Enter the Matrix

The Good
By far the best thing about Enter the Matrix is simply its connection to the Matrix movies. Personally, I am a huge fan of the Matrix trilogy. I love its unique philosophy, its incredible action scenes, and the modern Gothic style. That being said, I went into this game knowing that no matter how bad it might have been, I would have loved it. Fortunately, Enter the Matrix has plenty of great things about it that would have made me like the game regardless of its connection to the movies.

As you have probably already heard, the story in Enter the Matrix runs parallel to that of the second Matrix movie, the Matrix Reloaded. What surprised me is that the Wachowski brothers actually filmed over an hour of extra film footage to be used exclusively in the game. Combined with the in-game cutscenes, this footage provides you with information you didn't get in the movie. Most of the information isn't really important, its just interesting to see the backstory of how things happened in the movie.

Even though the game has such a huge connection to the movie, I think a lot of fans were disappointed to not be able to play as the movie's main characters like Neo or Trinity. Instead, you will play through the game as Captain Niobe of the Logos and her right-hand-man Ghost. I will admit that at first I was a bit weary about playing as these two, but now I realize that it was the best path to choose. If you played as the movie's main characters, all you would be able to do is play through the movie, which is sort of pointless. Not only do you get to learn more about these two minor characters, but you are provided with a whole new experience, and it really works out for the best.

Besides its connection to the movie, Enter the Matrix actually has quite a bit to offer in regards to gameplay. Hand-to-hand combat is fairly simple, consisting of simple punch-kick combos. There is also a wide selection of weapons to choose from in each level, with things like simple handguns, automatic rifles, grenades, and even a nifty little biochemical weapon that fills up the human lungs with water upon explosion. Even with all the weapons to choose from, I nonetheless often found myself resorting to hand-to-hand combat. I'm not sure if it is more effective than weapons, or if its just more fun, but there aren't too many games that I've played where I decide to charge a fully armed SWAT unit with nothing more than my bare fists.

I should explain though, that charging a fully armed SWAT unit empty-handed isn't as crazy as it sounds, at least not in Enter the Matrix. This is because you have the option of using the "Focus" command. By doing this, everything slows down to a crawl and your character can execute special moves. Special moves like dodging bullets (which comes in handy with the SWAT thing), running on walls, and jumping long distances. Focus also helps when you're using a weapon, because not only do you aim much better, you can also do things like shoot while diving and cartwheeling.

Along with the regular run and gun missions, Enter the Matrix makes a few valiant efforts at varying the gameplay. In the world of the Matrix, Niobe is one of the best drivers around, while Ghost is one of the best gunmen. Put these two forces together, and you've got yourself one dangerous pair. And to make use out of these two characters' talents, Enter the Matrix threw in a couple of driving levels. As Niobe, you'll be in charge of driving, and as Ghost, you'll be in charge of hanging halfway out the car window and shooting anything in your sights. While I never actually had as much fun during these parts as I did in the regular levels, it was still nice to have a little variation.

Speaking of variation, I have to throw something else in even though it isn't much different than the rest of the game, because I had so much fun with it. There is an entire level in Enter the Matrix where the majority of the enemies you fight are vampires and werewolves. These guys are really a lot of fun because you really get to exert the full potential of the hand-to-hand combat system. And to top things off, once you do enough damage to a vampire or werewolf, your character will execute a special move where you stick a wooden stake into its heart. My favorite? The one where Ghost jumps up and shoves the stake into the enemy's heart, takes a step back, and kicks the stake in even further. Now how could you not like that?

Another thing that deserves at least a little praise is the fact that your health recharges automatically. Some people might think this is cheap, but I loved it. If you stay out of danger for a few seconds, i.e. don't get shot or punched or anything, your health will start to automatically recover. This way, you don't have to go frantically searching for a health pack only to get killed seconds before reaching one and then have to start the level over. I don't know how you might take this, but it really takes away from some of the frustration that I have experienced in games before.

