TItle: Tron 2.0 Developer: Monolith Productions Publisher: Buena Vista Interactive Music Composed by: Nathan Grigg Engine: Lithtech Triton Release Date: August 26, 2003 IntroductionWay back when, at the dawn of the age of CGI, Tron was modern marvel. Unfortunately, it didn't get such great press, and so it would be well over three decades before the film received a sequel in the form of Tron: Legacy. But what about in between? What happened while Disney was sitting atop the franchise waiting for people to forget the failure of the first installment? Well, there was this game called Tron 2.0, made by Monolith Productions, which was supposed to fill the gap for those still waiting for a sequel. What's impressive about it is that despite being based on a film that barely rated as a cult classic, the game managed to be fun and relatively creative without being quite as goofy as the source material, while at the same time retaining its fun and campy tone. At the moment, it's available on Steam for $9.99, which is a pretty decent deal when you balance its age with its quality. StoryThough the story of Tron 2.0 has been rendered non-canon with the release of Tron: Legacy, it is by no means poorly written. Set decades after the events of the original movie, you play as Jethro "Jet" Bradley, son of Alan Bradley (played once more by actor Bruce Boxleitner). Alan is now head of research and development at ENCOM, the company that created the 'digitization' technology which allowed the original protagonist Kevin Flynn to access the world inside the computer. Flynn himself is nowhere to be seen, and in his absence, ENCOM has been bought out by F-Con Industries in the wake of the dot-com bubble collapse of the early 2000's. This sinister corporation wants the digitization technology for their own nefarious purposes, and Alan's efforts to prevent them from using it get him locked in a storage cupboard until he coughs up the crucial algorithms that make the process work. In an effort to protect her creator, Ma3a (pronounced mah-three-ah), the AI created to run the digitizing systems, lures Jet into the scanning bay and drags him into the binary realm, where the adventure begins. I don't remember Uncle Flynn ever telling me about green stuff during his stories about his time in here. Then again, things have clearly changed a lot since he was here... While the game relies on commendably well-produced motion-capture cutscenes to tell most of the story, there is a large volume of background lore and info regarding the events of the years preceding the game that can be gleaned from e-mails you can collect during missions. This actually makes the world seem that much more immersive while helping to tie events in the real world to those in the digital. To be fair, the dialogue could be written with a little more spark, and there are numerous narrative cliches, but the presentation manages to make up for most of this. My biggest gripe is that the main villains don't really make their presence felt until the last third of the game, which makes them seem somewhat irrelevant until they start sending people to attack you. All in all, Tron 2.0's story is very solid and rather enjoyable, even if you weren't a fan of the first movie. GameplayTron 2.0 was made in the days when video games were opening up to a wider market, and as a result, game developers had to take into account the fact that their new player base might not all be as patient or smart as the old. The game's tutorial is lengthy and thorough, almost to an irritating degree, though mercifully you can skip it if you like. There are also 'help files', which are always accessible from the pause menu, that can explain basic gameplay and objective info if you get confused. It's also important to note that the game was made before the idea of automated checkpoints had caught on, so unless you want to start a level from scratch every time you die, you should really quick-save quite often. The mesh primitive acts like an SMG, and eats through your energy bar like it's made of candy. Its frustrating, since the weapon has some of the coolest alternative forms in the game, which you only get close to the end. The game's combat is quick, creative and well-crafted, though it can get annoying towards the end when certain enemies or boss battles come into play. On the whole, it holds up very well for its age. The one thing that could improve it would be a means of slowly recovering your energy for your energy meter, as having to run back and forth between power nodes to recharge it can become tedious. However, since these are usually positioned near health nodes, it isn't totally counter-intuitive. One of the chief innovations Tron 2.0 employs a system of interchangeable upgrades called subroutines that you can put on or take off at any point provided you have enough space in your inventory. Meanwhile, collectibles scattered throughout the levels can add to your collection or help upgrade Jet and his arsenal, making exploration very worthwhile. The majority of combat revolves around the use of your disc; a digital death-frisbee that is an icon of the Tron franchise and the first means of defense you acquire right off the bat. Given most enemies share your weapons, this makes for some interesting fights, as you can not only bash people with the disc, but deflect incoming attacks by using a timed block. Other enemies later on will have other weapons that do not allow this, which is unfortunate because the disc itself requires skill and timing to use correctly. Thankfully this is somewhat balanced out by the fact that the disc is the only weapon that does not drain your energy meter, which is crucial since the said meter allows you to access archive bins, which are virtual treasure chests containing permission keys, story e-mails and new subroutines. Fighting is only half the game however, since it wouldn't be Tron without light cycles. The iconic vehicles make a return in both single- and multi-player modes, where you struggle to force enemies to crash into the trail left by your cyber-bike while avoiding doing the same yourself, like a 3-D high-speed version of Snake. Power-ups have been added to spice things up, which they do, though I could've done with better camera control during the matches. Regardless, its a nostalgia