title: tron 2.0
platform: pc
genre: sci fi first peron action game
developer: monolith
price: £14.99 (amazon.co.uk)
background
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the film tron was made back in 1982 by disney (but let's not hold that against it) starring bruce boxleitner (of bablyon 5 fame), jeff bridges and david warner. it signified a landmark in filmmaking, being the first film to use computer generated imagery for a large proportion of the film. due to the use of black and white cinematography and rotoscopic techniques, along with painstaking early cgi, the look of tron was, and still is unique. for those of you who have never seen the film, the plot is a computer programmer gets "digitized" into the inner workings of a pc by an angry control program. the film follows jeff bridges' attempts to escape and defeat said program with the help of tron, a program written by his friend alan in the real world.
the game is essentially the sequel to the film that disney never made due to its relative lack of success at the time. only a large cult following has enabled the game to go ahead.
interestingly, there are rumours abounding on the internet (esp aintitcool.com) that there is a possibility of an actual film sequel, but that disney are waiting to see how well the game sells before committing themselves to anything.
plot
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the game is set 20 years after the film, with the player taking on the role of the young jet bradley (son of alan) working for the company flynn inherited at the end fo the film. the company it seems is on the verge of a hostile takeover by fcon (future control industries - sounds ominous don't you think?) and you must (after being digitized) work inside the various computer situations to stop them from basically owning th einternet.
basically the plot doesn't make sense, especially to those who have any sort of clue about computers, but suspension of disbelief can be a wonderful thing, and i was willing to overlook this.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of depth in the stroy, i found i was unable to engage with it on anything other than a 'i need to finish this game' kind of level. Upon starting i was well up for total immersion, a la max payne, but the story simply doesn't have enough meat to it. The enemy characters are porrly fleshed out, so that i was utterly apathetic when defeating them at the end, and the supporting characters are few and far between.
Gameplay
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I'll start with the sinle player as it's the one most people i reckon would buy the game for. There are basically three different elements: fighting, puzzle solving and light cycle racing.
The fighting is very authentic, with disc combat being the most important. The controls (once they been reconfigured from the game defaults, which, frankly, defy all logic) are fairly intuitive, and once you get the hang of it it's very satisfying being able to deflect other programs' discs and then smack them in the head with a big spinny thing (maybe that's just me though?). There are other weapons that you can use, but i found that usually (on the easy setting anyway) that a disc was pretty much all you need, unless you need to go into sniper rifle mode.
The puzle solving however, was a whole different kettle of sprouts. When i wasn't wandering around for ages, looking for the 'permission' to get into a certain area (basically a key which you must 'download' from boxes scattered around the place), i was falling into a giant chasm because the jumping puzzle was just too hard. When will game designers learn that platform jumping puzzles simply don't work with 3d fps?
Light cycle racing though was entirely brilliant. Although i think it's hardly suprising since this aspect of the game is based on the part of the film that was supposed to be a video game, i found it to be highly enjoyable, and also really difficult! The concept is srt of a cross between racing and snake. On a grid, you must force your opponent to crash into the trail left by your light cycle, which takes the form of a wall. Although i wasn't very good at it, i did find the whole thing very addictive, and not at all frustrating as with some other parts of the game.
Yet why have i only given the game 3 stars if i am such a fan of the film? Well, the problem with it is that it was at the same time both too easy and also too hard. Playing on easy mode, the only thing it seemed to make a difference to were the bosses, which in my opinion ended up being easier than most of the rest of the game, particularly the final challenge! The parts with simply a large number of enemies were far too difficult in my opinion, and playing on any other difficulty setting merely made it impossible for all but the superhuman computer geek to manage. The addition of unlimited saves though also made the game to quick to complete. There's no sense of avchievement when you know that if you die you only have to go back a few seconds. I found the same difficulty with Max Payne, but at least with that game you get an option to play a game with limited saves when you've completed the main game, but alas not with Tron.
i also found the game a little repetitive. The puzzle solving was at best mundane, and at worse frustrating. After defeating the 20th enemy of the same type i was looking for something new, but that wasn't to come for at least another couple of levels. Especially when they started to say things like 'stop executing escape protocol!' - although that did make me want to kill them more!
There is also a single player light cycle mode, in which you must complete certain races to unlock various grids, colours of cycles etc. It's mildly entertaining but not really worth buying the game for.
The multiplayer mode is also available ove the internet. This can either be combat arena, or light cycle grid. I couldn't get mine to work, but i have seen a friend playing it and it looked quite fun. One word though: Halo. Why would anyone want to play any other multiplayer deathmatch game? The mind boggles...
Looks
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One thing i would have to say is that the game developers must have looked at the film with a fine-toothed comb (yes, i know i'm mixing my metaphors, but please don't send that to Scott Adams people!). They've managed to capture the unique look perfectly, particularly the light cycle races. There's also hardly any slowdown, unless you're running a thousand other windows programs at the same time (it's perhaps one of those 'resource-hog' programs which feature in the game!).
The action is smooth and flowing, as well as the scenery being very nice. The scenes range from the inside of a regular computer, to a PDA, to an 'internet city' which is a very nice change from the single location of the film, and an extension which has worked very nicely.
Conclusion
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So all in all, I'd reccomend this game to fans of the original film and 3d fps games only. I don't think there's enough here to satisfy someone who doesn't like either, and i think if you are only a fan of one you would be disappointed. While the humour for computer geeks (the 'progress bar' in the internet city actually made me groan out loud! Yes, it's a place to drink.) may keep their attention for a while, it isn't really enough to carry a game, and i feel if more attention had been paid to gameplay rather than the look and atmosphere of the game, it could have ultimately been more successful.
Tron 2.0 (Mac Games) Brought to you by your friends at UbberGames.com Product Description Tron 2.0 retains the look and feel of the films environment,...More at eBay
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