When it comes to movie tie-in games, there is usually only one outcome. A sloppy turd of a platformer with the respective movie's name on the front cover.
Tie-ins are always an obvious ploy to widen prospective audiences for the movie and to generate more money. This is absolutely no different for TRON: Evolution, but I find myself in the unique position of having played an OK movie game. There is the large and distinct possibility that the fact it's TRON has tainted my opinion somewhat. Having said that, the fact it being Tron gives it something unique over other movie games.
So we begin. The game serves as a bridge between the original film and the recently released sequel TRON: Legacy. The plot revolves around CLU's corruption and betrayal of the creator, Flynn, as well as his genocide of the Isomorphic Algorithms (ISOs). This is seen briefly in the movie, and is expanded upon to a decent degree in the game. Aside from some incontinuities, it works well as a bridge between the two films while not being essential to the plot of the movies.
What isn't touched upon in the movie, is the presence of a virus going by the name of Abraxas. Playing through, I felt this was a completely unnecessary sub-plot. While also being unoriginal in a TRON game, it derails the main plot of CLU's descent into corruption and what could be described as madness. It feels a bit tacked on for length and seemingly because the design team might have been bereft of ideas at that point.
It does turn out that Abraxas was an ISO and that CLU is using him as a ploy to gain support for his "purge". It seems to make sense, but the fact that CLU is already re-appropriating existing programs and turning them into an army he controls defeats the point slightly. Wait, I mean massively.
Then we have the player character. Now sometimes games can have nameless, faceless protagonists and it seems to work alright. Doom springs to mind, although I suppose he did have a face. A very angry face. In any case, you play as a program whose role is that of a system monitor called... System Monitor. Originality must ooze from every pore of the design team.
The same could technically be said for CLU, as his name is an acronym. Why do only two characters in the whole TRON universe have non-names? And why is the System Monitor so dull? It feels like you're playing a game as the Stig.
Some say he is a user...
Still, these annoyances aside, the game plays rather well. Again I was surprised by the inclusion of an upgrade and level system. Though not as clever as TRON 2.0, it adds another layer to gameplay. The one problem is you don't level up enough to get a lot of the upgrades quickly, forcing multiple playthroughs or foraying into the multiplayer.
Being a third person platformer, controls are hugely important. When it comes down to it, they're adequate. Not amazing, not horrible. I spent about as much time chaining vaults to wallruns as I did leaping foolhardily into vast chasms of expansive nothingness.
Of course, being TRON, lightcycles have to make an appearance. To be quite fair, I enjoyed these sections a lot. Yeah, the controls were incredibly wonky and you're going so fast you can barely see what's in front of you, but it adds to the fun. You also get to drive Flynn's cycle at one point. Squeels of delight were made.
Other sections included light tank battles, which looked almost exactly like the beginning of the original TRON, where the first CLU is destroying Recognizers. If it was intentional, it's a nice touch.
It was also good to hear Bruce Boxleitner lend his voice to TRON again and Olivia Wilde playing her role as Quorra. It helped the game merge into the TRON universe more easily. I was quite amazed to see that it wasn't Jeff Bridges voicing Flynn and CLU, because the replacement (Joe Tatasciore) sounds exactly like him. The same can't be said for Michael Sheen's replacement. Fingers down a chalkboard levels of awfulness.
Overall, the game is decent. A functioning platformer that doesn't really add or subtract anything from the genre. It's a little short, so maybe not worth the money but fun for a weekend maybe.
Tie-ins are always an obvious ploy to widen prospective audiences for the movie and to generate more money. This is absolutely no different for TRON: Evolution, but I find myself in the unique position of having played an OK movie game. There is the large and distinct possibility that the fact it's TRON has tainted my opinion somewhat. Having said that, the fact it being Tron gives it something unique over other movie games.
So we begin. The game serves as a bridge between the original film and the recently released sequel TRON: Legacy. The plot revolves around CLU's corruption and betrayal of the creator, Flynn, as well as his genocide of the Isomorphic Algorithms (ISOs). This is seen briefly in the movie, and is expanded upon to a decent degree in the game. Aside from some incontinuities, it works well as a bridge between the two films while not being essential to the plot of the movies.
What isn't touched upon in the movie, is the presence of a virus going by the name of Abraxas. Playing through, I felt this was a completely unnecessary sub-plot. While also being unoriginal in a TRON game, it derails the main plot of CLU's descent into corruption and what could be described as madness. It feels a bit tacked on for length and seemingly because the design team might have been bereft of ideas at that point.
It does turn out that Abraxas was an ISO and that CLU is using him as a ploy to gain support for his "purge". It seems to make sense, but the fact that CLU is already re-appropriating existing programs and turning them into an army he controls defeats the point slightly. Wait, I mean massively.
Then we have the player character. Now sometimes games can have nameless, faceless protagonists and it seems to work alright. Doom springs to mind, although I suppose he did have a face. A very angry face. In any case, you play as a program whose role is that of a system monitor called... System Monitor. Originality must ooze from every pore of the design team.
The same could technically be said for CLU, as his name is an acronym. Why do only two characters in the whole TRON universe have non-names? And why is the System Monitor so dull? It feels like you're playing a game as the Stig.
Some say he is a user...Still, these annoyances aside, the game plays rather well. Again I was surprised by the inclusion of an upgrade and level system. Though not as clever as TRON 2.0, it adds another layer to gameplay. The one problem is you don't level up enough to get a lot of the upgrades quickly, forcing multiple playthroughs or foraying into the multiplayer.
Being a third person platformer, controls are hugely important. When it comes down to it, they're adequate. Not amazing, not horrible. I spent about as much time chaining vaults to wallruns as I did leaping foolhardily into vast chasms of expansive nothingness.
Of course, being TRON, lightcycles have to make an appearance. To be quite fair, I enjoyed these sections a lot. Yeah, the controls were incredibly wonky and you're going so fast you can barely see what's in front of you, but it adds to the fun. You also get to drive Flynn's cycle at one point. Squeels of delight were made.
Other sections included light tank battles, which looked almost exactly like the beginning of the original TRON, where the first CLU is destroying Recognizers. If it was intentional, it's a nice touch.
It was also good to hear Bruce Boxleitner lend his voice to TRON again and Olivia Wilde playing her role as Quorra. It helped the game merge into the TRON universe more easily. I was quite amazed to see that it wasn't Jeff Bridges voicing Flynn and CLU, because the replacement (Joe Tatasciore) sounds exactly like him. The same can't be said for Michael Sheen's replacement. Fingers down a chalkboard levels of awfulness.
Overall, the game is decent. A functioning platformer that doesn't really add or subtract anything from the genre. It's a little short, so maybe not worth the money but fun for a weekend maybe.
