Tron: Catalyst reviewed: cycle redundancy

A new Tron title will have sci-fi geeks make their way back to the Grid to see what’s happening. With a new film on the way, does Tron Catalyst get you in the mood for more Tron?

It’s a year for fans of the classic Disney flick Tron. A new movie is on the way for October and it’ll arrive with a new soundtrack by Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails. This reviewer is still jamming to Daft Punk’s soundtrack to the last film and its reconfigured edition, but more retro-electronic and industrial jams are definitely exciting.

As is the other tidbit arriving beforehand: a new game that has launched on PC and consoles, as well.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited by a franchise release since the last Spiderverse film, or even the last decent Star Wars film, though the release of Andor this year was phenomenal.

Tron is different. It’s a sci-fi franchise for people who spend their life wondering what goes on inside of a computer, for those who love the dream that their computer and technology is really alive, almost like a romanticised version of some of the messaging in the Japanese stories of Ghost in the Shell: technology that’s come alive.

In the years since Kevin Flynn found his way into his computer in the original 1982 film Tron, and computers came alive, not to mention his son Sam finding his way in with the 2010 sequel Tron Legacy, the computer world has been changing, but in a way we users didn’t expect. The system is fighting to maintain control politically, as factions of programs fight back against control.

It’s a bit of a counterpart to life in the real world in Bithell’s new Tron title, though it’s one that can also feel a bit of chore at times, like you’re just a function stuck in a process or an app stuck in a cycle.

How does Tron Catalyst play?

I’ve been doing a lot more gaming since the Steam Deck arrived, because now those little times when I put the kids to bed can be put to something other than another game of solitaire and adding a few more words to yet another review.

So when I was offered the chance to review Tron: Catalyst, a game that runs nicely on the gaming handheld, I jumped at it. It’s been too long between cycles for this Tron fan, someone who attended the midnight launch of Legacy in 2010 back when Sydney had a real and proper IMAX that wasn’t just the slightly bigger cinema that it is now.

Developed by Bithell Games and published by Devolver, Catalyst thrusts you into the role of courier program Exo, shuffling her way around the world inside of computers until she gets burned by a package she was meant to deliver. Suddenly, she has the “glitch” and can reset time and start again, complete with her learnings in tact, even if no one else remembers her.

You’ll start in a sort of prison where you’ll be told to fight, and then to train and fight, and meet other players stuck in the same sort of world. And quickly, you’ll escape, only to be told to do more fighting, more running, more fighting, and every so often, some light cycle driving, as well.

Over time, you’ll find that the world of Tron is stuck in some sort of political upheaval, and you need to make your way to the rebels of Automata. It’s a little like Star Wars set inside Tron, or a mirror on some of what’s happening in other parts of the world. It’s a group of people fighting back, and you’re about to become one of them.

Is it fun?

It’s a bit of fun to begin with, and the visual style is great. Strips of bright blue and pink for the good guys and orange for the bad, with the electric aesthetic clear and very much a video game version of the film. The problem is Catalyst gets old quickly.

Credit to Bithell, because the idea is clever: one character and function now features a special glitch that allows it to turn back time and remember saved information, even when everything can’t. A time travel function you control that no one else does.

You don’t die forever when you’re derezzed; you respawn with all your past knowledge, and can do it again. Cool.

The problem is that mechanic quickly makes the game tedious. If you make a mistake, the mechanic means you can restart and move on. Great.

But you’ll also reach parts of the game where it literally tells you that you need to restart, and so you’re being forced to start again. There’s no way forward when it happens, and the game is basically nudging you with advice to restart. Do it, function. Restart.

It can all feel so redundant at times, almost as if you were a program stuck in a cycle redundancy check, a CRC error, waiting for something new to happen and being stuck in a cycle while the system checks something.

A couple of hours in, the idea of a fun jaunt in Tron gave way to a feeling I had years ago when playing Bioshock: I’m basically just doing chores between parts of the game, making my way around a map, trying to break bad guys and avoid others, and hardly seeing the evolution of a story.

In Tron: Catalyst, can talk to some of the civilians and other players, but little of it helps the story, or even compels it. At times, even the restart mechanic seems flawed, and when you want to use it during the heat of a big battle, the game actually prevents you from doing so, even though it would be the perfect time to get out of dodge, or the grid, anyway.

This process is pretty much what Tron Catalyst becomes: walk around, fight baddies, walk around some more, completing tasks and listening to the occasional bit of decently acted dialogue atop art.

It’s fun for a little bit of time, but it can wear you down quickly. At times, I didn’t want to open the game again except to watch the visual novel play out, and to do that here, I actually have to play the game.

That means more brawls, more map wandering, and more time travel repeats to start from scratch. Rinse, repeat, cycle redundancy and so on. You can update your player with a skill menu after more of those brawls, but then you’ll just have more brawls, more wandering, and more time travel repeats. Sigh.

Is it for fans or for everyone?

As a Tron fan, I hoped for good things from the game. It’s been so long since I’ve found a Tron game I’ve been able to dig my teeth into positively, and there are some good things here.

It’s no Tron 2.0, what was arguably a fun play into the world of Tron predating Legacy, and delivered the style of the films in a modern first-person shooter with a bit of light cycle racing thrown in for good measure. I had great memories of that game, and over twenty years on, the hope was new saved memories with another great Tron title.

This isn’t that Tron title.

Catalyst is definitely fun for fans, particularly with the prospect of exploring a detailed world that looks like a sandbox of blue light and dark shades. But even as a fan, you just can’t get close enough, and the isometric design just feels a bit of a tease.

Essentially, the isometric view always puts you at arm’s reach, which is ironic given how close to the computing world Tron’s creator wanted to be that he took himself inside of it. Bithell even feels like it has a nod to it, what with a recreation of Flynn’s computer room serving as the menu for the game.

What’s more, some of those elements the devs are really playing lip service to — like being able to light cycle anywhere — can feel clunky, like you’re just walking a little bit faster.

Walking around the maps is also infinitely more enjoyable, so if you drive places, you’re going to miss those little details that make the game interesting, like seeing beds in apartments (because programs need to sleep) or pools on roofs (because they might want to relax, too).

Fans of Tron will definitely like this game more than others, but even for fans, the novelty can wear off quickly. You’ll feel like you’re replaying the same level repeatedly, because you basically are.

You may even wonder if you’re just wondering between two places and watching a visual story play out because, well, it certainly feels like you are. Its predecessor was literally a visual novel, Tron Identity, and so this game feels like that with a brawler thrown in between.

The one saving grace is that as a fan of the Tron story, the acting and music helps bring it all together, so even if this year’s Tron film Ares turns out to be a massive misfire — and going from the trailer and its real-world additions, that’s a genuine possibility — at least the story in Catalyst is great. Bithell did a solid job there.

Final thoughts (TL;DR)

The price could be the other saving grace Catalyst has going for it: at $36 in Australia, it’s not exactly an expensive title. We reviewed it on Steam via the Steam Deck, though it’s also available on the PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series S and X.

For a few hours of gameplay and an expansion on the Tron-world so many fans have been looking for, Catalyst is a fairly inexpensive way to indulge in a franchise, and doesn’t cost much more than a trip to the cinemas after you’ve added a drink and popcorn. It lasts a bit longer, too.

There are definite ways Tron Catalyst could be better, though. The character development could feel more involved, rather than a mere menu when you decide to update your skills. The choices you make and the people you talk to could shape the outcome, rather than feel like a bit of extra dialogue with no recourse.

But for under $40, it’s difficult to complain too much. You’ll get a few hours of extra Tron goodness, while you wait for Ares to get released. Which if we’re honest is probably the point.