What it’s about

‘Tron’ was originally a 1982 Disney movie about a videogame programmer who got zapped into the digital world he created to defeat an out-of-control CPU. Although you might chortle at the idea now, ‘Tron’ was ‘The Matrix’ or ‘Inception’ of its era, and truly looked out of this world as intended. Indeed, its stylish computer graphics have become iconic. Standout scenes that include a Light Bike race are classic. This year Disney is launching its movie sequel, ‘Tron: Legacy’ with lead protagonist Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) still trapped inside the hostile virtual space and his son out to save him. ‘Tron: Evolution’ is intended to be a prologue of sorts, introducing players to characters and scenarios they’ll later recognise on the big screen. Your exploits in ‘Tron: Evolution’ will even be referenced at key points in the movie. Bike races, tank battles and gladiatorial games all feature.

All the good things
Visually ‘Tron: Evolution’ is perfectly in sync with its movie counterpart, the kind of treat that gamers could not have imagined three decades ago. As a prototype System Monitor dubbed simply “Anon”, you’ll enjoy linking together a wide range of combat moves and Disk strikes that over time become more powerful and tactically varied. In addition there is the thrill of free-running around a vibrant cyber universe, similar to the acclaimed gameplay in the Ubisoft ‘Prince of Persia’ series. Although Disney might’ve lazily pushed this out as a bells-and-whistles action game with bolted on multiplayer modes, instead it delivers a modern integrated experience system. All events contribute to RAM capacity required to enable ‘Version’ upgrades for Anon. Conventional videogame trappings are avoided as much as possible, so that even health boosts are gained by running along sections of wall a la ‘The Matrix’. And, yes, you’ll get to pilot the new Light Tanks and legendary Light Bikes in multiplayer modes such as Disintegration and Team Disintegration (basically variations on Deathmatch), Power Monger, and Bit Runner with neat twists on King of the Hill and Capture the Flag.

Stuff we don’t like
Though initially you hope this could be a high-tech ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ with a cyber-geek theme, in the end it’s more straightforward. Routes are firmly established, with Anon adhering strictly to each goal to move the plot forward. Almost unavoidably the levels all start to look very similar, and therefore not worth aiming to see what awaits around the next corner. And that’s if you can make it around the next corner because Anon is a real headache to control, very often losing his footing unless you are precise and practised with his free-running skills. Battles ultimately boil down to who can get the big damage in first, hence you’ll sink most of your early RAM upgrades into the Bomb Disk to cause the most splash damage. This ultimately reduces the tactical element to nothing, and so makes fighting mundane. As we secretly feared even all those years ago, there’s only so much mileage to be gained from Light Bike races, a skill you won’t feel hugely compelled to perfect.

Should you buy it?
This was such hard one to evaluate because it is clear that Disney has made such a great effort to create a ‘Tron’ game worthy of its heritage, appealing to the old boys as well as the new school. Fundamentally ‘Tron: Evolution’ stumbles on a combat system that allows cheapness to prevail, a graphical style that was always going to look samey, and multiplayer modes that are simply not as attractive as the best of the racing, fighting, shooting alternatives online. That said, and despite the control issues when navigating, the sense of fantasy immersion is still impressive. Die-hard ‘Tron’ fans could feel justified in supporting Disney’s best intentions while suffering the flaws.