Tron Identity’s Story Makes Its Own Way While Staying True To The Franchise

Tron: Identity is a visual novel that seems to build its own take on the popular franchise, without depending on cameos. The mystery revolves around the change in technology since the 80s. Programs want to expand beyond their original purpose. As Query players will need to interact with six other characters to discover who’s behind an explosion in the Repository’s vault. Depending on how much respect Query earns, information takes longer to gather.

This is a short game and one one playthrough can be completed fairly quickly. There’s branching choices so that does add some replayability. Identity’s short runtime does make starting over a less daunting task. There’s an attempt to interject “gameplay” after text heavy sections but these puzzles are simple and feel more like a distraction from the story after completing one playthrough. At the end, the story leaves a lot more questions than answers.

Tron: Identity’s strength comes from making its choices feel concrete. Even a choice that feels meaningless at first may eventually come into play. This leads to an unpredictable feeling until every possible option has been exhausted. There’s also a detailed codex for those who want to discover more about the Grid. The game doesn’t have a set place in the franchise’s timeline, however, so players don’t need prior knowledge to follow along. 

Identity offers a mystery that players will want to dig into. It may not redefine what visual novels can be, but it makes good use of its roughly hour or so length. It doesn’t try to be a completely 1-to-1 look at real life or computer programs. This allows it to do what serves the story/mood. It also means a healthy suspension of belief is required to ignore things like rain in a digital world. If you want to get into the Tron franchise or are just hungry for anything related, this is worth your time.