Another Movie Game
Movie games are usually never any good. With the release of Tron Evolution the game based on the upcoming Tron Legacy movie, does this movie game have what it takes to deliver an engrossing and fully realized game that is able to hold up on its own merit?
In Tron Evolution you play as a silent protagonist, unnamed system monitor who is tasked with securing Tron a city inside of a computer. You first meet up with Querra who is voiced by Olivia Wilde. She is plays the role of your side kick, she helps point you to new missions and tells you what to do and where to go. You soon realize that a rogue ISO named Clu is infecting the city with a virus. And he is turning the Tron into his own world that is ruled under him and not the ISO's. The story takes place in between the first movie and the second movie that serves as a bridge between both movies.
The missions have you going from place to place helping spread the word of the virus and trying to take Clu down and return the city back to the ISO's. Since this is a Tron game you have the same usual trappings of the Tron universe such as Light Cycles, Light Tanks, glowing body suits and Regulators. The game play of Evolution is broken up into third person traversal and vehicle based missions. The game follows a simple equation of traversal areas, then do some combat, then you have a vehicle sections. The game is broken up into seven different chapters that vary in length but usually run a little long and can get pretty boring.
The traversal areas are setup Prince of Persia style where you wall run and jump over obstacles or try to land on platforms. The system they have setup is not good nor is it responsive. There are times that I would be holding on to a wall and I would have to jump to the wall behind me. Well I would jump backwards and I would end up jumping at a weird angle and die. Luckily the game checkpoints often and it loads you back into the game quickly.
The combat is revolved around your disc. With your disc you are able to throw it at enemies and use it for close combat. You have access to four other discs that have specific abilities you can use to take down enemies. You unlock a heavy disc that is used to break through heavily armed enemies; you also have access to a bomb disc that explodes on contact. Your basic disc is your weak attack and your other specific disc is used as your heavy attack. Each enemy has its own weakness to a specific disc, whenever a new enemy type is introduced they tell you what attack it is weak to, but after that first time they never tell you again. They don’t have the information listed in any menu or anything, so when you are trying to kill a certain enemy you end up trying each attack and it gets frustrating because if you use the wrong attack it can take a lot of hits to take down a basic non boss enemy. Not only that but there will be times when you have to hit switches to open a door so you can continue on to the next section. But they don’t tell you that. If you try to kill all the enemies that appear in an area so you can figure out what you need to do, you will be there awhile. The enemies just keep coming and there is no feedback from the game on what you need to do. The only way I was able to tell that I need to stop killing guys and try to move on was when I was not receiving any more XP for any kills. I don’t know why they couldn't throw some text on the screen to tell you what you need to do or at least have the enemies stop re-spawning so you can figure out what you need to do.
The vehicle missions place you inside a Light Cycle or a Light Tank. By far the better of the two is the light cycle. Driving the light cycles is fast and frantic that well end up with you crashing a couple times to figure out where to go. There are no 90 degree turns with the light cycle which is a bummer so don’t think you can kill anyone with your light cycle. Piloting a Light Tank has you destroying everything you come into contact with. You are able to shoot down pursuing Regulators or other light tanks. The vehicle missions served their purpose in Evolution that is to break up the game play. They don’t do anything that hasn't been done before they are just ok.
You earn XP or MB as the game calls it with every kill, with each mission success or with each special item you collect. You use the MB at disc stations to install new software into your disc and upgrade your health. You are also able to put MB towards your character load out for the game grid that is used for multiplayer. You will not be able to upgrade everything in one play through nor do you need to, to be able to beat the game.
Evolution brings little to nothing to the table. With its relative short length and repetitive game play this game is not for everyone. If you are a fan of the first Tron movie and you are looking forward to the next Tron movie this game will help fill in any story points to get you ready for the second movie. As a movie based game goes, it is just that another movie based video game. I am not that big of a fan of the first Tron movie and I am not looking forward to the next movie. Tron Evolution is an average to ok game. It doesn't do anything special and you won’t be having any "O SHIT!" moments. If you are bored and have 6 hours free then it is worth a rent otherwise don’t even bother.
