Don't let movie "tie in's" put you off ...
Well 99% of the time, no movie tie in games are pap!
Tron : Evolution has gone down the less obvious route of a bridging game, like Matrix "Revelations" (i think that was it's name) but it's still a movie tie in as the film is out in a few weeks & it would be stupid not to cash in.
So where does T:E fall into the genre that is movie games? Well, I'm glad to say, it's not that bad! It is by no means original other than it being set in the very distinctive Tron universe.
The game play is similar to Prince of Persia (as most people have said). Both this game & PoP had its fair share of bad jumps ... Tron uses the fact that the player is "rebooted to an earlier save" rather than reversing time. Funny that the truth matches in with the game plot for once!
The power up system is similar to Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Its is a little confusing but there is a good range of items & enough difference in the equipments effects to want to earn more memory in order to get the upgrades.
The light cycle sections are fun & slightly contrived in the game ... a bit like in many movie tie ins that shoe horn in a vehicle sequence but they come into their own on the multi-player & you cant do Tron without light cycles!
The light tanks sections are the same to the bikes in many respects.
Both of the vehicle sections in the game do provide a bit of a change of pace from the platforming sections which is good & neither of them are as annoying as the chariot section from the third PoP!
The clever bit however is the drop into multi-player, which is so simple its brilliant. The upgrade terminals in the game allow you to swap about the various upgrades that you have & then you can hone them in multi-player. This is linked into the upgrade menu & you can start a game regardless of someone being on line at the same time or not. You are given ai competitors whom you can fight & try out your new weapons on & earn xp form until "real" players drop in & join. It can be hard to tell which players are real & ai until your opponents health bar goes down ... a "real" player will run off & power up where as an ai player will stand its ground to the bitter end! These battles are fun but, & it is the only but, there aren't enough "real" players at the moment!
This I feel will be Tron:Evolutions only real mistake ... its a movie game so not enough people will buy it!! No matter how good it is! The curse of every sub par Superman, Batman, X-men, Ironman, Star Wars etc...etc movie game that has promised so much & delivered so little has killed this game before it had a chance!
Ok its not the best game ever since the last best game ever, but it was NEVER going to be! But its a good game & it offers a great "Tron" experience (light cycles/disk combat/light tanks etc) & a challenge & a bit of longevity due to a clever & fun multi-player section ... it just needs more people on line to really make it what it could be!
Pick it up from a sales bin if nothing else! It doesn't deserve to sit there with Iron Man 2!