Tron 2.0

aka: Tron 2.0: Killer App
Moby ID: 10153
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/24 2:28 PM )

Description official descriptions

Alan Bradley once helped a computer genius named Kevin Flynn to defeat an evil artificial intelligence with the help of a security program called Tron. Twenty years later, Bradley has reached a new high point in his career: he succeeded in digitizing a human being into the computer and stored the secret of this technique in the Ma3a program. However, the powerful Future Control Industries (fCon) has gained access to this groundbreaking invention, and digitized hackers with the intention of dominating the computer network from within. Alan Bradley is kidnapped, and his son Jet, a computer game programmer, enters the world inside the computer, searching for answers.

TRON 2.0 is based on the events of the CG rendered 1982 film TRON, and has been conceived as a sequel to it. The game is a first-person shooter with light role-playing elements. As Jet Bradley, the player must battle digital opponents using guns, rods, grenades, missiles, and the iconic TRON disc. The named of locations and opponents resemble those of programs and other computer-related terms, sometimes with a humorous intention. Using most weapons, as well as acquiring ("downloading") various kinds of items depletes the player character's energy bar. Energy and health can be replenished at special terminals or gained in small amounts by defeating enemies.

The RPG elements appear in form of special items that can be collected and leveling up the player character, allowing the player to upgrade his parameters. The protagonist's level ("version") increases when a sufficient amount of so-called "build notes" has been collected. The player is free to increase any of the protagonist's five main attributes when leveling up. In addition, various "sub-routines" belonging to three classes - combat, defense, and utility - can be found and equipped. These may grant the main character special abilities, new weapons, or combat modifications. Each sub-routine can also be upgraded.

Players can race against each other in multiplayer light cycle races, designed by Syd Mead, the film’s concept and original light cycle designer. The game has unusual visuals, representing the inside of a computer program (stylized after the movie). It includes the voice acting of many actors and actresses who were part of the original movie cast.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

343 People (261 developers, 82 thanks) · View all

TRON 2.0 is powered by
  • Jupiter Technology
Licensed from
  • Touchdown Entertainment Inc.
Lead game Designer
Producer
Executive Producer
Lead Artist
Art Director
QA Manager
Director of Development
Lead Level Designer
Senior Level Designer
Level Design/Game Design Direction
Level Designers
Multiplayer Disc Arena Designer
Senior Character Artist and Animator
Senior Interface and FX Artist
Lead World Artist
Senior World Artist
World Artist
Artist
Director Of Engineering
Lead Engineer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 45 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 75 ratings with 8 reviews)

If you like shooters, you'll like Tron 2.0. If you liked the movie, you'll love Tron 2.0.

The Good
Tron 2.0 was a pleasant surprise. Like most media franchises translated to games of recent years (007 Nightfire, Dukes of Hazzard, Die Hard, the list goes on), most translations are less than enjoyable. Tron 2.0 thankfully bucked this trend by involving some of the original talent of the movie and combined them with an engaging storyline.

I'll be honest: I'm a huge Tron fan. I was 12 when the movie came out, and coupled with my budding love of computing, it made a solid impression on me that very few movies have. So when I saw pre-release screenshots of the game I had high hopes... and thank goodness, it turned out great. The visuals, sound, and level design not only matched the movie, they exceeded it by leaps and bounds.

For experienced gamers not familiar with the movie, Tron 2.0 puts a few spins on story-driven shooters in a couple of ways. For one, an RPG element is introduced via "build notes", which you can collect to eventually increase your stats (maximum health, maximum ammo, etc.). There are the usual assortment of weapons, from short-range melee and energy-draining weapons to a long-range sniping weapon. One light strategic twist is that each weapon takes up a certain number of "memory slots", and each major area you enter has a different "memory configuration" that changes the quantity and order of the slots, so you have to think about how you're going to accomplish certain tasks and which combination of armor, tools, and weapons to use to do so.

Fan of the movie or not, the visuals are living wonderment: The old mainframe area looks just like the movie (but crisper); virus-ridden areas are cracked, broken, and sickly; the "internet" is a vast metropolis with spires reaching miles into the sky; and so on. The designers enlisted the help of Syd Mead (the original designer of the visuals in the 1982 movie) and it shows -- the place looks gorgeous and I would almost recommend you play Tron 2.0 just to see how everything looks with all the chrome turned on. If you have an advanced video card (I played with an ATI 9500 Pro) you can even enable glowing hazy lightsources for an organic, just-like-the-movie look.

