Beyond Good & Evil HD proves that second chances do exist. Sure, the recent surge of game remakes is a fad, and a way for publishers to turn a cheap, quick profit. But, hey, if simply upgrading old games with high definition graphics means that a few overlooked classics like Beyond Good & Evil gain a new lease on life, then I’m all for them. With the release of HD versions on Xbox Live and, most recently, on PSN, hopefully many more will join the 2003 game’s small cult following. They’ll finally experience the action adventure title for its superb narrative and very strong characters, and wonder what could’ve possibly made them miss such a critically acclaimed work in the first place.

Trust me: give the game five minutes and its fast-pace introduction will have you hooked. You’ll wholeheartedly sympathize with Jade—the female lead, a daring photojournalist and martial artist—as you help her fight and protect her home on Hillys from the alien threat of the DomZ. With every elegant strike of her trusty Daï-jo staff, you’re helping her free orphaned children from the clutches of monsters. She rescues orphans, for crying out loud. You had better like her. Effective and dramatic, the intro successfully motivates the rest of the tale, involving Jade’s stealthy reporting to expose a conspiracy behind the Domz attacks.

Beyond your character, your partnerships with two others, Pey’j and Double H, become the main reason why the game’s so easy to adore. Jade’s rootin’ tootin’ uncle Pey’j, an anthropomorphic boar-man, adds lovably rustic, bacon-y flavor to missions complete with “Tarnation!” filled commentary. Later on, you partner with a soldier, Double H, whose by-the-book personality and initial story-related confusion sends him barreling off ledges and spewing nonsense that’ll surely put a smile on your face. You’ll grow to genuinely care about what happens to these characters, which marks an undoubtedly impressive achievement by the game as a narrative.

BG&E was among the first titles to pioneer and perfect the idea of main story characters remaining with you as constant AI-controlled companions. And it shows: working with them involves some of the game’s best, most memorable moments, as well as its most meaningful interactivity.[…]

The post above is an excerpt.
Click here for the full review and the overall rating at Strength Gamer.

Whether you own Half-Life 2, one of the Episodes, or even Portal, you’ll be happy to know that plenty of aspiring modders out there love nothing more than to support your Source game with free stuff. Join them in celebration of this wonderful engine by checking out some of the more recent mods below.

Nightmare House 2
Website: http://nh2.wecreatestuff.com
Required game: Half-Life 2: Episode 2

The talented collective that comprises We Create Stuff has consistently wowed us PC gamers with its quaint projects, including the excellent Portal: The Flash Version and its 3D map pack (the original unabridged version of Portal: Still Alive on Xbox 360). And the team’s latest first-person shooter horror fest, Nightmare House 2, definitely follows suit.

Right off the bat, the mod presents a rare bounty of value: two whole campaigns for the price of one (free, duh). The inclusion of a remake of the original Nightmare House goes above and beyond what anyone would expect from a game sans an additional cost, so props totally go to We Create Stuff for their efforts. The remake, of course, compliments the feature presentation of the sequel, and, when added together, their concise experiences (mods are typically short) easily exhibit some much-appreciated, and quite bold, competition for any so-called “full-length” retail game.

A momentary safe respite before the slaughter.

In the vein of the F.E.A.R. games and the Japanese horror films that precede them, Nightmare House 2 chronicles the journey of your player character, a man haunted by the presence of a mysterious woman. She seems to lead you to some unknown purpose—through a treacherous house in the original then the daunting, dark labyrinths of the sequel’s insane asylum—beckoning some of the most intense scares of any game yet.

Your standard fair of weapons, gunplay, and zombies only scratch the surface of the true terrors. The shooting is essentially a vehicle for the Haunted Mansion ride, but the actual journey takes you through levels and puzzles that no sane mind can endure without a healthy level of despair. At times it does fall prey to the same issues that plagued F.E.A.R., as I’d sometimes apparently look off in some direction the modders didn’t expect: I’d still hear a crushing “DUN,” yet completely miss the fleeting fright. But then I’d turn around and clutch my chest at the sudden appearance of a mass of mannequins. More often than not, furthermore, the mod perfectly manipulates room geometry in a way that knows exactly where you’ll look next. The walls close in. You look up. Then you just want the torment to end.

