In its next Tron game, Bithell Games is doing a Groundhog Day on The Grid

Exo throws an identity disc in the key art for Tron: Catalyst. — (Image credit: Bithell Games)

Last week, Thomas Was Alone and Tron: Identity developer Bithell Games revealed Tron: Catalyst, its next entry in Disney's universe of identity discs, lightcycles, and lovely neon piping. With Catalyst, Bithell Games is trading the visual novel gameplay of Tron: Identity for a time-looping isometric action adventure, featuring a rogue program's attempt to escape her city's digital despots.

Tron: Catalyst is set in the Arq Grid—a different digital world from the Grid of the Tron movies. Introduced in Tron: Identity, the Arq Grid was created as a sanctuary for its virtual inhabitants to live without any contact with human Users. Unfortunately for Catalyst's protagonist Exo, the Arq Grid is going haywire: Glitches have the Grid caught in a time loop, and she's the only one who can tell.

After an exploding package grants Exo mysterious powers, she's hunted by the Core—the Arq Grid's despotic rulers. Luckily, her new powers let her keep her memories every time the Grid's time loop resets, allowing her to discover secrets, unlock abilities, and gain access to new areas that she carries forward in each cycle.

Along the way, Exo will be doing a lot of lightcycle chases and identity disc combat. I caught a glimpse of Tron: Catalyst's isometric combat during a preview back in September. Exo fights nimbly, transitioning between close-range swipes and long-range disc throws. Throughout the game, she'll earn upgrades that'll provide opportunities to shape her combat style, like a "Disc Kick" that lets you kick her disc after it rebounds from a throw for a quick follow-up attack.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.