Tron: Identity Review – Ends at 60 millicycles

Bithell Games is working on its most high-profile project to date with Tron: Identity, a visual novel set in Disney’s sci-fi universe. On paper, combining a narratively rich IP like Tron with a storytelling-driven studio like Bithell should go hand in hand. Tron: Identity is a well-told story, but despite the potential for branching, the game ends abruptly, which ruins the experience.

Tron: Identity tracks Query, a detective tasked with solving a case involving an explosion in the Repository, a huge building at the center of the grid. An explosion occurred and he had something valuable stolen from the Vault. Query must investigate by speaking to representatives of The Repository, asking questions for information, and solving puzzles to unlock memories stored on the series’ iconic ID disc.

From the moment you jump in, it’s clear that a choose-your-own-adventure style visual novel is a perfect fit for Bithell Games’ wheelhouse. The first choice given to you seems harmless, but it will affect the people you talk to later on. Other characters might go in the opposite direction. There were many moments early on when what I thought was the right decision was blown in my face, and kept me braced for the rest of the game. . Every choice you make carries some weight, and discovering different paths through multiple playthroughs yields surprising new information.

A complete Tron: Identity story can be completed in less time than watching a Tron movie, so it won’t take long to replay the game to get all the information. My first game took about 90 minutes from the title sequence to the credits. This includes solving every puzzle, having every conceivable conversation, and always choosing options that provide additional information. It’s not so much a Tron movie as it is a long Disney+ episode of the non-existent Tron series.A very strong episode with many twists and intriguing cliffhangers, but the runtime leaves much to be desired.

The game’s brevity isn’t bad per se. Short games are definitely welcome in the vast open-world sandbox era we live in now.I’d love to explore more of this new slice of Tron’s lore , and also about learning more about these particular characters. Going back to the “Disney+ long episode” analogy, reaching the end of this story felt like reaching the end of his one episode in Telltale Games’ story, but with one key difference . Already knew Telltale’s game was episodic, so the pre-credits cliffhanger wasn’t too jarring. , but technically it remains to be seen if they will be a direct follow-up to Query’s adventures here. .

Most of that gameplay is spent talking to one of the few NPCs throughout the repository. NPCs offer multiple dialogue options that affect not only the action of the plot, but also the attitudes of those involved. Some runs get bloody. In that first run, I discovered that at least 4 of the 6 NPCs I encountered could be delez-Tron-“killed” depending on the choices I made. , there is a run in which no one dies. Whether it’s the second or third time, the unpredictable nature of the story is one of his great strengths in Tron: Identity, as he couldn’t guess what would happen in the next scene.

Several times during the game, Queries is asked to perform tasks on other characters’ ID disks. The task is presented in a puzzle format, with multiple nodes of varying colors and numbers appearing on the screen. The goal is to remove nodes one by one until the target number of nodes remain. To do this, select a node and match it with either its immediate neighbor or exactly another node, either by number or by colored symbols. If you move 3 squares away, the ones you don’t have disappear.

These puzzles are fun little brain teasers, but unfortunately they do little to advance the plot and enjoyment of the game. Most of the time they appear when you are fully immersed in the scene. You’ll then have to match symbols and numbers until the puzzle disappears and you can get back to storytelling. This is a very welcome option for runs beyond the first puzzle. The game also includes a puzzle-only endless mode, so if you’re in the mood for a brain workout, launch this and erase nodes to your heart’s content.

The in-game Codex gives lore hunters a decent treasure hunt as small pulse nodes appear in multiple scenes throughout the game. Activating one unlocks a Codex entry that further expands how Tron: Identity fits into the larger Tron lore and the role the game’s characters have within it. One of the entries is entirely in hexadecimal notation to add even more excitement.

However, the Codex has one big problem. For each of his NPCs in the game, there is a chart containing all of the different branches that relationship with that character can take. However, the screen only shows the results of the latest run. If the non-character entries in the codex carry over through multiple runs, why can’t each character’s story branch be the same after watching the corresponding scene? You would have hoped that all those question marks would be transcribed entries, but unfortunately they are not.

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Tron: Identity is a sharply written story that offers not only a fresh take on Tron, but also an intriguing visual novel/puzzle hybrid format. The pacing of the story, the agent you feel when making choices, and the immediate weight of those choices make this a great new addition to your visual novel library. I just wish there was more story told here because it’s attributed to the game ending so quickly, rather than things. We hope you can find out more about the identity of the Tron game.