TRON: Catalyst Review

TRON is a franchise I have loved for years, and when I heard that TRON: Catalyst was being made, I was excited to be going back to the Grid. After all, the TRON universe hasn’t had something new in a couple of years. I was looking forward to this game to reignite my love for TRON once again, and it certainly did as I explored the digital world and, well, re-watched the movies.

TRON: Catalyst is a story-driven top-down action-adventure game where you play as a courier named Exo. One day, as she delivers a package as usual, it suddenly blows up, and she finds herself with a glitched arm and a prisoner under the Arena, all thanks to a yellow jacket named Conn. Conn has a suspicion that you’re special and wants to know more, but you refuse to tell him anything; you’re just a courier after all. As you explore under the Arena and fight in it, you discover that Exo can loop back in time, an ability she didn’t have before the explosion. You’ll loop back and speak to key characters, such as Horii and Vega, to help you escape the Arena, and once you do, you are pursued by Core for the rest of the game. This newfound glitch will aid in your survival against the many enemies that come at you throughout the game, regardless of faction, and you’ll gain experience and insight as the detailed story unfolds.

The fighting in TRON: Catalyst is easy to understand, as the controls are simple. It is fast to attack enemies, and fights are usually finished in just a few seconds to around a minute. You’ll throw your identity disk around and strike enemies with it in your hands. Abilities will be unlocked throughout your entire playthrough, and enemies have various weaknesses and buffs, which forces you to use said abilities, keeping the fighting interesting. Modifiers, such as slicer, concussion, and reaper, will also be available to add to your identity disk by stealing enemies’ code for a brief period. These modifiers will also be needed to derez enemies quicker. The gameplay also gets broken up occasionally, such as fighting or running away with the beloved Light Cycle.

Can’t forget to upgrade

Throughout TRON: Catalyst, you’ll unlock a whole lot of abilities and fighting techniques, such as a larger parry window or hitting an enemy’s identity disk back at them, that can be upgraded thanks to the skill tree. The green Data Shards needed for the skill tree can be found around each location, either hidden or in plain sight. They can also be gained in small bursts by completing optional challenges when fighting enemies, such as killing enemies in 20 seconds or less, or using a melee attack to take down five enemies. Unfortunately, it is only a small skill tree that doesn’t particularly expand much with each ability. I think it could have been bigger, considering when I was just over halfway through the game, I unlocked everything, and there was no point in collecting Data Shards anymore.

You’ll find new ways to approach problems thanks to the loops. Unlock new areas that were previously inaccessible, discover insider knowledge about each faction, uncover shortcuts, and gain codes that will get you to and through locations, which also stay on your identity disk regardless of looping. All of this information will be kept on your map and in the codex. If you’re ever confused about a certain character, place, or thing, you can quickly read up on the information in the codex, which will give you a lot of helpful insight. This also assists new fans of TRON in understanding more about the Grid.

TRON: Catalyst is around ten hours of gameplay and features a large map in every location you go to, which has secrets and interesting dialogue between civilians and main characters. There is also a helpful arrow that will guide you everywhere you need to go for each quest, and it’s extremely accurate when exploring each location. Side quests, better known as Secondary Progress, are available to do as well, such as finding lost Bits and discovering what happened to a character’s friend. There aren’t many side quests, but they are a fun excuse to explore more of the map at your leisure.

Oh look, it’s Flynn’s!

The soundtrack in TRON: Catalyst is extremely atmospheric and feels naturally futuristic. It assists in each fight, dialogue sequence, and exploration. Although it’s not an iconic soundtrack, like TRON: Legacy, where Daft Punk was featured, it is still great cyberpunk-like music that makes you feel as though you are in the Grid. I know I’ll be listening to the soundtrack outside of playing, as I enjoyed it that much.

Because this is a top-down game, TRON: Catalyst has simple, clear imagery to help you understand where you are and who you are fighting. However, when in an important conversation with a main character, you are met with a nicely drawn image of the person you are talking to that occasionally switches position to convey emotion. This was a nice touch to the game as it put a proper face and voice to the characters, as this is the only time dialogue is voiced-acted.

Dialogue when out and about is not voice-acted, and if you missed out on some information when speaking to characters, you can’t scroll up to re-read what you missed. Regardless of whether you have auto-play on or off. Luckily, if one of these conversations leads to a main or side quest, the crucial information will show up in the quest tab.

Looping is weird

Unfortunately, despite enjoying the discovery of the story, TRON: Catalyst has a lot of back-and-forth in the same areas repeatedly. It isn’t too bad since Exo runs quite fast, making it quick to get places, but I would have liked to have seen more locations on the Grid that I didn’t need to loop back to. Regardless, unlocking new and previously inaccessible areas thanks to those skills you get along the way is interesting.

Final Thoughts

TRON: Catalyst is a solid game for TRON fans to experience. Despite the back-and-forth, the game features a detailed story that is satisfying to uncover as you explore the Grid and factions. The looping glitch is a great addition to the story, and the abilities you unlock throughout the game make the fast combat and gameplay more interesting. And of course, the Light Cycle is fun to use. Ultimately, TRON: Catalyst gives you more insight into the Grid life and what it’s like to be a program.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X // Review code supplied by publisher

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