The music in Enter the Matrix is the same music you heard in the movies. It is mostly the orchestral pieces that you will hear in the game, but during some of the intense battles, some of the heavier modern stuff is thrown in, to add to the atmosphere.

Finally, Enter the Matrix presents a very unique and interesting idea with its Hacking option. Hacking is selected from the main screen, and it is here that you can view area maps, character profiles, weapon descriptions, and input cheat codes. The interesting thing about it is that it resembles very closely an old DOS computer system. In order to view an area map, you'd have to access the B drive, open the maps folder, and input the code for the map you want to view. For whatever reason, it's really fun just browsing around in the Hacking database.

The Bad
If you've read the rest of this review, you know that there is a lot to like about this game. Unfortunately, there is just as much to dislike. The main problem is glitches. Sometimes, these are actually pretty fun; for instance, watching a SWAT officer dance back and forth, like he's bouncing between two invisible walls, while you can just walk up and punch him in the face. But when a glitch costs you your life, they are not so much fun any more. And if you're anything like me, they will cost you your life A LOT.

If you've seen the Matrix movies, then you know what the matrix code looks like. All those random green symbols sliding down the computer screen, remember? Well, I hope you like to look at that a lot, because that's what you get to look at during the excruciatingly long load times. But this wouldn't be so bad if you weren't dying every five seconds due to glitches, because each time you die, you get to sit through another session of "decipher the matrix code", or as I like to call it "go make a sandwich and take a nap time." I'm exaggerating of course, but when you have to sit through so many long load times, it gets frustrating.

If I could ask the developers of Enter the Matrix one question, I think it would have to be why I have to drive in first person. But I have a feeling I already know the answer. They did it that way so you wouldn't be able to see the police cars that come out of nowhere and ram into your side, knocking you head first into a building so that they can box you in and shoot to their heart's content. A minor problem, sure, but annoying nonetheless.

I realize after having watched the first Matrix movie one hundred times and counting that the rules of physics in the Matrix can be bent, but when did guns start shooting bullets in every direction, regardless of where the gun is pointed? Do me a favor. If you ever get a chance to play this game, run up to an enemy in focus mode. If he turns around to run away, watch how the bullets come out of the gun at a ninety degree angle straight for you. Cheap? You bet!

The Bottom Line
To round it all up, Enter the Matrix is a fairly mediocre game with some unique aspects and a few problems here and there. All things considered, Enter the Matrix really is a fun game. If you're a fan of the Matrix movies, definitely pick this up. If you're looking for a fun game to waste away your time, at the very least, consider this game.

The Good
STORY When the Hovercraft Osiris discovered a large mass of machienes digging into the ground the Captain Thadeus sent a drop package containing evidence of this into the matrix shortly before they were killed. This is where you come in. The mission of the crew of the Logos is to firstly find this package, the story is then woven into the plotline that is Reloaded, filling in a few gaps here are there. Like the movie's plot it is confusing and while you understand what's happening, the reason for why it's happening does not make much sense.

GRAPHICS A very mixed bag... The characters are very well done, the LOOK like their live action counterparts and are pretty reconisable. The textures for the characters tho are another story. Ranging from pretty damn good, to very poor in quality belonging to a game 6 years ago it's a very mixed bag. The game engine is interesting. On it sits different modules for different parts of the games, like driving, fighting, flying and so on. The engine is pretty powerful when you have a good hard look at it, the animations are very well done and blend in pretty flawlessly. It's a shame that in some aspects - like when they exit via a phone they don't go all sparky and fade away. Bullet time is...well interesting. Instead of the nice clean ripples you get in the movies, you end up with weird stretched out ripples that don't look too brilliant, but the move between bullet time and so on is very well done with all animations playing well in slow-mo. Other graphical features of this engine are reflective objects - like sunglasses and apparrently bullets. Explosions and fire are far from spectacular, and smoke is usually large transparent white dots.

