Like any modern sci-fi epic, Tron: Legacy comes with its own tie-in game titles. We got hands on with the Xbox and PS3 game, Tron: Legacy, on the same day we took a peek at the Tron: Legacy light cycle. Tron: Evolution acts a prequel to Tron: Legacy and if you’re a fan of Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed, this is going to be right up your street…
In Tron: Evolution, you play a security program battling a virus which has invaded the virtual world and is threatening to destroy it. The game acts a bridge between the world depicted in 1982’s Tron and the evolved version depicted in Tron: Legacy, filling in the back story and featuring both Quora (a badass female character with a major role in the new film) and Jeff Bridges as Flynn.
The similarities with Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed come in the use of parkour. Your character spends large portions of the game running up walls and hurling himself across vast chasms. The control system is context specific and combat makes use of the loop kicking (a mix of martial arts and acrobatics) seen in the Tron: Legacy trailer.
Your weapon in Tron: Evolution is a Tron disc with four different versions to choose from throughout the game as well as energy burst power ups and special moves. Like Assassin’s Creed, Tron: Evolution lets you string together a series of moves to create special attacks.
The enemies you face in Tron: Evolution are colour coded. Attacking them strips energy from them. If you allow them to swarm and score hits on you, your energy is drained. We found the battles to be fluid and almost balletic at times.
The visuals in Tron: Evolution are stunning, making use of the same black on black aesthetic as the film but expanding the locations beyond Tron City to other areas of the world not covered by the movie. Using 3D models of the buildings from the film and 3D character scans means that Tron: Evolution will act as a great companion to the cinema release.
The Tron: Evolution level we played featured disc-based combat and an appearance by Quora trying to infiltrate a restricted area but other parts of the game feature Tron light cycle racing (see our Tron: Legacy light cycle video for some secrets) and other vehicles including the light tank. Those elements will be particularly fun in the 10 player multiplayer mode which we haven’t managed to get our hands on yet.
Tron: Evolution breaks cover on December 7, 10 days before Tron: Legacy is due in cinemas. The developers, Propaganda Games Vancouver say that’s so you can explore the prequel before seeing the new film. The PS3 version of Tron: Evolution will come packing support for the PlayStation Move and 3D gaming but Xbox gamers won’t be able to use Kinect.
We’ll bring you a Tron: Evolution review soon but in the meantime, hit the comments and let us know what you make of the preview. Are you itching to dive into the grid? Or is Tron one retro revival too many?
