It’s been four years and
my prayers have been answered. The Wachowski Brothers have spawned a
successful movie franchise that will reach the climactic $200
million mark by the end next week and perhaps with a long shelf
life, $300 million. The thing that feels different this time around
is that the movie had three or four times the budget for marketing
such a franchise. There was no game the first time around, and the
work put into these two sequels is arguably the most beautifully
executed studio decisions of our time (although some will argue the
production of the Lord of the Rings was more epic, but think about
it, the books have been out for years now; the Matrix however, is
just unraveling).
After hacking the system,
beating the game with both characters and watching live-action cut
scenes that were filmed in addition to the Matrix sequels; I can say
that I have become obsessed with this game. Ever since May 15th,
(A.K.A.- Matrix Day) the pre-order that become my life was finally
in my hands. This all came of course, after I called in sick to
school. My mom told the attendance office that I had a stomach
virus; what they didn’t know is that I had a touch of Matrixitis.
After playing the game for about an hour, it was time to see the
movie. And although I had a feeling of slight disappointment from
the movie the first time around, I saw it a second time almost a
week later; this time with experience and know-how from the game,
Enter The Matrix. The additional story information only helped
enhance the story and dragged me deeper into the rabbit hole. I can
now confidently say that the Matrix: Reloaded lived up to its hype.
The game certainly helped in the story aspect of the adventure, but
is this simply a licensed game that has went the way of Home
Improvement, Home Alone, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Terminator?
At first approach, I was
drawn into its authentic Matrix-like look and feel to its menu
interface. We see an “Enter The Matrix” on the title screen and when
selecting either Ghost or Niobe, it is like you are actually
jacking-into the matrix world. For starters, I thought long and hard
on whom I should play the game first with. I decided to play one
level at a time with both characters on two different gaming saves.
This way I can see both unique sides of the Matrix side story. At
this rate, it took me longer to beat the game, but it allowed me to
notice the striking similarities and differences between versions.
Some either think one of
two things. Some believe that both characters play the same exact
game; nothing different to find, and in their minds, there is not
any other reason to play the game with both characters. Others think
that both characters have a totally different game to follow. Both
sides are wrong and right; there is a middle road between both
beliefs. Both Ghost and Niobe may share cut-scenes either
graphically or live-action. But at times, they may have their own
signature film scenes (i.e. Ghost’s sparring FMV with Trinity).
Either way, this game is a lot of fun!
The button lay-out on the
Xbox version of the game is arguably the worst for this game based
on other system layouts. I honestly had no problem picking it right
up when it came to playing it. The guy at the store complained so
much as to ask me “Do you use Controller S?” I then replied “yep”,
and then he said: “You poor soul, the black button is to shoot”.
What a loser, first off, he called me a poor soul, second of all, it
wasn’t tough to shoot at all; why make a point about something that
is really no big deal at all? Well, that’s in my opinion of course.
Let’s start off by
talking about the fighting elements in the game. Was it fun to pull
of kung-fu maneuvers? You betcha! By holding the “Focus” button
(L-Trigger), time will slow down as it does in the Matrix universe
and other games such as Max Payne and Dead To Rights. When you use
Focus, you can pull off new and more complex tricks that will only
leave you drooling on the floor and saying “Woah”. Hand-To-Hand
combat is impressive to put it quite simply when in focus mode. Not
only can you do a 4 or 5 part move, but also you can actually take
time and relish in the moment when kicking that SWAT team member’s
a$$. Of course you always have the option to sneak up to a guy and
crack his neck in a jiffy, but that’s no fun.
Focus mode also allows
you to dodge bullets when running, jumping, shooting and climbing
throughout the game. When holding focus and running towards a wall,
you character will start running on it! Defying gravity is what
makes this game fun. You can run on walls, do cartwheels off of
them, and pull of weaponry fire moves while doing acrobatics at the
same time. This all adds to the fun. By far, this is what makes the
game a blast to play.
