TRON 2.0

John Gillooly realises just how much of a Disc-head he is.

There are two uses as far as we know for neon adorned stackhats. The first is to keep the aliens from stealing your thoughts and the second is to pay homage to the movie that started the CGI revolution, Disney's TRON. It has now been 21 years since TRON first screened, and now it has a sequel, the unsurprisingly named TRON 2.0.

Developed by industry stalwarts Monolith, TRON 2.0 is a blast of slightly silicon tinted fresh air blowing through the stagnant first person shooter genre. It is hyper-geeky, unconventional and completely lacking in Nazis, terrorists or banana wielding mimes, but it is one of the freshest shooters to appear in a while.

TRON has certainly dated, when it was made 21 years ago it marked the landmark mixing of live action and CGI for the first time and contributed to the creation of one of the constants of modern cinema, computer generated special effects. Since then the world has spun a few times and both the technology inside computers and the technology used for special effects have leapt forward in ways hitherto unimagined.

What better way to recreate the retro-tech world of TRON than to employ the finest tricks available to the modern 3D programmer. A game made primarily from monochrome, brown and neon primary colours does not initially sound like a contender for best looking game ever made, but Monolith's TRON 2.0 is certainly that. It is one of the most visually distinctive games we have seen and it is a high water mark in the intelligent use of programmable 3D hardware, without a pool of water or leafy tree in sight.

Set in the modern day, you play as Jet, the son of the now missing creator of the original TRON program and employee of ENCOM. A nasty bout of corruption in your system has you being digitised and sucked inside to rescue Ma3a, an AI program who is assisting you to find your father who has been kidnapped by the rival fCon corporation.

The inside of ENCOM's network is a tripped out techno wonderland of geometric shapes, translucent panels and glowing neon edges. It is populated by various pieces of software, who run around in human form and either ignore you, assist you, or attack you.

Each character is superbly rendered and easily recognizable based upon it's colour. Blue, green and gold are fine, but the red ICP (Intrusion Countermeasure Protocol) guards and the bright yellow corruption viruses need to be treated with respect, and a touch of the old ultra-violence.

For the times when you want to say it with blunt trauma there are a handful of weapons available, known as primitives. Each of these can then be enhanced through software subroutines that can be downloaded as you progress through the game. The main weapon is the humble disc, one of the stars of the original movie. The disc can be flung at enemies or used to block enemy discs. It seems simple at first but there is an art to disc combat that is very difficult to master. The second primitive is the Rod, which is primarily used to generate a light cycle during several races that you need to undergo, but can also be used as a laser like weapon. Next is the Ball primitive, which is the main weapon of the viruses and also a handy blob of explosive power in Jet's hands. Finally there is the Mesh primitive, which comes into play later in the game and allows you to suck energy from enemies.

Each primitive has two additional software subroutines to be found. Subroutines form part of the character development system employed in TRON 2.0. You can find these suckers hiding around in archive bins, and they can be downloaded and installed in memory to enhance abilities like jumping or provide offensive and defensive capabilities. One of the cool things with subroutines is that they often need to be ported or cleaned by your internal software before they can be used. It adds a nice little twist to the game.

As you progress through the computers on ENCOM's network you gain experience in the form of Build points. These can be found hidden around levels and are also given when you complete tasks important to the story. As you move through the game, your software version will slowly improve and you can distribute basic statistics whenever a new version ticks over. It is like a low level background hum of RPGness that permeates the game.

Alongside the main action there is also a reprisal of the famous Light Cycles from TRON, which feature in parts throughout the game and as a separate single and multiplayer mini game.

TRON 2.0 is the freshest first person shooter in years, and a high watermark in 3D gaming to boot. At heart there is the tried and true fight through levels, collecting stuff, jumping a bit and solving puzzles, but Monolith has packaged it in an amazing way. For an enjoyably different experience, TRON 2.0 stands unrivalled in a sea of anti-terrorist first person shooter banality.