In 2023, the Tron series got a video game that I never saw coming, but instantly adored. Tron: Identity ditched light cycles and identity disc battle for a hard sci-fi visual novel by Bithell Games. The small scale project was a creative use of Disney’s world, drilling in on its cyber noir elements rather than its action. It was up my alley, but a harder sell for Tron enthusiasts who were hoping for a more traditional action-adventure game. Bithell Games is set to deliver that on June 17 with Tron: Catalyst.
Published by Big Fan, the project is set to give fans of the films a little wish fulfillment this time around. Discs fly and wheels spin in a game that has the same tone as Identity, but placed into a slightly larger shell. Ahead of its summer release, I played through Catalyst‘s first hour, taking me through two of its chapters. So far, it retains the writing strengths of Identity, but with more to do in the Arq Grid. I’m not sure if that bigger scope makes for a better game yet, but all the right pieces are there to make for a solid Tron game with most of the fixings.
Thrown for a loop
When my demo begins, I’m thrown right into the Arq Grid, which I’m viewing from an isometric perspective. All I know initially is that I’m a courier named Exo who needs to deliver some messages. I do that, but am then hit by some sort of explosion. Next thing I know, I’m trapped in some sort of time loop that Exo has the ability to manipulate. I’ll have to use that power to escape my pursuers, find out more about a glitch that’s plaguing the grid, and presumably escape.
The time loop premise is the most unique bit of Catalyst. When my demo begins, I need to find someone who might have some useful information for me. To get to them, I need to enter myself into a combat arena and get up to the stands. I do that, but the person I’m looking for is gone by the time I finish my fight. I’m directed to a secured room nearby which I use a key card to open, permanently unlocking the door on future loops. From there, I restart the cycle, go straight to that door to cut to the stands, and catch my green-haired friend before even stepping foot in the arena. I go through a similar cycle in the second chapter when I need to break into a penthouse, using keycards to open up shortcuts on my next cycle.
It’s hard to see just how deep that idea goes from such a short demo slice. It’s used as a fairly linear storytelling tool here, as I’m told exactly where to go and when to reset the cycle. There isn’t really a puzzle or immersive sim hook associated with it, which makes it feel like a standard narrative flow broken up by bits of time travel. These are early missions meant to act as a tutorial though, so I’m hoping that there’s more freedom to tackle loops in creative ways later on.
Aside from that, Catalyst works as many Tron staples as it can in here. Unlike Identity, there’s combat here. I have a basic slash and I can toss my identity disc out at my enemies too, which can bounce around the room and hit additional foes. It’s a fairly simple system with a basic slash, charged hit, parry, and dodge to play around with. Every encounter I ran into went about the same with me just slashing at bad guys with little feedback. I imagine there’s still some tuning to do there, but I also barely got into my skill tree, which seems like it’ll make combat much more exciting. I’ll eventually have the option to deflect my disc back at enemies and do other tricks that should make for more involved long-range action.
The real highlight during my demo came when I finally gained access to my light cycle. With the tap of a button, I can call up the vehicle and drive it around the Arq Grid’s streets. Again, there’s nothing too fancy here; it just functions like a car that gets me around some compact streets. Still, it’s a nice bit of wish fulfillment to glide around on one through the neon blue streets of Tron’s world. I’m hoping that the final explorable space is a little bigger than what I saw here just to give me a good reason to sail around.
With the combat and exploration as streamlined as they are, I imagine that the story will be what makes or breaks Tron: Catalyst. I don’t have a great sense of it yet, but it’s trending in the right direction. It get the sense that I’ll be thrown deep into a sci-fi story where I’ll need to break into penthouses and hack unattended terminals to figure out what digital plague is impacting the Grid. That’s exactly what made Identity so engrossing and it seems like it’ll carry through here. So long as the rest of the gameplay can keep pace with that idea, it should maker for another intriguing take on Tron that uses its compact size to its advantage, not unlike Bithell Games’ underappreciated John Wick Hex. If Catalyst can reach that same quality bar, I’ll be satisfied.
Tron: Catalyst launches on June 17 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
