Spoiler alert.
I just played Transcend. There are some clever aspects to the campaign, but also some gigantic flaws.
Ransom did some amazing things with the engine, that I didn't know were possible. The campaign was, at times, very atmospheric; particularly, seeing people driven mad, and the GTVA falling apart were genuinely unsettling.
The campaign was very repetitive, and much longer than necessary. Flee from the nebula, track someone down (for some vague reason), return to the nebula (chased by warships), repeat. The whole series of missions involving getting Sinclair to decode the transmissions could have been cut; it added no substance to the story. Individual missions were repetitive, too; being hunted across the galaxy by warships (and the rogue corvette's inexplicable supply of fighters) was exciting at first, but that's every single action mission!
There were problems with the story.
Very little explanation was given as to what actually happened and why. There is sometimes a place in stories for ambiguity, but just being vague and giving the player no clues at all is not how you make an intriguing mystery. It gives the impression that the author couldn't think of a way to resolve the plot.
Also, some of the few bits of exposition we do get don't internally make sense. The main antagonist's motives either changed wildly over the course of the campaign, or were completely disconnected from its actions. I've also never personally liked the 'reset' ending in any story.
In addition, there were a lot of subplot points that were almost-raised but discarded; I wanted them to be delved into more deeply, and they seemed wasted. Why was our protagonist chosen? How far would the GTVA schism go? What does Silent Eye do? What was the shielded cargo? Why does the GTVA care so much about a wing of pirates?
