With both Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan reprising their original movie roles (something Tron: Legacy couldn't even pull off), this game feels less like a platformer and more like living through a movie sequel. None of the puzzles are really difficult, their forte isn't in being killer, but in being natural fits into the level and story. No one who has ever watched Tron should pass this up. I've heard rumours that this movie was born out of a failed Tron movie sequel, and that the game's success is what spurred Tron: Legacy to finally get made. This game is far superior in story, setting, and in capturing and expanding on the "retro futuresque" feel of the original movie than the actual sequel was. In that sense, it would have been better if they made this story into the sequel. That said, I personally prefer it as a game where I can immerse myself and live it rather than just watch.
This game is the desert without the meal. It gives a good experience with the scripted missions, and a terrible experience with the rest. While unfinished, the scripted missions are pretty darn good, and the dice-based "ground" combat is surprisingly engaging and even innovative, but once you run out of scripted stuff the universe is desolate and empty. You feel like you've had a tasty desert, but without having had any sort of meal you are left hungry and even though it's still in development I'm not of the opinion that this will change. You see, a good game in this genre generally implements the generated missions, trading system... all all the re-playable parts first as its meat-and-potatoes and then bolts on the voice-acted scripted missions as the desert. That's because the re-playable stuff is way easier to develop, not requiring voice acting. So it's possible that once the scripted missions are complete that the developer will go back and add more meat-and-potatoes game play, but as it stands now, I hope rather than believe this will happen. Recommendation: avoid for now, go get games in the X series,
Dungeon Siege and friends were...are still great games. The poor rating on this review has less to do with the original games and more, unfortunately, with GOG's distribution. Legends of Aranna is missing, which eliminates the ability to use a lot of the better mods and maps. But worse is the complete disabling of multiplayer. No one who played the original game could forget getting LAN parties together for this. My kids and I used to play until all hours of the night. Badly done, GOG.
An interesting premise, rewinding time to be able to better decide consequences. It has a lot of potential in a Groundhog-Day-esque way. The problem is, the dialog is written to artificially make every decision intentionally vague, and made worse by the terribly contrived angsty teenager trope they drop everyone into. Which means for every decision you rewind and repick you have to put up with the badly written angsty lines twice. The game has a nice "skip dialog" feature which is turned off for any dialog the game thinks you haven't heard before. Believe me, you'll be hitting the skip dialog key furiously (and futilely) many times if you make it through to the end of the game. It's not all bad - I'm on episode two right now, so I made it all the way through one episode. I agree with other reviewers who call it more of a choose-your-own-adventure style playable story than a game. That's not necessarily bad, I like a good light interactive story, but I have to take it in small chunks. By the end of a gaming session I'm ready to quit and anxiously waiting for a save-game point.
This game is a masterpiece, a symphony of different moving parts that all coalesce into a stellar work of art. The visuals, music, and theme all work together to create a story that is simple, moving, and which (unless you are a cynical gamer) extremely immersing. The puzzles are well integrated and do not jar you out of the game world. The game is linear, but this does not detract. It feels expansive, it just does a good job of making you feel like you want to go the places you should - there is no feeling of being led by the nose. The game designers did a fantastic job of working into the game places where it begins to take control of the camera so that when you have "cutscene" like sections to show off game visuals or to give a sense of majesty, you really do get that sense and there is no actual cut in the cutscene, it's just camera work and music. I suspect that people who enjoy reading a lot will get more out of this game. Not that there is any reading. There isn't. But it does have a bit of where you get out of it what you bring to it, and if you have an imagination that likes to build the worlds you read about, the game will reward your willing suspension of disbelief with a very rewarding play experience. This game really is a work of art.
