersion and annoys players.
- Weak Gunplay & Combat Balance (weight 0.43): Gunplay is criticized for feeling floaty, lacking impact, and having weak, muted sound effects, making weapons feel like 'airsoft guns'. Combat encounters are often described as unbalanced due to scarce ammo, sparse checkpoints, and forced combat sections that clash with the game's supposed stealth focus.
- Unfinished & Mediocre Experience (weight 0.38): Many players feel the game was released in an incomplete or unpolished state, failing to meet expectations or justify its price. The overall experience is frequently described as mediocre, uninspired, and disappointing, lacking a clear identity or compelling reason to continue playing.
- Flawed Stealth Mechanics (weight 0.24): The stealth system itself is seen as unreliable and poorly implemented, with tools like sleep darts being overpowered or other mechanics (e.g., body dragging, knife kills) feeling pointless or difficult to execute. Players also note that stealth becomes too easy or neglected once a suppressor is acquired, which is often not available early enough.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core Tactical Stealth Design (weight 0.37): The game is fundamentally presented as a tactical stealth shooter, blending stealth, action, and narrative in a cyberpunk setting. It encourages a slower, tactical approach, rewarding stealth and ammo conservation, but also allows for 'going loud'.
- Mixed Narrative Reception (weight 0.15): The story received mixed reviews; some found it engaging, heavily narrative-driven, and well-presented through comic-style cutscenes and noir elements. Others described it as generic, decent but not amazing, or simply not a significant aspect of their enjoyment.
- Campaign & Wave Modes Offered (weight 0.13): The game offers a campaign estimated around 5+ hours, along with an 'infinite wave' or 'holdout' survival mode that can extend playtime significantly. Reviewers confirmed engaging with both the campaign and extra modes.
- Max Payne Noir Inspirations (weight 0.08): The game draws significant inspiration from Max Payne, particularly in its noir/cyberpunk aesthetic and slow-burn narrative approach. Some elements, like the intro, are even considered homages to the classic series.
- Extensive Protagonist Monologues (weight 0.08): The main character frequently engages in extensive monologues, particularly during the intro and tutorial sections. This constant dialogue contributes to the game's narrative style but might be overwhelming for some players.
- Clunky, Dated Controls (weight 0.06): Some players reported that the game's controls feel clunky and contribute to an overall dated feel, with one reviewer comparing the player controller to older 'Dark Engine' games.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent Game Performance (weight 0.29): Many players report erratic frame rates, frequent stutters, and significant FPS drops, even on high-end systems. Issues are often tied to specific graphics settings like shadows, leading to an inconsistent gameplay experience. There is also a desire for upscaling technologies like DLSS/FSR.
- Mixed User Performance Experiences (weight 0.27): While many users report performance problems, a subset of players with robust systems experience smooth gameplay, sometimes noting improvement after the initial game level. This suggests performance can vary greatly depending on hardware configuration or specific in-game situations.
- Performance Optimization Underway (weight 0.02): There is feedback indicating that the developers are aware of and actively working on addressing the reported performance issues. This suggests that future updates may bring improvements to game optimization.

Recommendations:
- Decent game, qualified recommendation. (weight 0.44): Many players recommend the game, often giving it a 'solid' score (6-8/10), but frequently highlight that it comes with 'jank' or 'issues.' The overall sentiment is positive but cautious, suggesting it's enjoyable despite its imperfections and sometimes being perceived as 'just okay' or 'mid.'
- Needs polish and content updates. (weight 0.36): Players widely agree that the game has potential but currently feels unpolished and could benefit significantly from post-launch support. This includes requests for more content (maps, lore), AI improvements, harder difficulties, and general polish, with many suggesting it would have been better suited as an Early Access title.
- Niche appeal for retro shooters. (weight 0.18): The game resonates best with players who enjoy old-school, janky stealth or tactical shooters reminiscent of titles like Splinter Cell or Max Payne. It is explicitly noted that those expecting a polished AAA experience will be disappointed, and its stealth mechanics may not be its strongest suit.
- Consider waiting for sales or updates. (weight 0.1): A notable portion of the feedback suggests that hesitant buyers should consider waiting for a sale or for future patches and improvements before purchasing. This indicates a perceived lack of urgency or a need for the game to mature further before it's a definitive purchase for everyone.
- Request Steam Deck optimization. (weight 0.02): One reviewer explicitly stated they would repurchase the game if it were optimized for the Steam Deck. This highlights a specific desire for better handheld playability and indicates a potential market for improved support on that platform.
- Review cutscene art style. (weight 0.02): One piece of feedback suggested the game should have stuck with a comic book style for its cutscenes. This indicates a specific preference or disappointment with the current approach to cutscene aesthetics, suggesting a potential area for reconsideration.

Other player notes:
- Debut title from small team (weight 0.41): Players widely acknowledge this is the first game from a small, new studio, which shapes their expectations. Many appreciate the effort and vision, understanding it's not a AAA production, and hope the team continues to learn and refine their craft in future projects.
- Promising game despite launch issues (weight 0.38): The game shows significant potential and is considered 'ok' or 'presentable' despite noticeable flaws and unpolished elements at launch. Players are hopeful for dedicated future updates and polish to fully realize the game's potential.