SOUND None of the guns sound realistic - then again it IS The Matrix and none of the guns there sounded too realistic either. The sound is pretty average, walking on steel sheeting placed across a gap sounds just like the concrete you step off onto on the other side. What was really missing was the clinks of shells, and ammo clips, and all the other small details that games like Max Payne were able to use. The music was pretty much very ambient, didn't really do much, the only rare cases was when the music was taken from the movie (the fight in the tea house level) and a bit in the FMVs - but really there was not much to it.

GAMEPLAY Ok - here we go... Two words - Console Port It plays like it would play on a console, VERY limited keys, button mashing, combos galore, horribly linear - yet - somewhat entertaining....somewhat

Most of the game consists of you following directions from Sparks - your operator or an arrow on the top of the screen - it's very hard to get lost and if you do...well....that's just luck. Fortuantly there's some viarity in all this - Ghost and Niobe have their own different tasks in some missions, and in a few cases work as teams. The game also features a beat the boss kind of mission, with Niobe being up against them more than Ghost. There also features a few driving missions and when you're riding shotgun - Niobe's driving is very scary. Combat is irritating, firstly you cannot aim freely, save being in first person mode and that's another headache all together. You auto aim onto things, and that's...a bit weird to the point of having bullets fly out of your gun at 45 degree angles from what the barrel was facing, You're also woefully inaccurate to the point where shooting at a door from point blank you're bound to miss.

Fighting is fun....and repetative. I ended up thinking "12 weeks in a MoCap studio for this" There's sadly little difference between Ghost and Niobe - which is a shame. With Ghost being more the peace loving monk of the two you'd expect a different form of martial arts from him - no while a kick or two is different, some of the more elaborate moves - like jumping through glass firing both weapons while spinning in the air is the same for both of the characters. Fortuantly some of the other major charactres - Seraph, Agents and Trinity have their own reconisable moves and styles that were from the movie. There are quite a few moves that each characters can preform - tho I don't think it's the 1200 moves per character the marketing fluff advertises. But all the cool moves are there, from disarming your foe by grabbing his gun and wacking it into his face, to running off a wall and doing a kick into the guy's face, to wall running and limited bullet doding.

The other aspect of gameplay - is hacking. This is a small..uhh game...that requires you to "hack the matrix" using a semi-dos prompt style interface. This does little to lengthen actuall gameplay. Upon finishing it you are rewarded with the ability to view images, FMV's and profiles that have text that is too big to properly fit inside their boxes. There's also a few useless options like - Vibrate.exe - which makes your controler vibrate - hardly handy when you have a PC. Other things - like Multiplayer do not work as well.

FMVs Well it seems that FMV's live - though they are rarely seen with today's games, and when they are, they're usually poorly acted, CGI sets, campy lines...but this game's FMV's are a bit different.

Firstly the claim "featureing the main cast" is a bit of a lie. The only main member from the main cast who does do extra stuff for the movie is Carrie-Ann Moss - Trinity. She appears fleetingly in a scene where you fight against her as Ghost. The other major cast members do not show up - with the teeny exception of Morpheus when he appears in the bit where he falls onto Niobe's car. All of the other cast are the secondary cast who are glimpsed in the film - but are given a slightly "larger" role. Plot holes are also answered here a bit - you work out what the plan was with the ships against the machines and why that failed and you get to see the new Oracle who raises more questions that answers. These are all professionally shot, and well acted - a pity they could not have done the in-game cut-scenes like this. There are a few scenes that were shot enterily in-game.

The Bad
Looking at all this you have to ask - what's lacking? You have a plot written by the guys who wrote the original film, you have passable graphics and sound, brilliant character details and animations and a game that is pure action....what's missing?

