TRON: Catalyst review — From glitch to glory

TRON is a franchise that deserves to take off. I’ll die on that neon-soaked hill. It’s one of my favorites – I mentioned that in my preview – and it’s nice to see a team dedicated to this IP. Whether or not Bithell Games could make the transition from a visual novel in TRON: Identity to an action game was a big question for me heading into this review. After rolling the credits, I’m glad to see they’ve handled everything with aplomb, even if I’d call this attempt good rather than great.

It all begins with a bang…literally. You are Exo, a program in the Core making deliveries as a courier. The final package of the day starts flashing, and before you make it to the drop off, it explodes. Waking up, Exo finds herself being questioned by Conn, the proprietor of the prison you’re suddenly inside. After an ill-advised trip to the arena where Exo gets derezzed, she finds herself back in Conn’s office, repeating the original conversation. There’s a glitch somewhere; something was up with said boom, and it’s up to you to get to the bottom of it.

While I expected Bithell Games to nail the story, it does take a bit to get rolling. The opening half has a lot of moving pieces, along with certain details that feel left out because of how the gameplay is constructed – they’re easy to miss. For instance, as much as I think I know why Conn is on your tail after you escape his clutches in the first chapter, his underlying motivations by the end of Catalyst are a bit harder to decipher. Maybe I missed a line of dialogue somewhere, but it feels like this happens with a few of the characters, with Conn being the most egregious.

That said, the second half is fantastic, tying together all the pieces of what you’ve gone through to lead you into the conclusion. Although Conn is still the odd man out, Exo comes into her own, taking on the heroine’s mantle. There are also several outstanding characters that get fleshed out all the more in this section of Catalyst, with my favorite being Moto and his tricky relationship with his brother. I won’t say any more to keep spoilers light, but these moments are where Catalyst’s story shines, alongside an incredibly original take on the universe.

I was a bit disappointed to not see dialogue go much further than enabling the next interaction. You still have to pick up information to use to unlock certain dialogue, but even that method isn’t used much. For example, at the beginning, you need to talk with a fighter to gain entry to the training area, otherwise the guards won’t let you in. Considering the rock-paper-scissors nature of TRON: Identity, I was hoping for a deeper system.

Unsurprisingly, the world itself is a work of art, and bigger than I expected. Catalyst is arguably sprawling, with a lot of space in between your missions in open levels. As large as it is, it still feels alive. The Arq Grid city is especially epic, with a lot of NPCs walking around and vehicles inhabiting the streets. Once you make it into the other levels (there are five total), the scale drops, but the intricacy of each one is still top notch.

Visually, Catalyst is striking, perfectly dark and neon in all the right places. The aura of TRON is captured wonderfully in this rendition, especially as the other factions in this world have different color palettes to take advantage of. It also wouldn’t be TRON without the synth punk soundtrack, and Catalyst lands that as well (crafted by TRON: Identity composer Dan Le Sac), with its tones lingering in the background before bursting forth in more intense moments.

Traversing the Grid and fighting against your foes takes on several forms, all from an isometric (enjoy that ISO pun) viewpoint. In most areas you’ll sprint around, but if the terrain and space allow for it, you’ll have the ability to pull out your Light Cycle baton and move a bit faster. In my preview, I felt like the controls were a bit touchy, but they are much improved in this final build. It’s a lot of fun racing around the city, and yes, you do get the ability to leave a light trail to take out pursuers. A neat extra you get for a moment is flying a Light Jet, but this was a bust as the controls for it were constantly inverting when I crashed. As great as the Light Cycle is, the Light Jet is the opposite, leaving me happy it’s only in game for one short period.

Moving into combat, your Identity Disc is the source of your power, and you’ll need to use it to the best of your ability. You can melee with a quick combo, hit a heavy attack by holding down the melee button, and of course, throw your Identity Disc. Throwing it wildly can cause a bit of ricochet, which can leave you without it and vulnerable for a moment.

Where the fighting gets more interesting is in both pace, parries, and stealing abilities. While early on you might think mashing buttons will work, it will get you in trouble if you’re constantly missing your targets. It leaves you open, as Exo needs a few precious seconds to recover from a combo or for her Identity Disc to return. Being a tad more methodical is the best option, as is parrying. Parrying takes out enemies very quickly, and it’s not that tough of a skill to master. There’s even an ability on the skill tree that allows you to have a better parry window and one for mostly one-hit parries, which made the endgame quite easy for me.

Stealing abilities makes fights a little more varied. If you have an enemy stunned and at the end of their health bar, you can take their code, giving you a cooldown where your disc can mimic their melee weapon style. Swiping faster like a light-katana or slamming down like a light-hammer is pretty sweet, and only available if you take the time to get out your hacks.

Unfortunately, I found a lot of the combat to be repetitive. It’s largely pressing the same buttons, along with chucking your Identity Disc on occasion. With the second half of the game introducing a lot of other equipment into your arsenal, it’s a bit disappointing that we don’t see more earlier on. The skill tree also only has nine total unlocks, which makes it feel like an afterthought. I’d have disregarded the skill tree entirely, focusing on allowing you to discover these as new abilities along your path, integrating them in rather than sticking them behind an in-game currency wall.

This shortcoming follows in the mission structure as well, although it’s better thought out. Your mission objectives can be a bit humdrum: go here, talk to this person, maybe fight someone, take this somewhere, etc. It’s how you engage with the missions that’s another matter, and is honestly the most impressive part of Catalyst.

Bithell Games' construction of what could be called a Metroidvania is awesome, but the underlying concept of how it works is even better. With Exo being caught in a time loop, this Groundhog Day-esque feature forces you to restart the loop with the information you’ve learned in order to progress. While this could have been repetitive, I love how each area is set up, and it keeps you guessing as new paths open. Heck, if you get stuck, just reset your loop. There were several moments I spent wondering how I could go and get a certain set of Data Shards (upgrade points), only to unlock intel or a new ability that revealed the way forward in the next loop. That’s a cool way to design a game.

Catalyst raises the bar again in the second half, when you go back to revisit each area. It’s like a double reset, jumping from one level where you’re finding someone to help to another level where they actually need the help. These time loops are cool, but the dev team really went above and beyond when they thought to double down on this gameplay element.

With this structure, you also have the chance to do a few side missions, and these take advantage of the double time loop. There are just a few, with most of them involving finding notes or talking with a character. Each of these feels like it adds to the world Bithell Games has created; good extras to dive into if you want to invest more into this gorgeous Grid.