Of course, that’s why this mod’s more than worth any horror game fan’s time. The scare tactics actually work. Seriously, WB Games needs to hire We Create Stuff, so that the team can finally revolutionize the comparably tame F.E.A.R. series. And Nightmare House 2 trumps all but the absolute most frightening moments in Amnesia: Dark Descent, a recent retail title that many attest to be the scariest game of all time. Including a full regiment of voice acting, rather sinister tricks with an “automated” PA system, and menacingly magnificent level design, the mod undoubtedly embodies a must-play for every HL2: Episode 2 owner.

Precursor
Website: http://www.precursormod.com/
Required game: Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Taking place 304 days before Gordon Freeman’s awakening, Precursor oversees a certain M. Romanov, who paves the way for the future hero. The aptly named mod treads a lot of familiar ground in the form of an unofficial Half-Life 2 prelude, closely foreshadowing Freeman’s path from City 17 to White Forest. Perfect for those looking to relive memorable moments from HL2 to HL2: Episode 2, Precursor essentially exhibits a sort of “greatest hits fan remix” of the series thus far.

Hell yeah that’s the G-Man all right!

Every level in this first-person shooter campaign succeeds largely because the mod’s team mimicked Valve’s masterful design tricks so well. Story-specific scenarios involving radio transmissions from a guiding character called Oleg motivate you forward to aid the resistance against the Combine. Very Valve-inspired warning signs, such as monitors revealing Combine movements, effectively prepare you for challenging firefights ahead. Other environmental and contextual clues—like a charred corpse amidst electrified water—can also intuitively indicate the nature of puzzles.

It’s not exactly a cut-and-paste job, but rather it repackages some of Half-Life 2’s gameplay beats in fresh new levels and scenarios. Your path predictably cuts through the abandoned depths of zombie territory, which ends in a thrilling mounted turret defense against a single-player version of Left 4 Dead’s infected crescendos. The mod’s “prototype” variants of the formidable Combine Hunters also present a neat challenge, as they use batteries in the environment to self-repair for a redoubled offensive against you. It even has its own set of hidden creepy G-Man appearances. All such fun elements essentially cater to series fans, whereby Precursor helps make the seemingly long wait for the next Half-Life a little more bearable.

Underhell
Website: http://underhell.wecreatestuff.com/
Required game: Half-Life 2

Another mod from We Create Stuff, Underhell is the first episode in a planned series. It’s more of a prologue, if anything, for the grander story to come, telling of the fall of Hawkfield, a SWAT operative whose wife recently committed suicide. Told across three distinct, yet interwoven segments, Underhell is a curious amalgam of different gameplay types and storytelling.

An ominous vision, a siren’s song.

As Hawkfield, you’ll first wake up in your house, which functions as a highly salient main hub for exploration and access to the rest of the mod’s play. From here a series of item-based puzzles appropriately rewards you with back-story and details about your late wife. More importantly, the house best offers a much-needed place of calm, relaxing play to balance out the intensity of the mod’s two other sections. Its relative tranquility makes its occasional weird happenings all the more fascinating, which perfectly foreshadow the more blatant scares of the nightmares.

Accessible after heading to bed at nightfall, the nightmares take you through some simple movement-based puzzles with an impressive, captivating presentation. I always appreciate whenever metaphor rules over intriguing gameplay elements: you’ll depend on limited light resources to navigate the dark portions of Hawkfield’s mind and unlock more of his back-story. I took solace in the fact that I could wake up to the serenity of the house in-between nightmare levels, especially after one incredibly terrifying moment that I prefer to block from memory. My need to do this at all, though, truly speaks not only to the visceral horror, but also to the effectiveness of the mod’s nonlinear, freeform structure.

“All the reasons were mysteries, hiding in the dark.
But I was too tired to go on.”