Most modern games significantly lack audio punch, but the audio (especially the music) is easily the best I've heard in recent years. Sound effects like footsteps, throwing the disc, and especially the light cycles are dead-on accurate for the movie, and sound effects for new elements of the game are logical evolutions of the movie sound. Some of the villain voices are suitably campy, but the characters Mercury (voiced by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and the main character Jet are done well. The addition of original movie voice talent Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan gives Tron 2.0 a slight push to the nostalgic (and, being movie and TV veterans of over 20 years, their performances are among the best in the game). Finally, the music is arguably the star of the entire game: Not only is it electronic (without being hard-core electronica), but it weaves parts of Wendy Carlos' original themes all throughout the main score very skillfully. And true to Monolith's earlier shooter No One Lives Forever, the music is interactive! You are alerted to danger through a change in the music's tone, and when that threat is eliminated, the music morphs back into an appropriate mood for exploring. It is much more seamless than the NOLF music changes. I can't express enough how much the music made an impression on both me and gameplay.

If you are a fan of the movie, the storyline (shown via in-game cinematic cutscenes, archived "video" clips, and most effectively in various emails left throughout the system) explains what happened after the end of the movie and further develops the story and characters. If you ever wanted a sequel to Tron, Tron 2.0 does a more than acceptable job.

(And if you ever played the Tron arcade game's "light cycle" subgame at the local arcade when you were in your teens, the updated version adds some new twists: It's 3D, you can vary the speed of your cycle a bit more extensively, and there are various power-ups littered around the area.)

The Bad
As much admiration as I have for the game, no game is perfect. Some little things bothered me that detracted from the experience a few times:

  • Most of the new characters introduced in Tron 2.0 (I don't want to give spoilers by naming names) were never really explored or developed in any depth. This was slightly disappointing for those of us who really bought into the story (ie fans of the movie).
  • In the initial retail release of the game -- the one played for this review -- you couldn't skip any light cycle scenes. No big deal if you enjoyed them, but there is one light cycle marathon (three battles in a row) that started to get on my nerves after I kept failing it for over an hour. (However, a downloadable patch remedies this so be sure to patch the game before you start playing.)
  • The game's biggest draw, the visual design, works against you in a few places where you need to throw a switch or trigger -- everything is so ultra-bright-neo-modern that it is part to find the switches in two places.
  • The ending is a bit of a let-down, I'm sorry to say. It's a very fun ride getting there, but it is simply too easy to beat the final boss (I played it on Normal difficulty) as there are situations you can put yourself in where you can attack the boss but he can't attack you. Worse, the ending cinematic was way too short.



The Bottom Line
Fans of the movie simply have to pick this up. It is a brilliant realization of the movie, representing it perfectly without ruining anything. And even if you don't know of or like the movie, the game itself is a capable shooter with a unique visual style that you owe to yourself to check out.

Windows · by Trixter (8952) · 2003

An excellent FPS with RPG-like elements and a chance to play in the Tron universe. I like it.

The Good
Well, it has to be said that I was a fan of the Tron movie back in the day. Even when I was a little kid, I loved that movie. So now that I'm a full-grown geek and there is a game coming out based on the movie premise I am all about the idea. And I am happy to say that Tron 2.0 delivers. All of the environments and character models really do look like they come from the movie. I have never played a movie-inspired game before that captured the look and feel of it's property quite like this.

That brings us to the graphics, which are knock-you-out-of-your-chair good. Sure, the computerized Tron universe lends itself to cool graphics, but the latest Lithtech 3d here comes through with incredible translucencies and vivid glowing color displays. It's a sight to behold and will keep impressing throughout the play.

The games action is pretty heavy. You'll have to de-rez (kill) a whole lot of enemies before your through. The AI fights pretty well and keeps things challenging. If anything, they can be a little too good at times.

Your array of weapons is pretty varied, including your classic disc that featured so prominently in the movie and featuring other goodies such a weapon that are essentially a shotgun and another that is a sniper rifle, all Tron-style naturally. The animation of activating your sniper rifle is ice cold cool. You will likely rely primarily on your disc, though, and the various mods there-on.

