First off, I should qualify this preview with the fact that I am a huge nut for anything TRON related. I loved the first movie, played TRON 2.0 at least three times to completion, always made sure to ride the People Mover at Disneyland to watch the TRON cinematics, and of course, loved the TRON sequences in Kingdom Hearts II. I even bought the TRON arcade game on Xbox Live Arcade, and that is a terrible port to play without a paddle.
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With that qualifier in mind, you made want to take my thoughts on TRON Legacy: The Video Game with a grain of salt, but you would be missing out on what I thought to be a great highlight of E3 this year. The game looks very sexy, and mixes up a few genres with its gameplay. And of course, there are some great light cycles. Read on to learn more about TRON Legacy: The Video Game, and where it is at so far in development.
As we were getting set up for our TRON presentation, I had to ask about the quality of the game, in regards to it being a movie tie-in title. I was corrected however, as this is not a re-telling of the movie. Instead, this is a prequel to the movie, leading into the events that happen in the movie. You will meet some characters that are in the movie, but it tells a completely different story from the movie. The game is considered official canon by Disney, and the developers of the video game have been working in close proximity to the movie crew. Also, while the development team is trying to create something new, they are looking to have some form of reverence to the other games in the series.
That statement lead me to ask about TRON 2.0 and where it stands with this title and the TRON franchise as a whole. I mean it was a good game, but unfortunately, underperformed at the cash register due to mixed reviews and what I considered to be poor marketing. Apparently, TRON 2.0 is not considered to be part of the TRON canon, but instead, becoming an alternate universe. We were told to look at it like the DC Vertigo line, or maybe even the Marvel Ultimates line of comic books. They use similar ideas, but they happen outside of the true canon of the universe. This kind of upset me, because I thought there were some interesting ideas floated around with TRON 2.0, but it was nice to see that the developers and Disney have a place for that title in their history, even if it is pushed to the side a bit.
Within five minutes of playing TRON Legacy, there were some immediate comparisons that came to mind. The first is that movement is almost a direct copy of what you would find in the last few Prince of Persia titles. I mean it is all there, wall running, jumping to ledges, and more, using controls schemes that are straight out of Prince of Persia. This is not a bad thing, but it did take me a bit out of the illusion of being in a computer. The game does use a lot of physics based movement, so there is a little more to the way the character moves, which does add a new twist on the Prince of Persia movement system.
While movement may be remeniscent to another game, combat is very unique to the title. In TRON Legacy, you have access to not just one, but four different discs to use in your attacks. You can switch to a corruption disc, and you will gain several attacks that leech energy from your enemies while in combat. Another is based on Power, and will allow you to use attacks that resemble bombs against the bad guys. You can also use lots of melee combat moves, and even string together some strong combos with button combinations. We watched a few of the combos in action and they are pretty slick. Not super easy to pull off at first, but with some practice, you will be tearing up the enemies with speed and skill. You can also vary up your attacks by using one of three different combat stances. Combat is your normal stance that you enter into combat with automatically. It is nothing fancy, and allows a range of combinations. You can use Sprint, which gives you access to some quick, speedy attacks, but sacrifices damage. There is also a defensive stance, which uses a lot of counters if I remember correctly.
While all of this combat is fine and dandy, you probably want to know a little about the light cycles at this point. I mean, why read a TRON Legacy preview if there are no light cycles in the preview. Well, we got to play a couple of minutes with the light cycles, and they look and play just about as awesome as they do in the movie trailer. No longer are you trapped with right angled movement, but instead you move with broad curves and straight lines, almost like a shark on the prowl. The bikes are fast, and will be used for both traveling between locations, and of course, combat on the game grid. You will also have the ability to pilot tanks and even a recognizer.
As with most game titles nowadays, there will be a multiplayer component to TRON Legacy The Video Game. However, we could not get a lot of platform specifics from them about multiplayer. We do know that upgrades and stat boosts that you unlock in single player can be used online. I did ask if there would be multiplayer with the light cycles, and I got a big grin and a yes on that point. Very nice.
While we did not get a lot of specifics, we did end our 15-20 minute session seeing a lot of the gameplay from TRON Legacy. Some will hate it for its Prince of Persia movement system, but I love the idea of having a rich story that will lead into something bigger with the movie this fall. The multiplayer left us with more questions than answers, but so far, Chris Whiteside and his team of developers have put together a visually stunning game, while capturing the essense of the TRON universe. Look for more on TRON Legacy: The Video Game later in the year.