trip, and a surprisingly good one, just like the whole game. Sound & DesignWatch your corners when light cycle racing. That includes the ones you make with your trail. It's easy to get caught in a death-spiral, something even the AI is prone to doing at times. Tron 2.0's design is purposefully minimalist. Everything is simplistic in design, with most textures being made of neon circuit boards and objects offering geometrically perfect forms. It's a very retro-future view of the world inside the computer, and sticks close to the original movie's art direction. In this way, I think Tron 2.0 manages to escape the trap of age that many games fall into regarding graphics. When everything in the game is supposed to look simple, it's harder to be disappointed when you look back at it years later (though the light-trail effects are still quite jarring). Honestly there's not a whole lot to say for the visuals other than that they are good, since so much of it was simply pulled from the Tron movie. In regards to how it helps with capturing the odd atmosphere of the film, it's a winner, but Tron 2.0 is more about the story and gameplay than the looks. The same goes for the music and sounds, with its heavy emphasis on synthesizers and electronic noises. Fans of the franchise may even recognize some classic tunes taken from the movie, which you can view as laziness on the developer's part, or part of the nostalgia. Everything is built to remind you that you're in cyber space, from the way that defeated enemies will 'de-rezz' in a cloud of ones and zeroes rather than spouting blood, to the silly, sometimes cringe-worthy names that pop up over NPC's heads if you use your 'Profiler' subroutine. Tron has always been inherently cheesy, and Tron 2.0 simply seeks to make the best of this. The level design is strong on jumping and platforming, with some secrets requiring a great deal of hopping around on floating boxes to reach secrets. Everything about the game strives to stick to the original vision while trying simultaneously to be as creative as possible. Most of the time, games that try this either flop or fly. Tron 2.0 lies somewhere in between, though its redeeming qualities help prevent it from sliding all the way into the bargain bin. Final VerdictTaken at face value in the modern world, Tron 2.0 isn't exactly special, but for people who enjoy a good shooter that's aged well and has a few tricks up its sleeve, it's very good. If you are a fan of either Legacy or the original Tron, I would add its creative and respectful take on the universe as a plus as well. The multiplayer is depopulated sadly, and has been for years, so alas, you'll mostly have to rely on fighting AI opponents on the light cycle grids if you want to get more out of the game beyond the campaign. Still, there's plenty of exploration to be done, so it should last you a good while. Add to this the flexible character upgrade system represented by subroutines and it's a blast, offering just enough choice and reward for the right decisions to keep you going. I totally recommend it, and I'm not even a Tron buff. Minimum System Requirements
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 Processor Capacity: 500 MHz RAM: 256 MB DirectX® Version: 9.0 Hard Drive Space: 2458 MB --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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TItle: Unreal II: The Awakening Developer: Legend Entertainment Publisher: Infrogames (PC), Atari (Xbox) Writer: Bob Bates Music Composed by: Jack Wall Engine: Unreal Engine 2 Release Date: February 3, 2003 IntroductionThe original Unreal wowed gamers in 1998 with its (for the time) revolutionary 3-D graphics, lightning-paced shooter gameplay and creative level design. The brainchild of Epic MegaGames (later shortened to Epic Games), Legend Entertainment and Digital Extremes, its multiplayer became the foundation for the even bigger smash-hit Unreal Tournament, while it's engine would become the foundation for other greats like the original Deus Ex. It was an unmitigated and industry-shaping success. Alas, its sequel, released five years later, was not so lucky. Make no mistake: I do not mean to imply that Unreal II: The Awakening was a bad game. As a shooter, for it's time, it was passably solid, with a lot going for it in terms of graphics and creative design. Unfortunately, with only Legend Entertainment remaining from the original trinity of developers, it seems that somewhere along the way, the balance was tipped and the careful blend of wild sci-fi/fantasy, cool graphics and crazy shooting that made the original great was lost. If you're looking for a good budget-price shooter to kill some time, you can pick it up on Steam for $14.99, though I'd only recommend it if you've got money to burn. StoryOf The Awakening's many unfortunate flaws, the story is one of the most glaringly obvious. Departing entirely from the plot of the original Unreal, the sequel places you in the boots of Terran Colonial Authority Marshal John Dalton, a former space marine kicked out of the corps for disobeying his superior officer. Now he patrols around 'the ass-end of nowhere' with a crew of fellow rejects, including a former military wunderkind who dresses like a stripper and has a snake tattoo leading to her 'secret garden', a gruff, stereotypical engineer whose sole job seems to be telling you things about weapons you've already learned, and an admittedly amusing alien slug in a robot suit who serves as your pilot and who has yet to grasp the finer points of the English language, like basic syntax. Meet Aida, your ship's first officer. Supposedly she single-handedly planned a military operation that saved humanity from extinction, but you'd never know it from the way she dresses. It's her job to provide mostly-redundant info on your next killing ground and advance the plot. The story wants you to love these characters, but their backstories, while potentially interesting, are poorly presented and seem like an afterthought. The mostly just stand around waiting to be talked to in between your ventures down to alien worlds where you meet new people with guns and kill them, or else get ambushed by the local wildlife. There's not really much to say, truth be told. The plot is so packed with cliches and predictable stereotypes