Tron: Catalyst PS5 Review – Tron is a complicated franchise for which Disney seems to have difficulty adapting new movies, and video games can’t crack its unique world and complex themes. But that doesn’t stop creators from trying. Developed by Mike Bithell from Thomas Was Alone fame, he and his studio, Bithell Games, are taking a unique approach to Tron, one that I had high hopes for, but in the end, it couldn’t quite reach.
Tron: Catalyst PS5 Review
A Fun Story That Picks Up In Its Final Act
Tron: Catalyst tells the story of Exo, a unique program with a glitch in her code that allows her to loop. When she dies, she returns to the start of her mission, or she can initiate the loop herself. This gives her god-like abilities, and she can never truly be derezzed from the Arq Grid.
A powerful glitch storm is slowly deleting the Grid. Factions have formed, and each one is vying for power. The most powerful group: The Core rules shouldn’t be crossed out by power. Conn is a high-level member of Core, and he learns of your abilities and demands you submit to him, which will allow him to move up in Core.
Long story short, Exo escapes from Core and goes on the run, trying to escape the city and head to the wastelands. The story takes some twists and turns, but none move the story of the Tron world forward.
I enjoyed Exo’s journey and how she became a hero for the remaining Programs in Arq Grid. It’s an isolated story and probably has nothing to do with the ongoing Disney Tron story.
The story is presented with portraits of characters talking to each other, much like a visual novel. The character art is solid, and each character is unique, with a distinctive glow that has become synonymous with Tron.
The Arq Grid Is Beautiful But Lifeless
The game is presented in an isometric camera, which works great for the Tron universe. The world is an excellent representation of a Tron city, and the color palette fits it well. You can explore a city, a flying prison, and even head outside the Grid. The issue is that there isn’t a reason to explore outside your main quest.
Sure, there are some side quests, but they don’t offer anything of value when you finish them. Most side quests are unlocked in the game’s final act and mostly unlock Trophies.
You do get a Lightcycle, but in all honesty, it’s just a means to get around the city faster. There is a portion of the game at the end that you get chased by other Lightcycles, but the combat in this part is not fun.
You can use the trail that Lightcycles make to defeat your enemies, but the duration of these is short, and you almost have to make circles around your opponents just to beat them, as the AI easily avoids the streaks.
Simple And Repetitive Combat
Combat is where Tron: Catalyst suffers the most. While at times it is competent enough, combat is often repetitive and can switch between borderline frustrating or downright laughably easy. There isn’t anything that makes it compelling. You have your three-hit combo with your Data Disk, or you can throw it at enemies.
There is a parry system and a dodge. Almost all of your abilities become meaningless once you learn how to parry, and it’s pretty easy to do. Enemies give away their attack by having a shiny glow on their weapon that tells you it’s time to parry. Simply press Triangle when you see it that glows, and you kill practically every enemy with a single blow.
Combat can grow frustrating if you don’t master parrying. Enemies take too many strikes to defeat, and many foes will block or deflect your throwing disk. The worst is that most enemies can stun you with almost every attack after the halfway point, resulting in combat becoming a chore.
You can unlock more skills, but they don’t add much. For example, you can unlock the ability to kick your disk back after it’s returned to you, only to have it blocked or deflected again. In the final act, you gain access to grenades and the ability to pull enemies toward you.
Improving Exo’s Skills Doesn’t Add Much To The Experience
You also gain an ability that allows you to steal core data from your enemies, which is supposed to imbue you with their weapon skills, but all it does is add different animations to your disk or strengthen your melee attacks. When you can insta-kill everything in the game with a simple parry, what is the point of all these skills?
You level up your skills with the Data you find or gain from defeating enemies. It’s scattered worldwide, and some of it is hard to reach, requiring you to figure out a traversal puzzle. The issue is that before I reached the game’s final act, I had every skill unlocked without going out of my way to collect the Data. So, going out of my way to explore all these side areas feels like a waste of time.
Visually, the game does a fantastic job of making you feel like you’re in the world of Tron. It may be set from an isometric perspective, but it fits perfectly with the Tron universe. The bright colors representing each character and their faction are another great touch. The Blue, Orange, Green, and Purple stand out throughout the game.
The soundtrack isn’t Tron: Legacy, but it does have some suitable electronic music, although I wish it had a little more Omph. On the other hand, the voice work is excellent, and the main cast delivers their lines with passion and love for their characters.
Tron: Catalyst does many things right, but fumbles some of the simplest things. Combat is repetitive and either too easy or hard, depending on how good you are at parrying. The story picks up in its final act, but takes too long to get there. Thankfully, the world and characters keep it interesting, and Catalyst got me hyped for the upcoming Tron: Ares movie, which comes out later this year.
Tron: Catalyst is out now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series S/X.
Review code kindly provided by PR