The game also delivers deeper gameplay than most FPS's in that it has some RPG-type elements. Since you are now essentially a computer program, you are upgradable. As you continue through the game, you can upgrade your core assets such as weapons skill, energy (used to power weapons and abilities), health, etc. As well, you pick up a myriad of sub-routines, some of which use up energy, that you must choose between given your limited sub-routine space (which changed between levels depending on where you are supposed to be). Sub-routines include weapons, viral defenses, armor, increased abilties, and modifications to your disc's powers among other things. The sub-routines even come in three different levels - Alpha, Beta, and Gold - each becoming increasingly effective and taking up less space. Managing all of this is an essential part of the game and added greatly to my experience.

Another great feature of the game is the locations. You don't simply stay on one computer, but move around to a variety of different places, including a massive, crowded internet hub and a the confined space of a PDA. The locations are all very well done and lend themselves well to their themes.

One great part of the game is the light-cycle races. There is light-cycle racing at various points throughout the single-player game and there is also a separate set of races that you can run independently, with the ability to unlock new cycles. The action is fast, frantic, great-looking, and exactly what Tron fans have been wanting.

The storyline was decent enough. You play Jet Bradley, the son of Alan Bradley from the original movie. An evil corporation is attempting to take over Encom in order to gain the digitization technology for their own evil uses. It's your job to stop them. But the real treat for Tron fans will be the emails that one can collect throughout the game telling about things going on in Encom since the events of the Tron movie.

The Bad
The AI could shoot the wings off a fly at a mile off seemingly. That could be a tad frustrating.

The storyline, while decent, could have been better. There were a couple of cringe-worthy moments, such as the mother-computer entity "Ma3a", the inclusion of which was a bit more cheese than I needed. Still, very minor.

There was at least one jumping puzzle which made me want to put my head through my computer monitor. Note to all game designers: Jumping puzzles in FPS games are horrid. Leave them out.

The Bottom Line
Tron 2.0 is the best thing to come out of the Tron license since the movie itself. If you like FPS action, it's a fine example of the genre. If you like Tron, it's a great chance to explore the universe. If you are a fan of both, well, this game is gonna be sweet.

Windows · by Steelysama (82) · 2004

Absolutely beautiful! And TRONtastic in every way.

The Good
Everything about the TRON world is beautifully constructed. Every single thing in the game has the glowing TRON look (may be diminished on less than highest video settings) that makes the world distinct and everything stand-out. Monolith has done a wonderful job of giving an update to the TRON world which still making everything seem like it belongs and seem in place. Changes between the movie and this game are usually well-explained by characters, help files or email and you can even see where familiar objects have been 'updated' into a different type of program.

The world itself and the dialog is definitely the high-point of the game. You'll find yourself running from a system format and watching the world change as files get compressed and see a defrag rearrange your pathways. You'll grab new permissions from dead programs and avoid viral infection from bright yellow intruders. There's lots of voice acting characters to bring this world to life. The objectives of various missions are diverse and unique.

All in all it's a wonderfully done movie conversion (of course they had a 22 year gap between the movie and this game... most movie licenses aren't willing to wait a fraction of that time for development) and I could talk about that all day, I'll try to focus on the gameplay instead. The game is a solid First Person Shooter with all the elements we've come to expect from the genre; Jumping, crouching, strafing, leaning. The weapons too are indicative of most FPS. You have your melee weapons, sniper weapon, rocket weapon... But the difference is, all these weapons may be upgraded and oftentimes other 'programs' may be run to add abilities to the weapon. For instance, your default weapon (and certainly one of the more unique ones... even after 22 years), the Disc, by default can be thrown at the enemy/obstacles (and bounce off of them) and be recalled. Through upgrades you can give additional status effects to the weapon, or you can load the ability to fire 3 at a time or you can load increased accuracy upgrades. It's all more diverse than your average FPS.

I'm a TRON movie fan and I loved this game.

And for fans of lightcycles, they're here too and also a lot of fun in their simplicity.

There's also a fair share of "secret areas", the finding of which will net you better weapons sooner and/or build upgrades which can increase your stats beyond those of a player who does not find them.

The Bad
So what didn't I like? Well... er... not much. I suppose it would be the 'locked access' areas in the levels that are unopenable by any means (I'd love to explore and see every single thing ;)

At the time of writing this review, I have not finished the game... so I can not comment on the later levels or the ending.

The Bottom Line
On the highest graphics modes... THIS IS TRON!!! Every bit of the world has the unique feel to it and all of it feels as if it should somehow belong. Never has plain black 'grid' walls looked so natural and wonderful. I can't help but think how easily the TRON universe would lend itself to an "online world" of some sort... and in fact this game is very linear; but the player probably won't mind because it's a wonderfully evolving storyline and a bright glowing world!

