GameCube

Enter the Matrix

I came out of Matrix: Reloaded a little bit disappointed. With all of the hype surrounding the release of the film, how could I not. However, the real downer was in just how many holes there were in the film's story. Who picked up the package? What happened at the power station? Just who the heck is this Asian fellow that keeps standing behind Jada Pinkett-Smith? The Wachowski brothers spun quite the tail with their pseudo-religious cyberpunk story of man vs. machine, but there were gaping holes that I couldn't fill. Enter the Matrix, the videogame from the Wachowski's and Shiny Entertainment, is the thread that was missing from the cinematic tapestry.

Was Enter the Matrix an Potenzial verschenkt, ist einfach nur schade. Das Spiel krankt an einer teilweise haarsträubenden Technik und einem unausgewogenen Schwierigkeitsgrad. Ebenfalls unverständlich ist der Verzicht einer Darstellung im 60-Hz-Modus und von Dolby-Pro-Logic-II-Sound. Auf der anderen Seite macht es einen Heidenspaß, im Focus-Modus die Gegner zu vertrimmen oder diese mit waghalsigen Stunts an Wänden ins Nirwana zu schicken. Schade drum.

God loves, hype kills. Marketing departments everywhere are doing such a thorough job that it seems every other day, a new entertainment property emerges that is heralded as the be-all, end-all experience ever to grace a movieplex, television screen or concert stage. Usually, the "new best thing" cannot stand up under the weight of expectation.

Whether you like it or not, The Matrix has become one of the most significant movies of the past decade. Akin to the film’s premise, its technical influence has irrevocably changed many aspects of our daily life. The most obvious example of this has been the copious use of bullet-time. Football games use rotating camera angles to capture every view possible for a developing play. Everything from beer commercials to fellow movies have imitated Trinity’s jumps, Morpheus philosophies and Neo’s fights. More importantly (to us, anyway), games like Max Payne have ushered in the physics-bending, time-altering action to further augment gameplay. Not to be outdone, Shiny Interactive and Atari have released Enter The Matrix, a game that jacks players deep into The Matrix to help the humans in their struggle against the machines.

In the End, Enter the Matrix's storyline ties to the films make it an excellent companion piece for those who are fans of the franchise, but in and of itself, Enter the Matrix is only a decent game that was beaten two years before it was released.

Another cash cow, right? The answer is right. The Matrix: Reloaded is well on its way to making three hundred million dollars at the US Box Office and it makes us wonder how an R-rated movie can do so well. Well, the answer is fanboys. They would do anything for this series. Maybe even die for it, which is something yet to be determined but we'll assume that they will do it anyways because they are morons with no life, just like the game who is writing this review. I can honestly say that this game is one of the most overhyped and one of the most disappointing games of 2003, even more so than the Getaway, which previously held the title until this little stinker came along.

There have been plenty of games based on movies in the past, and there seems to be an industry subset devoted solely to pumping out run-of-the-mill action games based loosely on books, TV shows, movies, and cartoons. Enter the Matrix attempts to take the concept to the next level by delivering a new storyline that runs concurrent to the movie it's based on, The Matrix Reloaded, filling in some of the back story that the movie doesn't have time to deliver. While there are a few instances in the game where that is indeed the case, the game's story isn't strong enough to stand on its own, and the gameplay simply doesn't save it, making the game worth a look for hard-core fans of The Matrix films, but a buggy disappointment for just about anyone else.

"Enter the Matrix" é uma corajosa empreitada para melhorar a qualidade dos jogos licenciados de filmes de Hollywood. Por um lado, ela pode ter sido um fracasso por criar um game mediano para qualquer um que não seja absolutamente fanático pela trilogia cinematográfica - mas não há dúvidas de que seu conceito de produção será muito imitado no futuro.

Go see The Matrix: Reloaded, then rent the game and use a cheat code to watch all of the extra film footage at one time. You won’t miss much if you don’t play the actual game. The prospect was eagerly anticipated. The wait was unbearably long. But the game that is the supporting crutch of the much-hyped Matrix film sequels unfortunately doesn’t live up to the achievements that were predicted for it. Enter the Matrix, instead, offers a frustrating look into the deeper meaning of rushing a game to the masses.

Quelle déception que ce jeu d'action. Il est clair que ce titre est sorti à la hâte pour profiter de la sortie de Matrix Reloaded et cela est clairement visible à tous les niveaux. Mal fini, répétitif, ennuyeux, des temps de chargement interminables, Enter The Matrix ne fait vraiment pas honneur à la série éponyme.

If the Wachowski-directed movie scenes woo you into the game or you are blatantly curious about the subplot movie, then rent it and watch it as you mindlessly play. If you are wanting this to trump Max Payne, you will be disappointed and are better off borrowing Enter the Matrix from your friend who was already duped by the hype into buying it.

Whenever someone jacks into The Matrix, it seems like they're always clad in Versace leathers and stylish sunglasses. I suppose one explanation is that appearance is a physical manifestation of the id. Either that or everyone is just tired of wearing ratty cotton sweaters.The same rules apply in the game Enter the Matrix. Underneath the glamorous surface and the ability to have some bullet time combat fun is just one ratty sweater of a game.

Conventional wisdom tells us that there's only one thing worse than video games based on movies, and that's movies based on video games. But conventional wisdom isn't always right, and I can name a bunch of really good games that happened to have movie licenses. (Uh, I'll have to get back to you on the list of good vidgame movies.) Certainly, we've come a long way since the days of the reprehensible Total Recall for the NES, and Shiny's Enter The Matrix is a new breed of movie-licensed video game. The game makers worked closely with the Matrix movie staff to take their production to a new level of authenticity and game / movie integration. Unfortunately, playing Enter The Matrix served as a painful reminder that all the authenticity in the world can't help when the game is completely unpolished and the core gameplay is weak.