Tron Evolution

They're standards, then, but all are given their own spin, not least by the fact you can choose to play them in a suite of maps that support vehicles. Standard on-foot arenas tend to be snug yet fairly complex spaces, by current multiplayer standards, with a focus on verticality to incorporate players' gymnastic range of hand springs and jumps.

Vehicle environments, as expected, are much more roomy, allowing for zippy Road-Rash battles between Light Cycles and Light Tanks. In another smart little design twist, health and energy top-ups are built into the game's geometry itself in the form of glowing strips placed around the map.

If you're almost dead, in other words, you're probably going to have to pull off a skilful chain of wall-runs to top yourself up rather than simply grabbing the nearest pick-up.

While all multiplayer arenas are built with traversal in mind, the combat system takes centre stage; luckily, Tron Evolution's Disc-based fighting seems like fairly thoughtful stuff.

Standard Light Discs provide you with a basic melee, block and ranged attack. As you level up you'll also be able to unlock Special Discs which you can shuffle into load-outs depending on how you want to play.

Ranging from Heavy Discs, which are slow to recharge but extremely powerful (filling the sniper rifle role), to Bomb Discs, Statis Discs – which slow enemies down – and Corruption Discs that act like a combination of EMP grenade and health drain, they offer a range of different tactical options for players.

They're contextual too, so if you run while triggering a Bomb Disc, for example, you'll get a spread shot. Blocking and triggering gives you a kind of ground-pound instead.

In essence, Propaganda's offering players a very flexible class system they can opt in and out of on the fly, and it's using the iconic elements of the license to make the whole thing seem less intimidating.

At its heart, then, the Disc system is yet another elegant way of making a casual movie-game audience feel at home - while hopefully satisfying more experienced deathmatchers at the same time.

Does it work? For the moment, at least, multiplayer seems very promising. Combat can be frantic to the point of being rather button-mashy on the tighter maps, but if you're playing with a smaller group of players the spaces become home to some surprisingly tense stand-offs.

Elsewhere, in the larger arenas, chopping someone in half with your Light Cycle trail is every bit as appealing as it should be. The no-fuss transition from running to racing is accomplished with the press of a bumper.

It will be interesting to see whether Propaganda's bright idea to offer a kind of multiplayer tasting menu strung throughout the story campaign will give Tron a foothold in the brutally Darwinian online space. With its sharp neon design, clever twists and rangy maps, it would certainly be good to see this game flourish.