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!
