Tron 2.0 (2003)

Tron 2.0 might be a little rough with bugs and execution but offers some truly unique gameplay and art direction that really does do the Tron license some justice.

After the events of Tron, ENCOM has been taken over by an insidious corporation called fCon. Alan's son Jet is digitized into Alan's computer and Alan is kidnapped - aiding an AI built by Alan, Jet helps fight an fCon exec who had become corrupted during digitization. The plot is fairly in-depth for a short shooter and covers a lot of different cutscenes and dialogue that gets pretty immersive.

The gameplay focuses on FPS combat, either by secondary weapons that consume energy or a "disc" and a "ball" that can be used to destroy enemies. The disc is particularly interesting as it is meant to bounce off of enemies and walls, has a trajectory that can be slightly bent mid-flight, and can be quickly recalled back to the user. Little apps called subroutines can be used to improve defense, combat capabilities, or other abilities such as jumping, and are either found in the wild or upgraded. Players may also do some fun exploration and collecting of build notes to level up and get better health, energy, etc.

As for energy, the player has to consume energy to access apps, emails, and other such content in the game - this is a bit at odds with using energy to fight in combat, but the player can quickly grab energy/health pickups from enemies or find spheres elsewhere. It's not the most balanced but some builds (i.e. disc only) can help when the player needs enough energy to pick up everything they need.

The game also has light cycle segments where the player can compete with their own cycle, drawing a line where they move and forcing enemies to crash into each other. For competitive Snake-style gameplay it's pretty fun, if not a little frustrating when dealing with AI.

The art direction/sound direction/voice direction is all fantastic. The world of Tron is brought to life with some impressive color design and emissiveness, making everything glow for some great effect. Music is adventurous and fits the tone well, and voice acting is top notch.

That said, the game can be fairly buggy, even with extensive modding. Crashes (especially on load) can be frequent and the game isn't totally stable. At the least this issue becomes less of a problem later in the game (for some reason?)

Tron 2.0 is a great way to experience Tron from an immersive gameplay perspective, disc-flinging and light cycling and going through a breezy but fun campaign.

TRON 2.0 is one of those games where for the first few hours you're thinking, "Eff yeah, this game is great! Why don't more people talk about it?" Then you get to a frustrating light cycle section and your confidence in the game is shaken. But then you have a few more hours of well-designed levels, fun new weapons, and interesting story, and you're back on board. And then you hit one of the three or four really bad boss fights and you start to suspect maybe there's a reason you don't hear so many people talking about this game. But you keep at it because the art is super cool (and has aged quite well for a 12-year-old game), the music is great, and you loved TRON as a kid and feel you owe it to 12-year-old you to see this thing to the end. And you do, but not without making some compromises, like finding the cheat codes to top off your health from time to time (the boss fights are really tedious) and even skip a section here and there (I admit, I'm rubbish at the light cyle sections).

In the end, though, I'm really glad I stuck with it. I was surprised at the depth of the character ability progression, which was really ahead of its time. Every shooter does it now, but I can't think of anyone doing it back in 2003. But I think the best thing I can say about TRON 2.0 is that it evokes the movie so well that I had a big nostalgia grin on my face for most of the 17 hours it took me to finish it. What more can a TRON fan ask for?