Tron 2.0

I can actually say that this game does Tron (the movie) justice. This caught me by surprise. I was avoiding buying this game thinking that it would suck. A friend bought it for me and I became addicted with it almost immediately. The music is good, too - it's mostly peaceful and without words, very very much like the movie had. That's very appealing to me, personally.

Light Cycles
The light cycles form very much like in the movie, they look like the ones in the movie, and they've extended the game to include light cycle powerups, obstacles, and special surfaces that speed up or slow down the cycles while on that surface. The light cycle simulations are tough, and the computer players are able to do things that you cannot (like make 6 turns in half a second) so you've got to try to avoid direct confrontations and outsmart your opponents from further away.

Enemies, FPS
Okay, the FPS portion and dealing with the enemies is hard. Even easy mode is challenging. Sometimes you cannot even get through an area unless you figure out what weapon you should use, and that's just something you've got to experiement with on your own to figure out what works for you. For some people that can be very frustrating. However, personally I find this kind of challenge very enjoyable and hard to find, so I was really thrilled that I actually had to "hack my own way" in this regard.

I haven't been able to put this game down since I've gotten it, and my friends who have seen the game are addicted to just watching me play it! FPS gamer people who we've told about it have gotten it and have loved it.

The storyline is pretty good, it depicts numerous portions of real-life network administration challenges. The parallels between real-life and "inside the computer" duality is fun. Along the way there is a ton of geek humor that some of you will find very funny; others will find it cliché. I found it very enjoyable and fitting.

I haven't quite finished the game for the first time, but I can say that this is a game that I'm going to finish more than once. I haven't yet had the chance to try the multiplayer portion; I'm hoping that will be vaguely as fun as the single-player portion is.

Computer Hardware
On a 1.2 GHz Athelon with a GeForce4 video card on MEDIUM detail level there are still some areas that cause my computer to struggle. There are large expanses that get real-time rendered (which can be proven with zooming into details "a mile away" and finding that they're still being rendered). Don't try giving this to a person with an older computer.
Also, the game is designed specificaly for Nvidia or ATI video cards (and there are two more from Matrox on the compatibility list). It may work with others, but this is generally a high-end real-time rendered game and can likely tax any video card of today.

I highly recommend this game if you liked Tron and like FPS games. Be prepared for a beutiful but challenging game. I think for $20 this is an awesome game.

HAVE FUN, ALL!

It has a good balance of action (fighting baddies), storyline, and puzzle-solving. From what I hear, it has some characteristics of role-playing games. If you've never played a role-playing game before, don't be intimidated by this. It's not a big deal in the game. It's role playing in the sense that you pick up upgrades or run across an "optimizer" device, and at certain points, you can upgrade your own capabilities, weapons, and armor. A hint is it's good to watch the trends that you see on the levels, as you go. Notice if some capability, weapon, or armor, would've been more helpful on the last level you were on, if it were more capable, and focus on upgrading that. As with other games where you have to strategize some, there are certain weapons and add-ons that are best against certain bad guys and situations.

The game allows you to wander around some, but not beyond certain boundaries. Some people don't like that because they feel like they're confined to where the game designers are leading them, and it doesn't allow as much creativity. I liked it because it kept me from getting lost. The game follows a linear storyline and you can't deviate from it, or go back a level (unless you saved along the way, in which case you can always load up a previous level, back to your save point). That reminds me. F5 (Quick Save) is your friend! Use it often.

The story goes that you're Jet, Alan's son. fCon, another company, is merging or buying Encom, after Encom went through some rough times. The fCon guys are not so friendly though, as Alan, and eventually Jet find out. It's more of a hostile takeover, in the literal sense. Jet gets beamed inside the computer by Ma3a, a friendly AI program Alan wrote. The point of the game is to make your way back out of the system, just like it was in the original Tron movie. What's different is there isn't a sense of alter-egos in the computer world, or an objective of "freeing the system". However, what's revealed in the short videos that break up each level was very interesting to me. Some good writing went into them. The music by the original Tron composer, Wendy Carlos, is great too.

The look of the levels and the feel of the storyline preserve the spirit of what I liked about the old movie, though it's been updated, of course. The design of the levels is pure eye candy! I couldn't help but just stop and look around at it. Almost every level looks beautiful. My favorite level is a part where Jet enters "the old mainframe". The design of the level, the colors used, the background music, all bring you back to the early 80s period of technology, and the old Tron universe. Those who have been around long enough will recognize it. They did a great job. A few of the levels have light cycles on them (yes, they really do exist in the game!), and you have to battle it out against computer-controlled opponents. A couple of the levels even have the old tanks on them! They look great!

One review I read (outside Amazon) criticized the ending as being "anticlimactic". I agree with that. It seems as though the creators got writer's block and just wanted to "wrap it up". I wasn't that impressed with that part. But the rest of the game? Great!

Some technical notes. You can run the game on a machine that matches the minimum requirements, but I would really recommend a machine that matches their recommended machine spec's on the box, if not better, and at least a mid-level video card with hardware 3D acceleration (something around $100-$150 as of this writing). Anything less and you're likely to be disappointed since the machine will be straining to accommodate the complexity of the levels, the 3D models, and the effects. The animation is likely to look jerky and playability will suffer.

Even though the game is really well made, it's not without a few blemishes. I actually had it crash on me a few times on the higher levels. Fortunately it crashed gracefully without a system lockup (it just took me back to the desktop), and I was able to just start it up again and reload from my last save point. A bit annoying, but it wasn't a big minus, IMO.

This game is a classic. I'm certainly going to keep it around. Now all Disney needs to do is to come out with the movie that was supposed to come out shortly after the game! Here's hoping.