Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"

Given predecessor Tron: Identity felt like more of a prologue than a full-fledged game (albeit a fun one), Tron: Catalyst has a lot of storytelling to do and a lot of informational gaps to fill in. Sadly, its success at this is somewhat limited.

It’s great to see how the distinctive artstyle from the animated Tron: Uprising series, and Tron: Identity has evolved into the elevated version used throughout Tron: Catalyst. Clearer colors and hand-drawn sprites make everything easier to see in a very stylish way, and the voice acting for story segments is a nice touch too. Admittedly, the issue of everything being grey and blue and struggling to tell who anyone is is kind of a hangup from the original movie so it’s great to see how Tron: Catalyst successfully handles it, especially when there can be a lot of characters in play at once.

Movement and Identity Disc combat are very slick, both when using a keyboard and mouse and when using a controller (as the game recommends). Mixing up melee and ranged attacks with the iconic Identity Disc to knock down enemy after enemy while outnumbered feels suitably epic. The skill tree doesn’t seem to add much though, and neither does stealing code from enemies to temporarily use their fighting style (each faction you fight has a few different unit types you can nab a modifier from) when Exo’s standard walloping and brawling style does the trick just fine. There are some later additions of consumables like grenades and such but these also feel more like a frivolous trimming than having any real impact on how you fight.

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Just as thrilling as dishing out justice with your disc, Tron: Catalyst lets us ride the equally iconic Lightcycle. (And the Light Jet, that one time, but that can die a death.) As well as zooming around to get across the large maps quicker, there’s a smattering of Lightcycle combat, which was one of the most exciting promises of the game to me. But, while you can be attacked by enemies on Lightcycles and do damage back with Light Ribbons and shunting, it’s not exactly proper fighting. It doesn’t fulfil the Akira bike chase fantasy I was kind of hoping it would, but it is still the closest I’m getting. And no, you can’t just whip out the ol’ Lightcycle and do donuts on rooftops. I did try.

Loop-the-loop

Tron: Catalyst’s premise with protagonist Exo’s glitch power allowing her to redo loops in time is promising but not fully realized. Opening shortcuts and maintaining important information like door codes on your Disc makes the slight time-traveling a smoother experience than you might expect, and the difference between what does make it with you and what doesn’t – such as physical items and other characters’ memories – is an interesting underpinning.

Every chapter is a ‘loop’ marked by its place in time since Exo got her powers, and to fulfill certain objectives you will need to return to the beginning of the loop with knowledge or actual data that you get later on. Early chapters are very carefully and nicely crafted around using these mechanics, which makes later areas feel a little generic and tired, repeating themselves in rather tedious ways. Despite the ever-falling rain, the game suffers from dry spells, where you’re just ambling around fighting an unnecessarily respawning amount of enemies in order to cross from room to room and back to pick up a key item.

One of the biggest challenges Tron: Catalyst faces is from the narrative angle. Particularly after the introduction of the Arq grid in Tron: Identity, Tron as a franchise has too many tabs open, resulting in what is and isn’t connected and/or relevant sometimes being muddled and unclear. So far, as with pretty much each new entry in the Tron series, more questions have been raised than answered. It gets to a point where it feels more like shirking responsibility than expanding the story. Core are just kind of ‘the bad guys’ and we’re meant to just roll with it and not ask too many questions.

Similarly, while Tron: Catalyst features recurring characters and lore from Identity, it doesn’t seem all that important to have played it first. The general concepts just sort of hang around as vaguely relevant. Despite meeting the player character from Tron: Identity and him referring to the fallout of the game’s events, Tron: Catalyst still doesn’t lay out what the ‘true route’ of Identity is either, which is kind of a shame too.

Ultimately, the move to the Arq Grid almost seems like a way of avoiding any implications and complications of main Grid lore and storytelling but not always in a good way. In fact, Tron: Catalyst sometimes seems to forget it’s a Tron game and lean a little too hard into just being a swish cyberpunk ‘down with the system’ style venture.

As well as no answers, Tron: Catalyst offers no resolution. If there’s going to be a third game, I hope it might finally get to the point. Maybe then there’ll even be a Tron game that is better than Tron Run/R. But poor Tron: Catalyst is left being more style than substance, belying the promise that its solid foundations and excellent visuals offered.

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