that the ending feels more like a whoopee cushion than a bang. The Unreal franchise has never been strong in terms of story, preferring to use it as framework for justifying what really makes it shine: creative and fast-placed gun-play in wild and wacky settings. Unfortunately the former of those two things leaves something to be desired here as well. GameplayI hope Johnny Rico is watching, because I'm about to beat his punk-ass record by a mile. Honestly you picked the WRONG marine buddy. Let me give you twelve reasons as to why. Unreal II also does away with the classic Unreal arsenal in favor of a new and shiny set of guns that feel like the result of someone who wanted to be creative without considering the balance of gameplay. I will openly admit that all the guns were plenty of fun to use (after all, if it doesn't feel good to pull the trigger, what's the point?), but the game suffers from redundancy and 'novelty functions' that serve no real purpose. A good example of this is the so-called 'spider gun', which allows you to cover your enemy in biting, stinging alien arachnids. It's funny and cool...for about twenty seconds. Then it gets dull because that's really all it does. Another is the Hydra, a six-function grenade launcher that fires fragmentation, incendiary, toxic, EMP, concussion AND smoke grenades. This sounds awesome, except that three of those don't really serve a purpose, since knocking the enemies on their rears or blinding them with smoke doesn't have much point in a hardcore shooter, and the toxic grenade does piddly damage over time. It wouldn't be so bad if the game had been designed with this kind of silliness in mind, like Serious Sam, but this is Unreal II, which tries to be a sci-fi adventure story with a more serious tone (pardon the pun). Regardless, only a few of the weapons you pick up will get real regular use. Enemy variety is limited in terms of function, though pretty creative when it comes to form. The alien Skaarj from the first game make a reappearance, but that's it in terms of nostalgia trips. Everything else is brand-new, and not always in a good way. The longer you play, the more it becomes clear that of the original creators, Legend Entertainment were gifted with immense imagination, but lacked the restraint and skill necessary to craft all their wild ideas into a cohesive and truly engrossing game. If only their partners hadn't skipped out on participating in the production. Perhaps we might've gotten something a bit more polished...or maybe not. The alien script says it belonged to a species known as the 'MacGuffin'. They were once a powerful and prosperous people, but were wiped out a eons ago by a race of machines known as 'plot devices'. Needless to say, the game does little to prevent its repetitive nature from shining through. There's a few defense missions where you work with fellow marines or lay down barriers while holding a location, but these are few and far-between. There's a point where it feels like things might finally be changing and pulling together towards the end of the game, but it fails to pan out. In the end, you're left with an almost purely linear experience, which wouldn't be so bad if the game had multiplayer...but it doesn't. The reason why is a bit complex. Originally, Unreal II shipped without multiplayer, under the promise by Atari that it would be released after development was completed. The first playable version was released in December of 2003, but the development was discontinued after Legend Entertainment unexpectedly shut down the following year. Since then, the only public version has ceased to work, and never been patched, leaving Unreal II out in the cold when it comes to replayability. Sound & DesignOf course, even some of the most disappointing games have their silver lining. A story can be awful while the gameplay excels, or the plot can be creative while the execution falls flat. The true tragedy of Unreal II is rooted in this fact, because while the gameplay and story are bargain-bin material, the environments are drop-dead gorgeous. From a planet in the process of being consumed by a single massive amoeba-like monster to a world overrun by intelligent alien machines, Unreal II takes the cake on creative environments that still manage to look pretty damn beautiful even after all these years. The sound design is sadly better rated as 'above average'. Almost every gun has the visceral 'oomph' to almost make up for their scatter-brained design. Monsters and enemies sport strong creativity in terms of visual appeal, but the game's overall score voice-acting could be described as 'bland'. It's not terrible, but it does nothing to improve immersion. The music is strangely schizophrenic too. The cutscenes are all accompanied by sweeping orchestral scores while the levels are filled with what feels like stock techno-beats. All that said, I could still stare at this game for hours, soaking in every flashy and colorful detail behind some of the levels. It's an experience that needs to be seen to be believed. Its such a shame that the sights alone should be one of the sole redeeming qualities of the experience. It's just further proof that Legend Entertainment screwed themselves by trying to go it alone; all flash, no thunder. Final VerdictIn the end, Unreal II is a game that does little besides showcase how good the engine it runs on is. With budget-price gameplay, a throwaway story and little to encourage replayability beyond the art style, this is a sad tale of what could've been. It's not bad so much as forgettable, doing little to stand apart from the crowd of similar shooters in the same generation. If anything, Unreal II is a step backwards, trading almost everything for improved visuals, which as it turns out, isn't all that worth it. If it interests you, be my guest. Otherwise I suggest you focus on the other games in the franchise. Perhaps someday Unreal will get the sequel it deserves. For now though. you'll just have to settle for this... Minimum System Requirements
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Operating System: Windows 2000 or XP Processor Capacity: 1.0 GHz RAM: 128 MB DirectX® Version: 9.0b Hard Drive Space: 5.5 GB --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- |
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