From the house you can also kick off the first-person shooter campaign, which rounds off the experience with straight-up, balls-out action. Weapon aiming itself captures a remarkably “realistic” feel, depending on laser/iron sights instead of on-screen crosshairs, and utilizes nice, fluid movements that’re partially independent of the camera. Massive environments greatly accommodate both memorable shootouts and even a brief, yet exciting vehicle driving segment. A standout slow motion scene near the end, too, comes as a welcome surprise, as it has a proper story basis and it doesn’t overuse the effect like its Max Payne and F.E.A.R. forebears. Ostensibly Hawkfield’s main story arc, the shooting adventure continually astounds with challenging enemies and expertly-crafted levels.

Between the three segments, the full voice acting, and the noteworthy level design, Underhell stands as an unbelievable achievement of the mod community. The fact that it’s a completely free experience is just mind-boggling. It simply puts most paid DLC to shame. With that in mind, I hope We Create Stuff makes good on the promised episodes, as I can’t wait to play the rest of the series.

For instant gravitas, add some Anthony Hopkins.

Especially since it sketches the hero’s origins, the narrative takes wonderful advantage of his illustrious mythology. The film first briefly grounds us, quite literally for Thor, with the fallen god’s fumble to Earth, but then pulls back to the much grander Norse legend that truly sustains the character’s development. Anthony Hopkins’s excellent portrayal as Odin, Thor’s father and king, particularly adds a commanding and powerful presence. His wise narration and overall demeanor further augments early scenes with a larger-than-life and fantastical feel. The extensive focus on the non-Earth realms and mythos seems strange and unprecedented for a superhero flick, but as such it’s a refreshing standout element in the present heyday of comic adaptations.

From golden halls of forefathers…

If nothing more, scenes in such legendary realms offer entertaining and awe-inspiring imagery. Unbelievable golden megaliths in Thor’s Asgard home utilize stunning, colorful computer-generated effects. The icy ravages of Jotunheim become a perfect crumbling, shattering backdrop for an impressively massive battle. Within the epicenter of an onslaught of enemy Frost Giants, the dazzling, blazingly fast strikes of Mjölnir, Thor’s hammer, smite foe after foe. Brawls like this present intense, satisfying CG-fueled spectacles. Earth’s climactic action scene, though, simply seems tame by comparison, as its lone, faceless robot foe (really, its head is a glorified laser gun) presents a rather boring threat. Thankfully, the film’s few fight sequences will yet please the fan of fantasy and powerful magical action nonetheless.

The newer, down-to-Earth (again, literally) portions of Thor’s tale, meanwhile, are equally as important as the fantasy aspects. With his foolhardy attack on Jotunheim, Thor breaks an uneasy truce between his fellow Asgardians and their longtime cold-hearted enemies. Odin then must preserve the peace by regrettably banishing his foolhardy son to live as a mere mortal on Earth. Following Thor, Mjölnir, now containing all that remains of his godly powers, waits for someone “worthy” to claim it. The rest of the narrative thus oversees the humbled hero’s hard path to redemption with a character arc that captures the film’s best emotionally-charged moments.

…to bleak bushes (behind the muscles).

Scenes on Earth maintain a nice, sensible tone with humor and drama that balance the other realms’ more lofty and robust action. Thor falls to small-town New Mexico, also known as the middle of nowhere, where scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) finds him. The very stark drabness of the nondescript location visually and thematically contrasts the idyllic Asgard, which makes it a perfect location for Thor’s disgraceful downfall. And yet Thor’s life isn’t totally just a major buzz kill: the movie takes wonderful advantage of his initial culture shock and general confusion for some genuinely funny one-liners and other hilarious situations.