Cut-Scenes are not what
you would call “junked scenes” from the Matrix: Reloaded, there is
close to an hour to footage that explains the movie better, but
sometimes it just goes off on tangents that allow to tell the side
story of Ghost and Niobe. There is one big spoiler that I picked up
while watching this footage that reveals a character coming in
Revolutions that was not presented in Reloaded. The footage gives us
story about the story, but sometimes the clips are just about Ghost
and Niobe and have no link to the film plot. But for the most part,
the clips found here are just what a Matrix fan like myself wanted
to see in this game.
Woo Ping, fight
choreographer for the Matrix trilogy actually designed fighting
moves that transmit to the gaming arena quite well I must say. The
fighting looks as good as the movie in a graphical form and it is
probably the most fun I have had fighting someone before in a game.
It’s really breathtaking to watch this game unfold with the movie.
You can see where this game had a few weaknesses, but to me, its
strong points overshadowed its soft spots for the most part.
The hacking system is
probably something that none of us have seen in a videogame unless
you count Zork (had to mention that game to old-school CommandPrompt
gamers). This is based on DOS Prompt language in which you enter
commands to unlock access to certain drives built into this game. It
is really something to take over in the game. This is one of the big
things that stand out in this game to make it more than just a
licensed title (amongst 1 hour of FMV’s, fight choreography,
authentic musical score, and intricate story that actually connects
with the film). You can unlock the Construct; to those of you who
have not seen the movie, this is the training program where you can
spar, gun train etc. You can also unlock a feature that allows you
to watch all of the FMV’s that you’ve unlocked during the course of
the game. A very cool feature indeed.
But with all of this
positive talk of the game, there has to be a few bald spots here and
there right? Well, let’s just see how Enter The Matrix stacks up.
This game was for the
most part, clean and clear. Every now and then you can’t help but
notice the animations of an un-armed Ghost or Niobe when they are
running, climbing on ladders or worse, and a chain-linked fence. The
animation in that department was sub par. I have to say that I was
shocked to see this because they did so much work on movement’s etc.
that you would think that natural running/climbing would have been
on top of the list to render realistically. Naturally though,
slowing down of time only allows you to bask in the please of
watching bullets past you along with realistic explosions/ fighting
movements.
This game received a lot
of flack about its control layout for all systems. I have come here
to tell you that I had no real problems with the control system for
the Xbox, but I can see how some can find it tricky to use. I
suppose that the standard Xbox controller may work better than
Controller S because of the positioning of buttons, but I learned
just fine without a couple of minutes. No real problems here!
As it was said before,
the cut-scenes really add to the depth and style of this game. It
has a ridiculous budget (rumored at $30 million dollars, which
easily makes it the most expensive videogame of all time) and it
brings you some one of the coolest action fighting engines ever
created. The driving missions could have been more exciting. I
either found them annoying to play, or boring. Also, flying the
Logo’s for the last three missions was a great idea, but it
shouldn’t have been tacked on at the end of the game the way it was.
They should have weaved it in and out of the game a bit. But all in
all, the game was there.
I want you all to know
that this is a solid rating. It deserves it because of the content.
This is not an opinion of a Matrix fanboy. I have seen ratings of
this game on videogame sites from a range of 60% all the way up to
98%. It just goes to show you that some people loved it, and some
people didn’t care for it too much. A few things cannot be ignored;
the environments were not as fully deep as some gamers would like,
although Shiney offered a cool homage to the lobby shoot-out scene
in the first movie when you have the ability to shoot the marble
work out of columns when playing the Post Office board. Book shelves
can be kicks empty, objects are allowed to be knocked off, smashed,
you name it. Hey, you can even use the Powerade machine in both the
Post Office and Airport levels! Talk about product placement.
All in all, this game
satisfied my craving for a Matrix videogame. Although I was bummed
when I realized you couldn’t play with the main three characters of
the trilogy (Neo, Trinity and Morpheous), I still kept at it and had
fun with what was there. Keep digging throughout the game to unlock
mini-games and a multi-player fighter!
And with a cool hologram
cover, who wouldn’t want to pick this game up!
