A good attempt to put you in the Tron universe
So what video gamer doesn’t have fond memories of Tron? I know this gamer does. The first time I saw the movie it just blew me away. The second more recently, well not so much, but the universe and concepts that movie contains, well those are still pretty awesome. When I found out there was to be an open world game that put you in the universe of Tron, I had to get in on that. Tron: Evolution bridges the gap between the timeless first movie and the middling second. It has a lofty goal of putting you in that beloved place, but it is worth a try.
The first thing you will notice while playing Tron is the insane amount of times you will die. The name of this game should really be Tron: Derez-olution, because you will be derezing a hell of a lot. I mean, I am not the Wizard (shout out!) when it comes to playing games. But I am no casual gamer either as this blog can attest. I can’t even tell you how many times I died throughout the course of this relatively short game. Mostly from the platforming. The game is kind of like an open world, but really not. You platform your way through areas of large cities with plenty of pretty scenery, but your path is always very linear. The enemies always seem to be able to kill you in about three or four good hits. And the light cycle parts are sadly un-enjoyable.
But the game is not all bad. Aside from the frequent deaths, you have frequent checkpoints so you can still fumble your way through the story. The platforming is not very fun but the fights are, kind of. The problem is the combo system feels a bit too limited. You will be doing the same 6 or 8 moves the whole game. The story is just good enough to satisfy. The world you play through is just perfectly Tron-like. And the musical score and sound effects are spot in to further allow you to immerse yourself in this world. So in those regards, the development team did their job.
There are a lot of things wrong with Tron: Evolution. They are minor but plentiful to bring down your experience. But there is a satisfying game underneath it all. Somewhere. You really have to go into this realizing that license games have always had a harder time achieving that video game satisfaction. This is mostly because of their insane timeframes. But I commend this team for taking a real stab at it. In the end it feels like a Tron game and good on them for that. It won’t blow you away. If you have a special fondness for the fiction however, this could be just enough to get you feeling satisfied.