The mortal world’s a prime location, furthermore, for the film’s greatest, well-authored series of events: Thor’s unstoppable dash to reclaim his prized hammer. Kenneth Branagh’s direction truly shines here, as he constructs a rainy nighttime sequence that sufficiently builds tension as the hero makes his way. Thor’s skilled fisticuffs with the government agents, who’ve quickly secured Mjölnir’s crash site, in his path comprise the sole action scene that relies more on the strength of Branagh’s framing and editing than any fancy CG effects. As such, it’s definitely the most potent and awe-inspiring action scene of the few on Earth, if not the best of the whole film. And the moment when Thor finally does reach his hammer not only reflects the notable emotional breadth of Hemsworth as an actor, but also makes for an absolutely powerful climax.

The hammer marks an amazing, pivotal scene. Is Thor worthy?

Unfortunately, the cast of deeply defined characters extends to few others beside our proud protagonist. The Warrior’s Three and Sif, Thor’s merry band of fellow gods, are disappointingly one-dimensional, and merely add bits of humorous dialogue and neat tricks during battle scenes. Although they’re cool within their native realms and the film technically intends to make them appear weird on Earth, they ultimately look like laughably cheap cosplay versions of their comic book counterparts. Not having any impressive godly powers in the first place, they don’t effectively contrast, or even help, the now mortal Thor.

Even Portman’s Foster doesn’t play an altogether substantial role. Supposedly, the movie posits her, along with her affections toward the hero, as the main focus for Thor’s motivation and redemption. From her quirky warmness to her discouraged outcries, Portman exhibits a believably brainy, frustrated scientist who’s sweet on the muscled man from heaven (Gee, I wonder why?). Yet Foster just doesn’t have enough character for Portman to fully stretch her gorgeous Black Swan wings. Too few scenes feature Thor and Foster alone together to fully develop any sort of plausible romance, especially not the hero-inspiring kind.

Is it time for the kissing scene yet?

With only a few thoroughly defined characters, the plot and events concerning their actions are also easy enough to follow—and all too predictable. We know Thor will eventually redeem himself and valorously save the day. His brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the Norse god of mischief who so longingly eyes the Asgard throne, unsurprisingly turns into the manipulative, politicking villain. And perhaps the narrative’s worst offense: Odin’s sudden, unexplained illness acts as a pretty lame plot device that conveniently stops him from interfering in his sons’ conflict.

Loki steals more than the show.

The film’s extensive development of Loki as a villain does, however, fairly make up for some of the plot’s simplicity. His multiple clashing loyalties and motivations are difficult to predict, which makes him a highly captivating force of antagonism. Hiddleston portrays the neutral evil with an air of noteworthy sophistication and fluently maintains the illusions at the heart of the role. After Loki’s particularly impactful choice—a surprising, morally ambiguous action—later on, I even ended up rooting for his redemption as much as I did for Thor’s. Between his complex characterization and unexpected motives, Loki almost single-handedly saved the film for me.

As a superhero movie, Thor’s enjoyable, but just plain weird. Or, heck, it’s just “plain”: a tale of redemption that’s simple and straightforward. Without the essential conflict between Thor and Loki, the one complex weave of a character in the veritable patchwork, the film amounts to little more than action, humor, and CG effects.

Less about typical superhero elements than it is about the inherent mythology, however, Thor’s precisely worthwhile because it’s unconventional. Remember, the Thor comic in itself is an adaptation of this legend, and the film adaptation certainly captures its spirit in turn. Besides being a decent motion picture debut, it at least succeeds in piquing my interests, making me want more tales from the acclaimed comic series.

Remember when I murdered you? And you were like, “No way!” That was great…

Once again donning the orange jumpsuit of mute test subject Chell, I wake up to find that some time has passed since the destruction of GLaDOS, Portal’s rogue AI antagonist. Interrupting my thoughts of grand adventure and escape from the massive Aperture Science facility, a chatty, friendly robot named Wheatley arrives. In haste, he haphazardly drives the makeshift room of my storage container, which starts falling apart. Through my room’s new windows, I watch in awe as the dangling container knocks over tall stacks of other containers in a marvelous spectacle.

