The new Tron: Evolution videogame will bridge the gap between Disney's pioneering 1982 flick and the new-fangled 3-D sequel Tron: Legacy, says its developer.
Tron: Evolution, which Disney Interactive will release for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 before the movie hits cinemas, takes place on the cusp of a major change in the computer world of Tron. It details the political reboot that wipes the Utopian civilization created by Flynn in the first movie and installs the dystopian nightmare etched into the memory of Tron: Legacy.
Characters and actors from the movie, including Oliva Wilde as Quorra, will make appearances in Tron: Evolution. Keen-eyed gamers who play the game will see certain unique creations crafted specifically for the videogame come to life in the movie.
The game's protagonist is a system monitor named "Anon," a character sure to be a favorite of the 4chan set. He's skilled with the same capoeira and parkour-influenced martial arts skills you may have seen in the Tron: Legacy trailer. The guy knows disc fu.
Anon wall-runs, vaults and clambers like a prince of Persia and fights like a Tasmanian devil, whacking programs infected with the dreaded Abraxas virus with his upgradable battle disk. Defeated, the deleted programs de-rez into a fading cloud of pixels.
Because the game-grid, an arena where programs fight to the death, is so vital to the plot of Tron and Tron: Legacy, Propaganda chose to make all experience, upgrades and character tweaks earned in the single-player story carry over to online battle and vice versa.
We got to jump on a light cycle and fight a gauntlet of enemies. Anon speeds down a narrow freeway, first chased by other bikers who were easily dispatched by forcing them to crash into obstacles in the road. Recognizers and tanks close in to harry Anon, but smart swerving with the agile Light Cycle allows the rogue program to give them the slip.
The game is played from a distant-feeling third-person view, an angle that facilitates acrobatic navigation of the virtual world and makes it easier to fight multiple enemies. The angle in this early version of the game isn't as immersive as I'd hoped for.
But who knows: With Tron: Legacy screening in IMAX 3-D, and Sony and Nvidia pushing for adoption of in-home stereoscopy, maybe there's some other way that we'll feel drawn into the world of Tron: Evolution.
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