From
the start, it didn't take long for many of us at Monolith to recognize
that a TRON project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,
not simply because we believed the film would lend itself to great
gameplay, but also because of the movie's status as a
cultural icon. As a high school student at the time of the original
theatrical release, I remember it piquing my interest in computers
and videogames. Whether at the time I fully realized the film's
impact or not, it certainly planted seeds that flourished later
in my life. Since the start of the project, I've spoken to many
people about TRON, and I repeatedly get the same kind of
story: "It's why I'm into computers," "It's why I'm
into 3D graphics," "It's why I'm into gaming."
Our
intrepid hero, Jet.
When
Buena Vista Interactive, the core games publishing label of Buena
Vista Games, approached Monolith with the TRON project, they
were quite up-front about the challenges facing the franchise. While
everyone readily agreed it would make a great computer game, generating
interest for a title based on a 20-year-old cult classic film that
was released ahead of its time might be difficult. Regardless, the
project moved forward with great enthusiasm from both Monolith and
Buena Vista Interactive. The fact that the game could possibly pave
the way for a new TRON film and reignite the franchise was
very exciting, injecting a unique motivation into the project that
Monolith didn't take lightly.
Overall,
TRON 2.0 is a first-person action game that takes place in
the digital universe established by the 1982 film TRON. It's
important to note that the game does not follow the events seen
in the film. Instead, it is a spiritual sibling, or something of
a sequel. The core premise of a society mirroring our own that exists
in the computer remains intact, as does the phenomenon of a human
transporting (or digitizing, as we say in the game) into the computer.
Beyond that, the TRON 2.0 universe breaks new ground. Analogies,
metaphors, and social consequences reflect how we understand and
position computers in our lives today as well as where they may
be in the near future. The game tells only one story of a hundred
possible stories, making the TRON universe much like the
Star Wars and Star Trek universes in that respect. It's this singular
quality that makes the TRON franchise timeless.
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