Before I even get to fire my first portal, Valve uses the visceral, graphics intensive intro to jumpstart Portal 2 with a bang. Between the physics of the container tearing apart and the setting’s sheer scale, the scene and others like it reflect the highest production values and best-looking graphical design for Valve’s Source engine to date. It also forebodes all the impressive set pieces that have practical application beyond just visual appeal: enabling long-distance portal travel for unbelievably large-scale puzzle solving. My thrilling adventure not only began unexpectedly, but also takes me on a great, wild ride.

Co-op mode recaptures the magic of the first Portal.

Because of brilliantly authored character dialogue, learning how to use the portal gun and solve puzzles feels consistently entertaining. The first few test chambers adequately train me in the absolute basics: shooting portals, different ways I can use two portals to “skip” the distance in-between, moving blocks, and pushing buttons. What makes the entire sequence special and memorable comes through the priceless tongue-in-cheek humor of the prerecorded Aperture messages and Wheatley’s expressive, clumsy attempts to guide you. I don’t even mind that some of the puzzles return straight from the original game. They teach the portal basics well enough, and the hilarious new commentary at least gives them a tone that contrasts GLaDOS’s veiled sadism.[…]

The post above is an excerpt.
Click here for the full review and the overall rating at Strength Gamer.

So if Half-Life 2 still has a prime spot on your hard drive, be sure to check out the following recent mods. Be one of the many. The proud. The Half-Life 2 owners.

Attempt to Survive
(http://www.moddb.com/mods/attempt-to-survive)

From a young Russian modder known as Aspik, Attempt to Survive follows in the footsteps of Dear Esther as an experience that’s not so much a “game” as it is a captivating, exploratory narrative. The bleak, tattered state of the world haunts the Russian narrator, yet somehow he lives on. As you, the player, guide him, the narrator’s sullen foreign words, the subtitles that translate his feelings of despair and nostalgia, and the shocking imagery of the world all combine into a well-authored journey.

The will to survive brings him, and you, to familiar places. Simple search puzzles and level navigation very effectively convey the power of memory, giving the narrator his only comfort in his lonely reality. A coffee mug. A room. A child’s toy. Finding each salient object or place offers subtle interactivity that also unveils dramatic glimpses into the man’s life.

Environments indeed grow increasingly familiar, and not just for the speaker. The vague Eastern European setting and the apocalyptic events might yet be coincidental, but certain explicit references and images later on seem to make this mod a perfect complement to the Half-Life 2 story proper. At the very least, it’s an interesting aside to the adventures of Gordon Freeman; however, the striking environments and the innovative interactive storytelling make it a truly standout mod.

Comatose
(http://www.moddb.com/mods/comatose)

Another mod from Aspik, Comatose presents itself as the first episode in a “semi-episodic” series. Much more for the worse than the better, unfortunately, it couldn’t stand further from the novel efforts of Attempt to Survive. It’s frantic. It’s wonky. And it’s downright insane.

After the odd musical intro of Moby’s “Flower,” you wake up in a pool of your own blood in an abandoned, locked apartment with no memory of what happened. The situation seems intriguing enough, except most of the mod’s puzzles barely offer any context or even a hint of how you can interact with them. On top of that, you’re also bleeding out quite rapidly, so you’re more than likely going to die a few times before you even figure out how to escape the first room.

You feel like a rat banging its head against the walls of an unfair maze. The keys you need are tiny and nondescript; they may as well lie in haystacks throughout the level. A bloody diagram provides a hint, but it’s in a place where no sane player would think to look. The amateurish design reveals a modder’s greatest weakness: the lack of a playtesting budget.

If you’re a fan of Max Payne, you might overlook all the nonsensical puzzles and appreciate its familiar, gritty noir style. In fact, much of the ambient noise, music, and use of painkillers to heal come straight from Max Payne, which actually somewhat improves the mod’s presentation. All the Payne in the world can’t, however, save it from being an arbitrarily difficult, unintuitive mess of a mod.