The answer is polish. Firstly the game was made so that EVERYONE could play it, X-box, PC, PS2 and GameCube...that's a lot of platforms for one game, the problem is - working out an engine that will happily work for all of these platforms. That's one reason The other one is - marketing, this game would have been fine if it was released a month ahead from the movie's release. they might have even worked out a few bugs. But no - a tight schedule meant the game could hardly get up to the game that it was meant to be. Some of the bugs I occured were, game crashing, sound missing or heavily distorted, large parts of the level missing, items that could not be picked up and were mission specific and other random graphical glitches. Yes it's bug ridden - and how so...

The Bottom Line
Hire it out - don't bother spending money on this - while the game is hardly a winner it is not a loser... If you're a Matrix affectionado - like me - then you will prolly enjoy this game, if not - put it back on the shelf and buy something like BloodRayne that also features bullet time - plus the fun ability to sever people with long blades.\

In short this game hit the bottom of the rabbit hole too fast, broke it's legs, and can't get up again.

The Good

'Enter the Matrix' is big on concept. The games story runs parallel to the movie 'Matrix Reloaded', following two minor characters from the movie, Niobe and Ghost. The game fills in a lot of interesting details in the Matrix saga, and sets up some characters and events that I am sure we'll see in the next film. Fans of the Matrix will surely get some enjoyment from playing through the game just for the sake of watching the cutscenes and following the plot.

The combat system allows your character to pull of some pretty cool Matrix-style moves. You can use your 'focus' powers to slow down everything around you, allowing you to see bullets as they fly though the air, and to perform some snazzy slo-mo martial arts combos. With focus activated you can jump much farther, cartwheel and flip out of the way of incoming fire, and leap about while accurately firing yoru weapon.

The graphics don't suck, but they aren't the best ever seen on an Xbox. The FMV cutscenes tend to look a bit muddy and seem to be in a bizarre aspect ratio when played on a 16:9 television. The character's facial models are excellent, and the lip syncing is some of the best I've ever seen in a game.

**The Bad**

Sadly, the whole games stinks of mediocrity. The level design is very poor, at times being simutaneously completely linear and terribly confusing. Enemy AI is very unimpressive. Guards take cover, but that's about it. Fighting armed opponents always comes down to using your disarm move to get thier weapon and then beating them up a bit to finish them off. If gunfire ever gets to heavy you can go into focus mode and dodge bullets while capping the bad guys. You will seldom find yourself in any real trouble.

The game is surprisingly easy, clearly aimed at novice gamers. Your health regenerates if you give it time, as does your focus meter. If you ever find yourself in a tight spot you can just hide behind a pillar until you are all better. Despite this, there are still health packs scattered about. This effectively destroys any sense of tension.

The controls are just absurdly mapped. The left analogue stick is used to move around, the right stick switches you to a first person view. Yup, the entire right stick is dedicated to switching POV. It makes absolutely no sense. To draw and fire weapons, you must push the black button, to holster them you use the action button. This caused countless unintentional holsterings during gameplay, as the action button is used for things like opening doors and disarming opponents as well. The left trigger activates your focus, and the right trigger locks onto a target, though this seemed to work sporadically at best.

The gameplay itself, while often enjoyable, frequently forces you to drive, shoot while riding, or take out enemies with a sniper rifle. These sequences are clearly intended to mix up the action a bit, but I just found them to be an annoying distractions. The driving bits are purely awful, and the 'shooting from the passenger side window' parts aren't much better. The final levels of the game have you simply running away (or flying away while shooting) and nothing else. These ending levels leave the distinct flavor of a rush job in ones mouth, as they aren't fun in the least. Five whole levels in which I simply run away from Agent(s) Smith? Something must be missing...

**The Bottom Line**

For fans of the movie, it's worth renting just to see the cutscenes and flesh out the plot. I can't reccomend a purchase to anyone, as it is just too short and unpolished, even with two characters to play through as. I finished it easily in two days.

While the concept of expanding a blockbuster movies universe through video games is a good one, this game simply does not do enough to make it as rewarding and compelling an experience as if could have, and should have been.