Windows · by Shoddyan (15001) · 2003

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Beta testers

The at-home beta testers are not credited anywhere in the game due to legal reasons.

Buena Vista Interactive

Buena Vista Interactive is a division of Disney that was founded specifically for Tron 2.0. Because of its T rating, Disney didn't want to release it under the kid friendly Disney Interactive, so they created a new label. Perhaps because of its association with Disney, Tron 2.0 is amazingly low on the amount of violence it contains. Throughout the course of the entire game, only one human being actually dies, and your character neither causes that death nor is he responsible for it.

Coin-op cameo

The old coin-op cabinet of TRON makes an appearance during the game's intro. Your character is just finishing playing it in the employee lounge when the game starts.

Marathon

Some of the programmers of TRON 2.0 are apparently fans of Bungie's Marathon series, as there are a couple of Marathon references in the game. Firstly, one of the corrupted Z-lots in the "Thorne's Partition Perimeter" level is named Durandal.exe if you examine him with your profiler. Durandal was a demented A.I. who was a major character in the Marathon series. Also, in the level "Thorne's Internal Partition", one of the messages Thorne sends you is "Frog blast the vent core!", which is what the assimilated civilians in the original Marathon would yell out before they tried to kill you.

Movie

TRON 2.0 was announced along with a movie version of it. The script went into its third draft before it was cancelled, though the game survived. With the release of TRON: Legacy and its game counterpart TRON: Evolution, Tron 2.0 is now no longer canon in the main movie series timeline; both titles explicitly contradict the events of this game.

Reindeer Flotilla

In the movie TRON, the character Kevin Flynn created tanks for his games, and used the password "Reindeer Flotilla" to access them. In the game you run across some of these tanks, but the developers of the game apparently did not read the screen from the film carefully, as the password used to access them in the game is "Reindeer Tortilla". Additionally, the default multiplayer server password is "reindeerflotilla".

Scuzzy wares

The ICP units will sometimes utter the phrase "scuzzy wares" while they are hunting for your character. This is taken directly from the original movie; Flynn says the same thing out of frustration early in the film. The phrase is probably a combination of the the computer terms SCSI and warez, and makes no sense when used together, although to a casual listener it sounds a legitimate replacement for a cuss word or an insult.

Visual effects

The game was developed with the Lithtech engine. Monolith designers collaborated with nVidia to produce the glowing effect. While the game works with all DirectX 9 compliant cards, The owners of nVidia FX-class cards are able to see the TRON glow from the original movie. Also, the futurist Syd Mead was brought on as a consultant to re-design the famous light cycles. He designed the original light cycles as well. Syd has worked on Blade Runner, Aliens, and numerous other films.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #4 Game of the Year in the “Best of 2003” Awards
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Use of License of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #9 PC Game of the Year
    • 2003 - Best Original Storyline of the Year (PC)

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Mickey Gabel, Zack Green, PCGamer77, psychofish, WildKard, Trixter, Scott Monster Corn Popper and Jeremy Johnson.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Tron: Maze-A-Tron
Released 1982 on Intellivision
Tron
Released 1992 on DOS
Discs of Tron
Released 1983 on Arcade, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tron: Evolution
Released 2010 on PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
Flanker 2.0
Released 1999 on Windows
Tron 2.0 3D
Released 2006 on J2ME
Microsoft Golf 2.0
Released 1995 on Windows, Windows 3.x
Tron 2.0: Killer App
Released 2004 on Game Boy Advance

Related Sites +

  • TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ
    TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ v1.0: A guide to the TRON 2.0 game from Monolith Productions and Buena Vista Games (Disney), providing background story, hints and tips, troubleshooting advice, walkthroughs, and more.
  • Tron 2.0
    Official website
  • Upgrade to New Adventures
    An Apple Games article about the Macintosh version of Tron 2.0, with commentary being provided by Designer Syd Mead (April, 2004).
  • Visual Walkthroughs - Tron 2.0
    A nice walkthrough of the game shown visually with screenshots.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 10153
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by The Ring Hawk.

Xbox added by Shoddyan. Macintosh added by Scaryfun.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Longwalker, Corn Popper, Shoddyan, tronfaq, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.

Game added August 27, 2003. Last modified September 24, 2023.