| DATA | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Monolith Productions |
| Genre | FPS |
| Platform(s) |   |
| Release date | 2003-08-26 |
For reasons I don't remember, I never played Tron 2.0 when it was originally released, despite reading enthusiastic reviews for its PC version (8 out of 10 and above). I guess my gaming budget was too constrained back then, and 2003 was an intense year. Didn't even try the demo. I filed it somewhere in my long term memory, next to other "to-dos" (a list that sadly grows at a higher rate than I can scratch items off it). At an unspecified date I purchased it on GoG while it was on sale, and it was only last week that I finally cleared it.
My conclusion? A bittersweet experience. While I can't strictly talk about a failure, I was expecting much, much more. There's something going for it, sure. Hidden beneath its layers there's a quality game that wants to be enjoyed. But there are some barriers (or should I say firewalls?) that prevented me from fully doing that.
The first thing the player will notice is the distinctive visual aspect. The art design follows closely the one from the original movie, with bright neon colors and simplistic surfaces to convey the feeling of being inside the digital world, contrasting with the few cutscenes that portray our reality. It's remarkably well done, but it may not be your cup of tea and your eyes might get sore after a while. Also, the fact that levels are almost single-color can make it hard to see certain exits or elements.
The environments are varied and the LithTech engine performs well in both cramped corridors and expansive open areas. Some sights are truly beautiful, and we also get the usual high quality faces on the character models. Particles and other effects, like bloom, are adequate.
The plot can be a little confusing if you've never watched the movie (or did so long ago), and I got lost with the names. Apart from the aforementioned cutscenes, the story is told through emails and logs that you come across quite frequently. It's not very memorable or interesting, to be honest. I'd say that it just does the bare minimum. There are evil guys trying to establish total control over the company your character works for, and the latter gets digitized inside their systems to fight them.
Objectives are given with a mouthful of computer jargon to mask the fact that you're just going from point A to B to get an item or press a switch to unlock a door, and then back, fighting enemies along the way. It's your average FPS of the early 2000s. There's nothing wrong with that anyway, and it's as engaging as ever, but don't expect a lot of originality gameplay wise.
My first steps in the world of Tron were disappointing when I realized that the stealth system is completely broken. It's impossible to go unnoticed; unavoidable enemy guards will see you peeking slightly out of a corner 300 meters away, and immediately summon reinforcements. Evasion is not a feasible tactic to get through the levels and this leaves you with only combat to do so. And combat isn't very fun either for a couple of reasons.
One of them is your limited arsenal. Your main weapon is a disc that you can throw or use to block attacks if you time it right. Apart from that you have other tools with strange names that are nothing but the usual shotgun, machine gun, sniper rifle, grenades, et cetera. Due to quirks of the inventory system that I'll explain later, you can't have many available at the same time, and firing them uses up valuable energy, running out of "ammo" soon. So in the end you equip the disc most of the time, but it's not what I'd call an ideal weapon. Once thrown it can be recalled if you miss your target, but this can take up many seconds, during which you'll be defenseless. In a few occasions it never returned to me at all, forcing me to load a saved game.
The second issue is that enemies can leisurely attack you from afar, and sometimes it's hard to know where they are. During the first couple of hours I kept getting killed by foes I hadn't seen, and eventually I learned to stay behind cover and try to lure them out. My worst ill feelings go to the small flying drones that snipe you from half a mile. You aiming goes off when hit, accentuating the problem. Tron 2.0 can be frustrating sometimes, with constant quickloads after biting the dust.
The game has small RPG elements, as your character stats (health, energy, transfer rate...) can be improved via version upgrades. Also, you can freely configure which subroutines to install at any given moment, including weapons, armor, better jumping ability or faster hacking among others. There's a limited amount of memory slots where to place them, and initial (alpha) versions require 3 consecutive ones, so you must choose wisely. The problem is that this constant inventory management slows down gameplay. Coupled with reading tutorials, and emails, you feel like you spend a third of the campaign staring at menus. And let's not forget the extremely annoying corruption (certain enemy attacks can infect your gear with a virus that will spread around, requiring you to disinfect them one by one).
There are a few Light Cycle races interspersed here and there, imposed by the story. Power-ups and zones that alter your speed have been included to add variety, but overall these arena duels feel like a formality, and the camera is very limited (you can't pan around).
Finally, the few bosses are lackluster, with no complex strategies to take them down, other than pecking at them until their health drops to zero. No better example than the ending fight, that I didn't even recognize as such; just as I was expecting the story to go on, I was actually surprised to see the credits appear. And it was while staring at them that I felt kind of discontented that such a promising title had turned out to be an average shooter. It definitely has a charm I can't deny, but its realization fell short of the concept.
Playing
Steam or GoG. Make sure you install the Killer App mod that implements many features, such as widescreen support.