Tron 2.0

aka: Tron 2.0: Killer App
Moby ID: 10153
Windows Specs
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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.

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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)

Good, but not great

The Good
This game is beautifully crafted. From the blocky geometric structures outlined in brilliant blues and reds and yellows, to the paper-thin trails of the light cycles, Monolith have nailed the look of Tron. The sound quality is good too. Fans will be happy to know the springy footsteps, derezzing enemies and light cycle engine whines from the movie are all replicated here. Even the new weapon effects fit well in this universe.

The Bad
Tron suffers from too many uninspired sections and dull combat. If you were to remove the movie licence, this game would be just another generic shooter. For every memorable moment throughout the game, you also face another forgettable level to run through or another jump puzzle to solve.

The Bottom Line
Tron 2.0 has a unique visual style, like the movie. The gameplay ties into the film so fans should enjoy the nostalgia. Unfortunately, Tron 2.0 suffers from too many dull sections. Nevertheless it does have some real strengths that help make it a solid shooter.

Windows · by Cyberzed (51) · 2003

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

The best first-person shooter so far

The Good
I wasn't very much surprised when I first saw it, but over time I realised that Tron 2.0 is actually the best FPS I ever played. It's as simple as that - if you add up everything that Tron 2.0 has to offer, no other FPS can surpass it.

First thing you see is the graphical splendour of the game. Even with all settings upped to maximum it plays smoothly on my GF4 Ti4200. Hi-res textures, familiar Tron glow, huge fantastic structures, this simply looks amazing. Add to that very well animated characters with high quality models, great effects and weapons that are absolutely cool and original.

Second thing that you notice about Tron 2.0 are levels. They aren't too complex, they aren't too linear and they aren't repetitive. Almost perfect levels. :)

Then you have a great story. There was a certain lack of cohesion, due to the necessary shooting part of the FPS (sometimes you forget why are you shooting), but other than that it was engaging and enjoyable.

Finally, Tron 2.0 is full of little things that add to the fun. The atmosphere of the movie and of the computer world in general was recreated brilliantly. Spam message on the Internet, funny comments in the code like "Tanks read-only and indestructible. Enjoy. :)", "Progress Bar" where programs hang out and countless other things like that certainly add a lot to the game. There is also a lot of innovation in the game mechanics. The subroutines were very original and because of that the way you approached the weapons was completely different from all other games. Upgrading your subroutines (from Alpha to Beta to Gold) and selecting the active ones depending on the game situation allowed for a great variety of game styles. While some people claimed that the Disc was too powerful and other weapons were useless, I found weapons to be carefully balanced, with optimal strategy being always selecting the right tool for the job.

The Bad
I had some problems with sound. With many enemies around my weapons' sounds didn't work. I had to go to options and disable/enable EAX. I also found that positional 5.1 sound didn't work (for me it was only stereo).

Some cutscenes could be made a bit longer for extra exposition and not to feel rushed.

This isn't really a flaw, but there could have been a little bit more interactivity in the levels and may be things like side-quests.

The Bottom Line
The best first-person shooter as of September 2003.

Windows · by Paranoid Opressor (181) · 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.

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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
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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.