Enter the Matrix

aka: Heike Diguo
Moby ID: 9211
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

In the war to save Zion, what part will you play? Enter The Matrix casts the player as Niobe or Ghost, captain and first mate of the rebel ship Logos, respectively. Niobe is a master combatant, capable of beating up everyone in her way. She is an excellent pilot, both in the real world and in the Matrix. Ghost is very adept at firearms, and his marksmanship is a mastery. Both characters are very athletic, and throughout the game the player will have to walk, run, jump, strafe, peek, run on walls, climb ladders and pipes, and fight various enemies.

Available weapons include a security pistol, an automatic pistol, a submachine gun, a machine gun, a shotgun, and grenades. Besides weapons, a variety of hand-to-hand moves are available, from punches, throws, and grabs to kicks and chokes. Throughout the game, the player will be called upon to utilize Focus moves, which is basically bullet time from the films. When Focused, time slows to a crawl, allowing the player to zoom around enemies, dodge bullets, and jump to avoid oncoming obstacles.

The game was written and directed by the Wachowskis, and its plot is intertwined with that of the second movie, The Matrix Reloaded.

Spellings

  • 黑客帝国 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

535 People (444 developers, 91 thanks) · View all

Written by
Directed by
Lead Designer
Produced by
Producer
Executive Produced by
Executive Producer
Lead Programmer
Animation Director
Lead Level Programmer
Director of Photography
Production Designer
Art Director
Supervising Editor
Film Editor
Co-Editor
Senior Visual Effects Supervisor
Visual Effects Supervisors
Music by
Sound Design by
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 63% (based on 68 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.8 out of 5 (based on 109 ratings with 9 reviews)

The game is awesome!

The Good
I liked how the game is so real,(like the glass breaking and books falling from being shot) and how much movie footage is in there. I also liked hacking and the fighting in the game.

The Bad
I didn't like how the game had so many short stages and it is hard to drive the car.

The Bottom Line
Enter the Matrix is a great game if you like the Matrix storyline. This game is not just based on the new movie, but is a story on its own.

GameCube · by robnic (3) · 2003

An interesting concept for a game - that's very poorly executed.

The Good
First off, lemme get this out of the bag first - I'm a HUGE Matrix fan. I love all 3 movies, and The AniMatrix. I think the movie/anime concept of the Matrix universe is one of the most compelling we've seen since Star Wars and Blade Runner.

That being said, "Enter the Matrix" (ETM) could have been a thousand times better if it hadn't been for the time constrains placed on Shiny Entertainment. I figure if it were given an extra 3 months to work out the bugs and improve the game's engine, it would have done much better.

But I digress. There are some good points to the game.

First off - the concept. Shiny had a huge amount of support from the producers of "The Matrix" and had access to virtually every piece of audio, visual, and the actors. The fact that you play from the end of "Final Flight of the Osiris" (from "The AniMatrix"), through the events of "The Matrix Reloaded" is cool. Video footage was shot specifically for the game, including the majority of the actors from the movie. And since the game runs parallel to the movie, it's part of the canon and continuity of the films. Plus, you don't get the Whole Story of what happens unless you play through the game and watch all the FMV cutscenes. I've noticed that Hollywood is taking a much more active role in co-operating with Game designers/producers in making sure what you see on your computer is as good as what you see on the big screen, and ETM is sorta on the right track with the blending of Hollywood and the PC entertainment industry.

The Graphics - if you have a PC fast enough (more on that later), are top-notch. Again, Shiny used photos and digital sources from the movie itself (first-generation Sound and Visual FX, along with high quality photos of props, sets, etc.) So the graphics quality (production-wise) is astounding. The use of Motion Capture is extensive. The Wachowski Brothers insisted that each actor wear the mo-cap suit. Normally one actor will perform all the mo-cap for ALL the characters in a game, mostly to save time and money. The difference is that The Brothers wanted to make sure that when you see a character walk on the Big Screen, that same character walks the same way in the game. Talk about a stickler for details.

The Sound/Music is top-notch as well. Don Davis' score is used extensively in the game, along with the familiar sound effects from the movies.

And one other part of the game that is really neat is the "Hacking" mode. Basically to unlock levels, cheat codes, messages from the characters, models, and other fun things are done by hacking a save file (within the game, of course). It's a fairly intuitive system, but it looks like it was designed for a console system, and not the PC game. You move around using pseudo-DOS commands, and you can gain access to a lot of behind-the-scenes, and background info. The one quirk I don't like is the fact that it DOESN'T quite operate the same was as DOS does. So it's a bit difficult if you grew up typing directory names, and it doesn't quite work the same way in the game itself.

The Bad
Wow. Where to start.

I think the failure of ETM cannot be blamed on any one department, person or entity. There are many factors that busted this game, but I'll list a few of the main ones. One of the MAJOR factors, I believe, is the fact that the game HAD to launch on the day of "The Matrix Reloaded" film debut. Time constraints are never good for programmers (for comparison, look at Blizzard for excellent examples of the "It'll release when it's done" motto), especially when trying to program a game that is trying very hard to break the "Movie-tie in: curse.

Gameplay - The game doesn't play very well on a PC. I believe it was designed for consoles, and perhaps it should have stayed that way. Frame rates were atrocious (even with all the graphics options turned down or OFF), glitches in the camera abound (especially when hand-to-hand fighting), basic button mashing (fighting - although it looks cool - is a joke), and the first-person shooting mode (due to the frame rate) is near impossible to play.

