Button up your neon pyjamas, because Tron: Identity has a release window and a new gameplay trailer. Revealed at yesterday's Nintendo Direct, the "narrative puzzle adventure" from Thomas Was Alone and Subsurface Circular creator Mike Bithell will come out sometime in April this year, inviting you to crack open a mystery "In a new Grid, forgotten by its creator and left alone to evolve without User intervention".
We only got a 27-second taste of Tron: Identity in the trailer unveiled at the Direct, but that was enough to get at least some idea of what you're gonna be doing in the game come April. Picking between choices, mostly, and dealing with the odd puzzle that pops up (which, it seems, you'll be able to skip parts of if you're not in the mood). It's a visual novel, in other words, so it's gonna live or die based on the strength of its narrative, which is hard to judge from a half-minute trailer.
It looks pretty, though, and Bithell is talking up the myriad choices you'll get to make over the course of the narrative. "Your choices will determine the outcome you see," reads the game's description over on Steam, "with a protagonist that lets you take the reins and doesn’t corner you into one approach".
I'm not much of a Tron guy, but I'm always up for a pretty and choice-heavy visual novel, so I'll be watching this with interest. While I didn't fall head-over-heels for John Wick Hex (although we scored it 80% in our John Wick Hex review), I've been a fan of the other Bithell games I've played. I am very prepared to ruin the lives of absolutely everyone in Tron: Identity with my bizarre and ill-conceived choices.
If you are too, you can keep track of Tron: Identity in the run-up to April over on Steam. Apparently, it's also coming to a Steam Deck imitator called the "Nintendo Switch," but your guess is as good as mine as to what that even is.
