izigame.me

I've played and beat this game in one full sitting (okay, a few bathroom breaks and snackies too), completing all the sidequests avaliable. So I've decided to make a detailed review which can hopefully maybe answer some questions as to if this game is worth purchasing and all. Note that this is coming from someone who overall likes the world of TRON, my only experience with it are the movies (TRON and TRON: Legacy). This review is mainly spoiler free.
TRON: Catalyst is a top-down action-adventure game where you control a program called Exo. During a delivery job as a courier, her last delivery mysteriously explodes, and she awakens as a captive of the government in control of the grid, Core, with the strange ability called the Glitch, granting her the power to loop through time with each derezz (TRON's version of death) or forceful restart she suffers from. With little to go on, she must escape their clutches and find out what exactly is happening to her, making her way through various regions of the Grid.

If there is one thing I can say about TRON, it's world-building has always been interesting and loads of fun to learn about, and Catalyst is no exception to that I would say.

There are alot of concepts and groups to digest, but the game has a codex to allow you to go back and learn each term, so you don't get too lost. Alongside that, the locales in the game are all finely crafted and fun to look at, thanks to the neon-lit artstyle of the game and world. Each new area feels distinct from each other as you progress through the game, and there's a lot of good mythos and history in this world that adds intrigue to it (the Users, Flynn the Creator, Tron the Hero etc). The devs of this game show alot of care into the world and makes me think they themselves are fans.
While I'm talking about the world and story, I'll also state that the voice acting in this game is excellent. It really helps to get immersed into each character and really helps add to each character with a voice. Conn, the main antagonist, is by far the stand-out here (what can I say about the same guy who voiced Breach from Valorant, and Malos from Xenoblade 2).

But while the world itself feels interesting, I can't really say much of the same about the story itself. It's not... bad, but nothing really stuck with me throughout the entire game.

I'll start with the centerpiece of the story: the Glitch power, and the ability to loop. In gameplay, this means that every time you die, you restart at the beginning of the level, but with the knowledge that you acquired before you died. You can also forcefully reset each loop as well by holding down a button. Catalyst's story REALLY makes use of this looping thing narrative wise, having moments in the first half that rely on Exo dying and getting looped. The whole second half of the game relies on this loop as well, as the second half of the game consists of going back through each level and changing/locking history to the needed outcome. But in gameplay, the loop mechanic is so underwhelming...
For a game that wants to show off the idea of, "fixing the past," and "changing history," this storyline feels way to railroaded and linear. Looping in the game practically doesn't add new options to progress the story, and all it does is just heal you and take you back to the beginning, a glorified restart button. All the loops in the story are MANDATORY, and looping on your own volition has no bearing on the story. It's already a bummer, but when the game straight up FORCES you to go another path to reach the same place/objective despite the fact that a previous loop gave you information or a way to get to your objective, it gets particularly frustrating...
In no way am I asked for branching paths or massively different storylines, but when the game brings attention to the whole looping thing in the story and then makes looping in game effectively worthless, it's kinda hard to ignore... (I mean, throughout the first half, I literally only chose to loop once, and that was only after the game locked me out of the main objective due to having enemies hunt me down).
Aside from looping, I never found any of the characters very interesting or intriguing. Exo as a protagonist is... okay. She's not annoying or an asshole, but I never really found myself cheering her on or heck, wanting her killed. For one, Exo lacks a real backstory or hints as to the person she was before all of this. It's hard to really feel connected to her when I don't really have a starting point as to why she is the way she is, especially when this is a story where she must push aside her own selfishness and use her powers to help and save her friends. Alongside this, it doesn't feel like she has this "realization," moment, or a "moment of change," deal, making her arc and change feel sudden. I'll also say that the antagonists never felt properly built up. It was definitely jarring for me to see that the antagonist was Conn, which I'm on board with, but it never really felt like he earned that position either until the end.
Overall, the story is... mid. It's okay, I'd say. But it fails to really stir any emotions out of me, and all I can really think is that the Glitch overall was misused in both story and gameplay, and that it's protagonist and antagonist really needed time to fit into their roles better and be properly built-up in terms of their arc.

While this is a story based game, there are other stuff I enjoyed, and other stuff I didn't enjoy so much...

Combat itself is actually pretty solid and fun. You have a three hit attack combo, a heavy attack done by holding the button, and of course, you can throw your Identity Disk (your main weapon) at enemies. There's also a parry, and later in the game you get the ability to alter your weapon's code by executing enemies, changing it's properties for a limited amount of time. Alongside this, you can upgrade your disk throw, your parry, and your execute, enhancing them in various ways. When you're fighting against hordes of foes all at once, this game can be intense and fun, and it's fun to learn and master to a degree.
The main issue however is that it gets somewhat repetitive too fast. The enemy variety for much of the game consists of the same three enemies, with harder enemies showing up in the near the latter half of the game. Not only that, but you max out your skill tree WAY TOO FAST! I explored each stage and by the time I got to the 5th level, I had already maxed out my tree... yet there was still half a game left! Combat only wears on at this point, andd while I never got to the point of hating combat, I started to see myself enjoy it less and less. Also, the Parry Damage upgrade is hilariously broken, enabling you to one shot enemies just for parrying them, even one-shotting some bosses... Add onto the Parry timing upgrade and it makes Parry into an EZ one-shot ability that trivializes the game.
Last thing I'll say... the soundtrack is pretty good. I didn't really notice it at the first half, but the second half was when they really started to go harder on it, and I can't deny, I do kinda wish I could buy the soundtrack if I could. A mix of techno/EDM music that's fitting for the TRON world, and overall I had a blast listening to it.

Overall, my thoughts...

I really wanted to enjoy TRON: Catalyst. I like TRON's world, and there's plenty of that world to enjoy, and so I can say that the people who would get the most out of this are TRON fans. But as a game, and for someone who might not be as interested into the series, this game is a hard sell... For a mainly story-focused game, the story doesn't do it for me, and as fun as combat is, the $25 asking price feels steep. In my opinion, I would get it if it goes on sale, but at the current price, I don't feel like I can recommended. Get at your own discretion.