Dissolution
(http://www.moddb.com/mods/dissolution)

The future of humanity seems quite troubling in this ambitious mod. Earth has fallen. The only hope left for the human race lies with the remaining populations on the Moon and Mars colonies. Then there’s Xterrier, the corporation that commissioned the colonies, which threatens that hope with its questionable, obscure endeavors. Explained through the mod’s fully spoken dialogue and script, the voiceover reflects both humanity’s grim outlook and a grandiose narrative.

Although the story differs, Dissolution plays and feels very similarly to BioShock, as it shares many of the game’s great features. An apparently trustworthy man communicates via PDA and guides your character to escape Xterrier’s facilities. Discoverable audio logs emphasize the fun of exploration and allow you to intuitively piece together a rich backstory. The mod’s impressively sizeable cast of characters exhibits plenty of talented—and very British—voice work. Exploration and first-person shooting drive the gameplay experience in-between story moments, while instances of survival-horror highlight brief, yet thrilling moments.

Dissoluton would otherwise be a fantastic mod if only certain aspects of the gameplay didn’t occasionally mar the experience. Mindless Xterrier workers and citizens overwhelm you in droves, becoming cheap, unsatisfying shotgun fodder. Simple “fetch the key card” objectives become repetitious. Xterrier’s art and ad-lined walls, meanwhile, offer an eye-catching, yet altogether claustrophobic décor, without even a window to take advantage of the supposed Martian landscape. Despite its shortcomings, however, the strengths of the narrative nevertheless make this mod worthwhile through to its conclusion.

After all, if an industrialist baron can actually subjugate such cute working class dolls, including the family members of our little hero Charlie Blackmore, into hard labor then we can’t help but hate his greedy, black heart.  Leaving the ethics of controlling others aside, I’d happily help Charlie, the ultimate puzzle-solving matryoshka, to literally stack the odds against the baron and save his family.

Don’t underestimate Charlie for his small size: it apparently makes him the most powerful being in the universe. See, as long as he’s behind another doll that’s exactly one size larger, Charlie can actually stack into it to use its ability, or stack again into increasingly larger dolls. If he wasn’t an innocent child on a noble quest, he’d scare the hell out of me. And really, from the “ooh la la” hips of the widow to the wedgie-pulling boxer, all the dolls’ adorable gibberish and animations mean good, clean fun. Add the game’s classic silent film cut-scenes and the beautiful shoebox diorama visuals, and Charlie’s stacking-based narrative becomes a harmless, ingenious way to interact with characters and puzzles.[…]

This post is an excerpt from my review at Strength Gamer. Click here to read the full review.

Light cycles really emphasize the film’s style.

The Grid is a world that’s at once remarkably creative and rather peculiar. Its very existence comes down to a mishmash of logic, stemming from the quirky science and hearsay from the weird, yet still enjoyable Tron of 1982. Its programs are people who live, breathe, and feel. They have jobs. They play games. They even party at clubs. A “real” person like Flynn can write a program, call him Clu, and then go on The Grid to hang out with him. We as the audience must accept all this with little explanation—and no, watching the original Tron won’t help much—but when we do, we can appreciate the wonder of it, especially the parts that actually make sense.

Despite the initial leaps in logic, Legacy does much to develop and build upon Tron’s depiction of The Grid. Unlike Tron, Legacy steers clear of haphazardly throwing around computer jargon, and rather maintains an internal order for The Grid that’s convincingly close to real computers. Even better for deep thinkers, the film further pushes into intriguing theoretical areas. The Asimov-inspired ISOs, spontaneously generated miracle programs, foreground some genuinely innovative takes on utopia and dystopia. Its logical and theoretical endeavors also helped me to understand and appreciate the first Tron even more. And ultimately, they are what make Legacy a rare breed of sequel, one that not only surpasses its already influential and memorable predecessor but also retroactively improves it.

A gloomy contrast to the once lively arcade.

