Tron: Evolution

Like any self-respecting entertainment company these days, Disney decided to celebrate the release of the upcoming Tron: Legacy movie with a tie-in video game, Tron: Evolution, which has been developed by the team at Propaganda Games.

Set to act as a prequel for the action in the movie, featuring the likenesses of actors like Jeff Bridges or Olivia Wilde, as well as letting you enter the world of the Grid in order to prevent an evil conspiracy, Evolution is set to be a center piece for the Tron universe.

Did the team at Propaganda manage to craft a great experience or should the whole game be derezzed into oblivion? Let's find out.

Story

Tron: Evolution has a pretty important story, as it acts as a prequel for the actions in Tron: Legacy. Sadly, its delivery isn't really up to spec, as you're pretty much just thrown into the action, with little exposition.

Those familiar with the Tron story will figure things out pretty quickly, but those new to the whole universe are going to scratch their heads throughout the whole game, in order to figure out just why there are two Flynns or why those shiny people are riding lightcycles or tanks.

You play the role of a special system monitor in the virtual world of the Grid, Anon, put there by the user, Flynn, in order to help maintain peace. A rogue virus is spreading like wildfire through the virtual world, causing a tear between the regular (basic) programs and the ISOs, which are new, more evolved programs with free will.

Slowly, a massive conspiracy is uncovered, and the only one able to contain it is the Anon, who must team up with Flynn, Quorra or Tron, in order to take down corrupt programs and try to restore peace back to the Grid.

While the story is pretty well rounded, the delivery of key plot information is mishandled, and you don't realize the importance of certain events or characters until after they transpired.

There are good guys ...	... and bad ones

Gameplay

Tron: Evolution is a third-person, action adventure title with platforming and hack and slash elements, similar to franchises like Prince of Persia or God of War.

Sadly, even if that combination may sound compelling, the actual mechanics of the gameplay are deeply flawed, largely because of the horrible camera system. Even on the lowest sensitivity, the camera of the game swoops from side to side, breaks through walls or concentrates on anything but the player or his active objective.

The combat is interesting enough, as you use the light disc to attack enemies, by either throwing it directly at them or using it in up close melee attacks. Sadly, this too is ruined by the dodgy auto targeting system, which, most of the times, sends your disc flying into other directions than into enemies, even if they're standing right in front of you.

The combat is ruined even more by the fact that you earn different disc versions, either heavy, bomb, stasis or corruption ones, which need to be used against different enemies. Sure, variety is a good thing in lots of titles, but the fact that you need to change up your powers isn't really explained in the game, so you need to find it out the hard way by getting killed lots of times.

In combat, you also need to keep an eye on your health and energy. If they're running low, you either need to jump onto special containers or on special wall sections in order to replenish them. This, when you're attacked by several discs at once or by annoying grenades with a terrible knockdown effect, is just pure torture.

The game also keeps things intentionally mysterious, as you need to start experimenting in certain areas in order to tear down walls so you can progress. This means you need to try out every combo and every disc power until the right attack is executed, just because the developers wanted to add a bit of a challenge.

The platforming is hit and miss as well, largely because the level design can seem fluid and open at one moment, then confusing and obscure just as you pass a corner. This is fixed, in some part, with the use of a navigation system that highlights the path Anon needs to take in order to reach his objective.

But during the later parts of the game the whole mechanic is purely forgotten, so you're going to be left scratching your head about what direction you should take towards the end of the game.

As you can imagine, a big emphasis was put into the appearance of lightcycles and tanks in this new game, but the two vehicles disappoint severely. This is due to their wonky controls and the fact that you're going to be flooded with environmental hazards that require split second reactions that can't be done on the wobbly vehicles

The lightcycle segments are not exactly what you might expect from a Tron-related game, as you don't need to battle any other enemies or do sharp, right angle corners, like in the Tron movie. Instead, they just serve to take you from one part of the grid to another, by way of lots of cheap deaths.

The tank segments are also extremely disappointing, as you just heavily move around and shoot at things. They pale in comparison to the objectives you need to complete in order to actually access the tanks though, as you need to take down one or more tanks by yourself in order to get into one.

This, as you can imagine, can get really old really fast, even on the lowest difficulty setting.

Last but not least, we shouldn't forget that Tron: Evolution does what all the cool games are doing, and adds role playing game elements, specifically an experience-based (megabytes of data, in this case) system.

You earn megabytes of data by destroying enemies and reaching new levels, which you can redeem at special stations in the form of upgrades or new attacks. This is pretty much optional, as even with certain upgrades, the fighting feels almost the same as when you first start up the game.

Explore the world of the Grid ...	... by any means necessary

Graphics and Audio

In terms of visuals, Tron: Evolution isn't that bad. If viewed from a distance, the world of the Grid, as well as Anon and the other characters, looks decent, but if you get in close, jagged lines become increasingly apparent, ruining the immersion.

Also, even if the computer on which we tested the game was more than enough to play it, a few slow-downs happened during the first part of the game.

Tron: Evolution redeems itself in terms of audio, as the soundtrack, combined with the special songs created by techno giants Daft Punk for the movie, make a great combo. Sadly, most of the times, you'll be annoyed by the action on the screen so you won't notice the great music.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer mode of the game is pretty bland, and features the regular deathmatch, capture the flag and king of the hill modes. The experience is a bit better than the single-player one, as you can employ lightcycles or tanks, besides your trusty light disc in combat. Ultimately though, it gets old pretty fast.

It's worth noting that the experience you earn in single-player carries through to the multiplayer, and vice-versa, meaning you can upgrade some of your abilities or opt for different loadouts to suit your playing style.

Lightcycle races are annoying ...	... while tank ones are boring

Conclusion

Overall, Tron: Evolution joins the rank of lackluster movie tie-in games, as even though its premise sounds interesting, the execution falls drastically short, with hit and miss platforming, disappointing gameplay and a confusing story for those new to the Tron universe.

If you really want to get in touch with the Tron universe before the release of Tron: Legacy, you'd better just watch the original movie once more.