Control - It's not there. I've played a few Third person shooters, and the majority of them are very easy to play. ETM isn't. The controls swtich between over-the-shoulder third-person (i.e. Tomb Raider, MDK2), and side-scrolling style (i.e. Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat views). A neat transition, but nearly impossible to controll you character. And if you are fighting more that one enemy at a time, the game might not do what you want it to.

Graphics - the downside. This game is a system hog. I'm running the bare minimum to play game, and it's virutally unplayable. Clipping issues, control issues, pop-up (during chase scenes), and collision detection are the major issues in the game.

And there is a nasty bug (at least while I was playing), while playing Ghost - I finally made it through Concourse 2 (after defeating the helicopter). I go to exit the game, and it dumps me to Windows. EVERY DAMN TIME. I haven't even got through that level, and if the bug continues to exist (the game is "fully patched" on the DVD release), I'm gonna give up.

The Bottom Line
Now I've heard that the game plays very well on the console side of the gaming world, and perhaps it does. If that's the case, I might have enjoyed the game much more. I believe that the fact that Shiny pushed this game out on Mulitple platform all at the same time (with the same release date) really hindered their efforts. Perhaps they should have worked on one version of the game (a la GTA3), and after working the bugs out of ONE version of the game, they could port the game over to multiple platforms.

ETM tried to be a ground-breaking game. I think that between Shiny Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures, the PC industry is taking the right steps to making movie video game the best that the can be. It's been done right (take a look at "The Lord of the Rings" games by EA), but unfortunately, ETM wasn't done right at all - at least for the PC.

If you have a very (I'm talking at LEAST a 3.0gz) high-end system, you might be able to enjoy ETM the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Those of you with low-end systems should pass on ETM until you upgrade. And even then, I'd play it ONLY to get the story behind the game, not the game itself.

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2004

Before you buy/rent this game, I advise you to read this.

The Good
I find it extremely hard to believe this game, Enter The Matrix, is actually based on The Matrix, which is one of my (if not the one... No pun intended) favorite movies. Don't get me wrong, though. The game gives you a surge of fun as you begin. You'll think, "Hey! I'm finally playing a Matrix game! Look, I can slow down everything and run along walls! BAM BAM! HOP SOCKY! Karate Chop!" However, after you complete the first few levels of endlessy knocking out security guards and snatching items, you'll get tired of it. There was also one hour (or more) of actual footage shot just for this game. This is great and all, but it can't make up for the gameplay, especially since it has nothing to do with the movie except for the useless highway chase. The only fun aspect of this game was fighting all the Smith's, which got old itself later anyway. The only good thing about the game as a whole is that it can turn off.

The Bad
Oh, the bad.... This game is so bad, I even had to add some bad into the GOOD section! First, there are two characters - Ghost and Niobe - that only make a 5-minute appearance in "The Matrix: Reloaded". This... is terrible. I wanted to play as Neo! Or at LEAST Trinity!! Not some loser who doesn't have anything to do with the storyline! But alas, this is one thing. Another is the levels and level design. The levels are mainly the same: You run through a hall, shoot some guards, run, punch some guards, run, shoot, run, punch, run, punch, run, and shoot. On the driving levels, which are even more horrible than the running levels, you drive a car around rough terrain with sloppy controls. The game only senses you press the analog stick to the right when it feels like it. Another thing is the graphics. The visuals aren't as pretty as they look in the commercials, if they even DO look pretty in the commercials. They are blocky and slow, and often make your eyes hurt. You also get stuck in walls and the game freezes at critical moments! I could go on and on, but I'm hoping you get the picture.

The Bottom Line
This game is a rushed, ugly, and run-of-the-mill disgrace to the Matrix universe. Even if you're a "die-hard" fan, avoid it at ALL costs.

PlayStation 2 · by Rufus Shinra (21) · 2003

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Advertising

At the end of the game there is a trailer for The Matrix Revolutions.

Extra footage

The game features two hours of footage not seen in any of the movies. It was shot especially for the game by the Wachowski Brothers and features the supporting cast from The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Carrie-Ann Moss also makes a brief appearance as Trinity although Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Laurence Fishburne (Morpheous) are both absent.

The footage was later included in The Ultimate Matrix Collection on the The Matrix Reloaded Revisited DVD.

Sales

On August 31, 2003 Enter the Matrix (PS2) won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Script

The Wachowski brothers were so passionate about creating a genuine The Matrix atmosphere that they wrote a 244 page script just for the game.

The Matrix Reloaded

The game was released on the same day as the movie The Matrix Reloaded. Throughout this film, there are numerous billboards to be seen. These billboards contain cheat codes for the game.

Warner Bros. license system

The poor reviews for Enter the Matrix inspired Warner Bros. to create a system where games with WB licenses that received less than a 70% rating on average out of all game reviews would require extra royalties. This was created in an effort to minimize bad movie-licensed games from Warner Bros. products.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #5 Worst Game of the Year 2003
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Worst Use of a License of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – Biggest Disappointment of the Year (PC)
  • Golden Joystick Awards
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2005 - #7 Biggest Disappointment
    • Issue 02/2006 - #4 Hype Disappointment
  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD)
    • August 31, 2003 - Gold Award

Information also contributed by Daniel Albu, JPaterson, Macintrash, Maw, Solid Flamingo, Xoleras, and Zack Green.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

PlayStation 2, Windows, GameCube added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, PCGamer77, Unicorn Lynx, DreinIX, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, piltdown_man.

Game added May 16, 2003. Last modified March 8, 2024.