Whether in its brief time in the real world or in the main spectacle of The Grid, the film upholds a presentation that rivals Tron’s. One of my favorites, Sam’s scene in Flynn’s old arcade particularly stands out. The perfect choice of Journey’s ballad plays to a well-constructed, powerful image: abandoned game cabinets become ghosts with glowing hearts that aptly pay homage to an entire era now caked in dust. As for the The Grid, I’m slightly disappointed that its CG-enhanced visuals don’t share the original Tron’s striking aesthetic. The overall mise-en-scène of the structures and clothing does come close, however, as stark contrasts between dark areas and bright lines complement each other for an attractive futuristic style.

Making full use of the effects and audio, action sequences energize the pacing and entertain as a soon as Sam enters The Grid. Life-size versions of Flynn’s classic arcade game characters test the disoriented son in a far more intense and exhilarating spin on Tron’s disc-throwing duels. A stimulating soundtrack from Daft Punk becomes absolutely essential to the action, and scenes like the light cycle battle are just as much mesmerizing musical presentations as they are climactic high points.

More than just action sequences, the film’s success largely depends on its surprisingly ambitious narrative. After a touching reunion between the hero and his long lost father, the pair must somehow escape the clutches of Clu (also played by Bridges), Flynn’s own program gone rogue.

Jeff Bridges . . . sort of.

The nature of Clu’s antagonism gives the conflict much needed and welcome complexity, involving novel “digital frontiers” in the traditional creation story. See, after Kevin Flynn created The Grid, he made Clu to help him shape it into the perfect system. If the program committed a crime, it’s being the effectively sympathetic devil in this Paradise Lost. It’s doing exactly what “god” Flynn designed him to do. In Tron, moreover, Flynn himself said that programs and human’s aren’t all that different: “You just keep doing what it looks like you’re supposed to be doing no matter how crazy it seems.” Though the idea of the personified program may not make sense in the first place, it’s actually what helps Legacy ingeniously expand upon its Milton parallels. Clu isn’t ruled by fate, but is a very human villain whose choices deserve hate. At the same time, however, he’s an interesting quandary; he’s a program whose tragically flawed design deserves sympathy.

Further complicating the conflict, the film also slightly touches upon a fascinating juxtaposition: the offspring of the physical body versus the creations of the mind. The comparison lies at the heart of Flynn’s relationships and interactions with both Sam and Clu. Add to the mix Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a program who Flynn mentored during his 20 years on The Grid, and we have a total of three characters that strive for the old man’s favor. Very important to the thematic success of the film lies an unconscious question: since Flynn created Clu, is the program merely the user’s dark reflection or is he a sort of digital son? In the end, though, Legacy just doesn’t develop the issue enough. Because of this, the characters and the plot may be predictable, but the narrative certainly remains enjoyable and thought-provoking nonetheless.

Olivia Wilde. Woah.

At least the performances by the cast add necessary depth for the characters beyond any of their disappointing predictability. Despite the ugly, uncanny CG models used for young Flynn and Clu, Jeff Bridges’s gravitas gives the characters life and emotion. Of course the “real,” older Flynn stands out, as Bridges combines a commanding presence with a laidback, Zen attitude to really steal the show. Meanwhile, Garrett Hedlund as Sam initially boils down to a rich thrill-seeking jock, yet the heartfelt reunion scene proves the character and the actor have some emotional breadth. What little there is of Bruce Boxleitner reprising his roles as Alan Bradley is a treat, but the film’s treatment of his other role, the titular Tron, is downright laughable. Finally, Olivia Wilde’s adorable Quorra pretty much plays right into geeks’ fantasies; nevertheless, the actress still well portrays a plucky, strong, and smart female character. Whether they be CG, programs, or people, the cast provides a vital human face and heart, successfully allowing us to care about this foreign computer world.

So Tron: Legacy neither is an ultimate modern-day retelling of Paradise Lost nor does it completely fulfill an exploration of the digital thought-child. What it does evoke about these notions, however, come as surprises that I wouldn’t expect from a Disney film, least of which one named “Tron.” Combine them with exciting action scenes and a great cast and you have a truly meaningful piece of entertainment. Let it surround you with the wonders of The Grid and you’ll certainly enjoy thinking about our place on the digital frontier.