Tron 2.0

Tron 2.0 is a computer game developed by Monolith Productions. It is a sequel to the 1982 motion picture Tron. The PC version of the game was released by Buena Vista Games on August 26, 2003. The Mac version was released by MacPlay on April 21, 2004.

The game is a first person shooter set "inside" a computer in the same sense as the original movie. It cheerfully uses and abuses computing conventions; players will find themselves in the fiery red environment of a firewall and the minimalistic white one of a PDA, battle viruses while fleeing a format, and wield a sniper rifle known as the LOL. A light cycle mini-game is included as part of the plot as well as available in multiplayer mode across a network. In the game, Bruce Boxleitner reprises his role from the original movie as Alan Bradley. Cindy Morgan, who also starred in the original movie, voices the new character Ma3a. Rebecca Romijn (credited as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) provides the voice of Mercury. A new Light Cycle design was contributed to the game by Syd Mead.

In addition to the Mac, the game was also ported to the Xbox with significant changes to the single and, especially, the multiplayer modes. The Xbox version is entitled Tron 2.0 Killer App. Changes to the single player mode include optional jumping sequences, and overall console-tailored controls. The real changes were made to the multiplayer modes. Added is up to sixteen player multiplayer disc arena, light cycles, or overRide modes for system link or Xbox Live. The new overRide mode allows for first person mayhem with the ability to ride light cycles at any time. There is also a version of Tron 2.0 Killer App for the Game Boy Advance that has different story and gameplay from its Xbox counterpart. The Gizmondo version has apparently been cancelled.

The idea of Tron 2.0 was originally explored as a movie concept, but it was eventually decided to make it as a game. Movie ideas were talked about, however, no agreements have been made to this date.

A four-issue Tron 2.0 comic book series based on the game was going to be released by 88 MPH Studios, but was cancelled before the first issue was completed due to licensing issues with Disney. However, Slave Labor Graphics is now producing a Tron comic book sequel series called The Ghost in the Machine. Issue #1 was released on April 26, 2006. Issue #2 is tentatively scheduled for a July 2006 release.

Story

Two decades ago, Kevin Flynn entered the world inside the computer by being digitized. With the help of the securit program Tron, Flynn defeated the autocratic MCP. However, in destroying that powerful program, the ability to digitize human beings into the computer world was lost.

Now it is 2003. Flynn departed the company years ago. Alan now runs ENCOM; he married Lora shortly after the events of the movie and they had a son, Jet, but an accident later took Lora's life. Alan has been putting a lot of work into the development of a new artificial intelligence named "Ma3a"(pronounced "mah-three-ah"), which eerily has the voice and personality of his late wife.

ENCOM has recently been the target of a hostile takeover by Future Control Industries (fCon), which is very interested in the ability to transfer humans to the computer world. Specifically, fCon intends to use skilled hackers called "DataWraiths" to infiltrate the global computer network and control banks and commerce. The problem is that digitizing humans still doesn't work properly; errors during the process corrupt and mutate people. Alan has come up with a new error-correcting subroutine to prevent this, but when he finds out about fCon's nefarious plan, he encrypts the code and hides it within Ma3a.

fCon kidnaps Alan in a futile attempt to get the code from him. Meanwhile, Thorne, the fCon security officer, digitizes himself and becomes a virus which begins to take over the computer. Ma3a safely brings Alan's son Jet - now a talented (if rebellious) programmer in his own right - into the computer against his will, and recruits his help in fighting the virus. Jet gets some help from Byte, a flying polygon (which is quite a bit more conversational and opinionated than the movie's Bit).

As the plot progresses, Jet must rid the computer system of the virus and protect his father while thwarting the efforts of fCon and the DataWraiths.

Gameplay

Single Player Campaign

The single-player campaign takes place entirely inside the computer world (though some cutscenes are shown around the ENCOM research laboratory). The goal of each level is generally to complete tasks and find keys ("permission bits") which allow access to the next level. Some conventions which don't make much sense in other first-person shooters, such as the ability to carry a half-dozen weapons or to heal instantly with a medkit, are much more appropriate to this setting.

The design of the game's levels is linear; there are no choices about how to proceed or about what to say during the interactions with other characters. The levels are abstract as the ambiance seen in the movie, not to say surreal: they feature energy bridges and gates, neon-glowing contours, vibrant colors, floating boxes and tiles, teleports and deep chasms. However, some conventional physics apply: Jet will be harmed if he falls from a height (or killed if the height is great enough). He can also be crushed by certain moving objects in the digital world.

Jet starts out with the same disc weapon seen in the movie. In time, he obtains other weapons (not surprisingly similar to the ones found in other titles): a shotgun, a submachine gun, a sniper rifle and grenades, each reworked to fit the computer world reality. Ammunition for these new weapons is energy, which Jet can collect at various points during the game (an exception is the disc, which uses no energy).

