The detective noir Tron game from the Thomas Was Alone creator has a new trailer and releases next month

Tron: Identity, the upcoming Tron-iverse visual novel from Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, has a new gameplay trailer and a release date. You'll be donning your electric nightwear, mounting a lightcycle, and making all sorts of really bad computer decisions when the game releases on April 11.

The game takes place in a Grid that's been "forgotten by its creator and left alone to evolve without User intervention," an equilibrium that's disrupted when someone commits an "unprecedented" (and unspecified) crime. It all sounds very noir: You play a detective named Query, piecing together what happened on your quest for the truth.

What we've seen of Tron: Identity has heavily emphasised the number of choices you'll get to make and the terrible, terrible consequences you'll get to experience as a result. There's lots of dialogue and pretty artwork and a sprinkling of puzzles, but it really seems like the thing the game will be defined by is the quality of its narrative and how it reacts to your decisions.

It looks like a pretence-free visual novel, in other words, which I imagine will immediately grab some people's interest while sending others running for the hills. As for me? I'm up for it. If Tron: Identity will let me live out my Philip Marlowe detective fantasies and ride a cyber-cycle while I do it, then colour me intrigued.

It seems like Disney is on a bit of a push to bring Tron back from the dead at the moment. It's been over a decade since the release of Tron: Legacy, but now we've got this game on the way and a Jared Leto-helmed new Tron film to… look forward to? Dread? Let's go with 'await with strong reservations'. Regardless, someone over at the House of Mouse seems keen to make Tron happen again.

If you also want to make Tron happen again, you can keep an eye on the game over on the Tron: Identity Steam page.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.