- Community discord and review bombing (weight 0.21): The game's reception is affected by perceived 'review bombing,' often linked to the developer's YouTube personality (BigFry) or critics with minimal playtime. Players urge developers to maintain open communication and constructive criticism while addressing community moderation challenges.
- Diverse player experiences and expectations (weight 0.2): Player experiences varied widely in playtime and initial impressions, ranging from minutes to several hours. Many found the game required patience and skill, appealing to fans of older tactical shooters, while others considered it suitable for casual play or not their target audience.
- Specific gameplay mechanic suggestions (weight 0.16): Numerous specific suggestions were offered to enhance game mechanics, including increasing ammo capacity, improving ADS speed, making the EMP function more useful, and adding new content like a Terrorist Hunt mode or specific weapons. Visual improvements like vaulting animations were also mentioned.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.25): Players felt satisfied due to the strong gunplay, solid gameplay mechanics, and engaging tactical challenge, often comparing it favorably to classic shooters. Many appreciated the game's stable performance, impressive visuals and sound design for an indie title, and its overall good value for money, especially given the development team's size and responsiveness to feedback.
- Frustration (weight 0.18): Frustration primarily stemmed from inconsistent and often broken AI, which included instant spotting, predictable behavior, and poor stealth integration. Other significant causes were performance issues like stuttering and GPU heat, clunky movement, annoying and excessive main character dialogue, and numerous design flaws such as bad save systems and illogical level design.
- Disappointment (weight 0.18): Disappointment arose from the game failing to meet expectations, often feeling unpolished, unfinished, or like a weaker copy of its inspirations. Players found the AI and stealth mechanics underwhelming, the story and visuals mediocre, and perceived a general lack of innovation or unfulfilled potential in the game's core ideas.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Enjoyment was largely driven by the game's robust gunplay, engaging tactical AI combat, and immersive atmosphere. Many found the overall game experience compelling, appreciating the blend of different shooter styles and the fun derived from using gadgets and guns.
- Hope (weight 0.05): Hope centered on the game's potential for future improvements, with players wishing for updates to address major issues like AI and performance. There was a strong desire for continued developer commitment to polish the game and even create better games in the future.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Excitement was generated by the game exceeding expectations, its strong concept, and high perceived quality and value. Players also expressed excitement for potential future content, sequels, and the game's escapist qualities or specific modes like wave survival.
- Boredom (weight 0.05): Boredom was mainly caused by the game's slow pacing, shallow gameplay, and uninteresting story. Repetitive mechanics, empty map designs, predictable AI, and particularly long, unengaging introductions or dialogue sections contributed to a mind-numbing experience.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy was experienced through the game's overall fun factor, particularly its enjoyable gunplay and challenging AI. Players also found joy in the excellent value for its price, refreshing collectible designs, and humorous dialogue or specific funny moments.
- Annoyance (weight 0.03): Annoyance was frequently caused by the main character's excessive, corny, and poorly delivered dialogue or monologues, which many found constant and unengaging. Issues with the save system and slow aiming mechanics also contributed to player irritation.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Appreciation was expressed for the game's good pricing, the developers' efforts, and their responsiveness to feedback. Players valued the professional feel for an indie game, strong core design, good visuals, and voice acting, viewing it as an impressive debut project.
- Confusion (weight 0.02): Confusion stemmed from inconsistent AI behavior, which could be both 'brain dead' and surprisingly tactical, leading to unpredictable encounters. Some players also expressed confusion regarding the game's identity, inconsistent design choices, or even the reasons behind negative reviews, suspecting review bombing.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation focused on future updates, bug fixes, and optimization, particularly for features like DLSS and a side mode. Players were keen for patches to address existing issues, hoping for a more refined experience.
- Relief (weight 0.01): Relief was felt by players who found the game to be a 'breath of fresh air' from other genres or a positive experience free from common monetization practices like microtransactions. Some were relieved they did not refund the game after initial hesitation.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement came from discovering Easter eggs within the game, the anticipation of controversy surrounding the title, or humorous and evocative descriptions found within reviews themselves.
- Regret (weight 0.01): Regret was felt when the game failed to live up to its potential, leading some players to reluctantly give a negative review despite initial interest. The necessity of refunding the game was also a significant source of regret.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia was evoked by the game's homages to classic titles and its overall feel, reminding players of gaming experiences from their youth, particularly from the 2000s.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players were surprised by the game exceeding their expectations for an indie title, indicating an unexpected level of quality. Hearing a specific voice actor (BigFry) in the game also caused surprise.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): The emotion of Challenge arose from the game being harder than anticipated, with players noting the AI being particularly snappy. This indicates a difficulty level that pushed players beyond their expectations.
- Concern (weight 0): Concern was specifically noted regarding potential hardware damage, likely due to extreme GPU heat reported during gameplay. This suggests worries about the game's optimization impacting system components.
- Indifference (weight 0): Indifference was expressed towards aspects of the game that were merely 'fine' or acceptable without eliciting strong positive or negative reactions. This indicates elements that were neither impressive nor particularly problematic for the reviewer.}