Jet's abilities are customizable. He acquires new abilities, and also the aforementioned weapons, in the form of "subroutines" held in "archive bins" scattered around the levels, and he has a limited number of memory slots in which to "install" these subroutines onto his person. Subroutines start out as alpha-grade software, but can be upgraded to beta and gold statuses, which both take up less space in memory and become more effective.

As he moves through the levels, Jet must engage many lower-tier enemies. Although none are particularly powerful, they usually show up in gangs, making them more of a threat. Among the regular levels, there are some with boss enemies that add to the thrill of the game.

Interspersed with the first-person-shooter levels are several light cycle races. As seen in the movie, these races are actually arena duels in which each light cycle attempts to destroy its opponents by driving them into its jetwall. The arenas contain improvements (such as speed zones that affect the cycles' speed), more complex layouts with walls and other artifacts (instead of the "empty box" as seen in the movie), and power-ups that can be collected during races. In addition to Tron´s regular light cycle, Jet can also gain access to the super light cycle that sports a more modern design and offers more speed. Tron 2.0 initially required the player to win the light cycle races in order to advance the campaign. Consumer feedback revealed that many felt the computer-controlled light cyclers were impossibly precise in their controls (turning at angles a human could not, for example), forcing players to wait for the enemy lightcycles to destroy themselves. As a result, the vendor released a patch eliminating this rule.

Single Player Light Cycles

This mode contains no campaign; instead, the player is presented with a choice of several light cycle arenas.

Multiplayer

Tron 2.0 offers some multiplayer scenarios, both in campaign mode and in light cycle mode. Internet and LAN play are available, although the vendor does not recommend that the light cycle mode be used over the Internet due to its generally high lag.

Subtle things and trivia

It is amusing to note that the plot, before the game was released, is in some ways quite different than what appeared in the final product—possibly intentionally.

In the level Packet Transfer, the player must jump onto a regulator tug in order to escape. This tug is a retrofitted Recognizer.

While Thorne and the corrupted programs are indeed enemies of Jet, they are not the main enemy past a certain point in the game, as the marketing implied. Thorne himself is defeated, mostly off-screen, by the security programs the player assumes are "Bad Guys" (combined with the rampant Tron Legacy program). In Tron 2.0, the red-colored programs are actually "Good Guys". This sudden shift seems to imply that the plot of the game was abbreviated during development.

Another hinted-at aspect of Tron 2.0 is the nature of Ma3a. Voiced by Cindy Morgan, it is implied that she is the result of an incomplete digitization of Jet's mother, Lora. It is unknown if Alan knows that his original Maths Assistance AI contains these aspects of his late wife, but he trusts the AI enough to give it the digitization correction algorithms, the exact things Lora was attempting to re-discover during the accident. Ma3a, it seems, is equally ignorant.

Some pre-release materials connected with the game hinted that Ed Dillinger (David Warner's character from the original film, and creator of the MCP and Sark), after his release from prison, was responsible for fCon's attempt to take over Encom, although Dillinger himself never appears in the game and is not mentioned in it.

This was the first Disney game to be rated T.

References to Marathon

The designers of the game paid homage to the popular Mac game franchise Marathon. In the most "corrupted" sections of the computer the player plays in, the name of a corrupted program often is either Durandal or ^*]." target="_blank" >Also, the corrupted system often shoots out a strange error message: ^*. These notes are especially poignant for Marathon fans, as the typical color of corrupted programs is Green—the color often used by Durandal in his messages, and the color of all simulacrum (corrupted) BOBs ^*.

Legacy

Despite several positive reviews, Tron 2.0 failed to meet sales expectations. As a result of not meeting sales expectations, both a possible expansion pack and a sequel (which was, apparently, tentatively titled "Tron 3.0") were cancelled while still in the planning stage. It is rumored that one of these additional games would have been set in the early 1980's, when the storyline of the original motion picture Tron took place.

Fans of the game, either fairly or unfairly, have attributed the game's not meeting sales expectations to a general lack of enthusiasm on the part of the distributor, Buena Vista Interactive. These individuals cite specific failings on Buena Vista's part, which include but are not limited to:

inefficiently marketing the game to various demographics;
insufficiently supporting the modding community;
being unresponsive and unsympathetic to gameplay concerns, and slow to release patches; and
shutting down the game's official website much sooner than other games released at around the same time.

There is a general perception by fans of the game, either fairly or unfairly, that Buena Vista Interactive has never had a substantial interest in developing this franchise for gaming purposes and that this was a contributing factor to the game's not meeting sales expectations. Whether or not the lack of interest was malicious has been subject to considerable speculation amongst fans.

Buena Vista Interactive has yet to formally deny these accusations.

External links

Tron (Computerspiel)

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