Enter the Matrix
What is the Matrix? Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes…
Tags: Enter the Matrix Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 11th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter the Matrix (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
After seeing the Matrix, most gamers would certainly agree that the film would be a perfect cantidate to be made into a videogame. The surreal action, amazing gunfights, and computer-themed storyline all seem to be a perfect fit for a game. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, most movie-themed games range from merely decent to absolutely horrendous, so even if the game were to be made, the odds are it wouldn’t live up to its potential.
This time, though, there seemed to be hope. Shiny Entertainment had been working on the title for quite some time, and the directors of the film trilogy, the Wachowski Brothers, crafted the game’s storyline themselves in such a fashion that it would mesh together with The Matrix Reloaded (The second film), and The Animatrix (The recently-released collection of animated shorts based on the movies).
The game’s storyline weaves in and out of the second movie, actually starting slightly before that film takes place, and just after the events that take place in the Final Flight of the Osiris Animatrix short. The game has players taking the roles of Niobe and Ghost, and the game expands upon their roles in the movie’s storyline, using both in-game cinema as well as a slew of live-action footage filmed specifically for the game, showing what was happening behind the scenes, and at times even helping to better explain the plot of the movie.
In a way, this acts as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the game’s storyline fills in the gaps of the movie and gives players an entirely new perspective of the world of The Matrix. On the other hand, it often seems like a requirement to have seen both movies to fully understand exactly what’s going on. And then there’s the added fact that everyone who’s been dreaming of a Matrix game has most likely been hoping to play as Neo, Morpheus and Trinity, rather than two minor characters from the second film.
Niobe and Ghost are selectable at the beginning of the game, and the real difference in playing one or the other is mainly the missions that you’ll be playing through. Often, playing as Ghost will put you in the same level as Niobe, but going through a different route or trying to accomplish a different goal. For example, in most car chase levels, Ghost plays the role of the gunman while Niobe drives.
The gameplay itself has some good and bad points. Basically, the gameplay is very much like what you’d get if you added hand-to-hand combat into a game like Max Payne (i.e. like the Max Payne kung fu mod). However, one of the problems here is that more often than not, your firepower is either woefully inadequate or low on ammo, making conservation the name of the game, and forcing a lot of the focus on the hand-to-hand.
The controls for the game’s martial arts moves are pretty innovative, though at times they can be problematic. Martial arts moves are performed with combinations of the control stick and A and B buttons. By using the control stick to point in the direction of your enemies, you can attack multiple foes at once, stringing together combos on the fly. In addition, moves often change depending on the situation and whether or not you’re using the “bullet-time” button, so what would have been an ordinary roundhouse kick in any other situation would have your character leaping off the side of a wall and spinning to kick an enemy’s head if performed next to a wall in bullet-time.
While very innovative in theory, in practice it often makes it a pain to get your character to do exactly what you want them to. It can be very frustrating if you’re running directly towards an enemy to perform a quick jump kick, only to take gunfire when your character spends an extra couple of seconds performing acrobatics because you accidentally performed the move too close to a wall. Further adding to the problem is that some moves, like the aforementioned jump kick, are usually more effectve than others, making combat far more repetitive.
To make matters worse, the level design is extremely repetitive and uninspired as well, meaning you’ll be running through repetitive levels, fighting the same enemies over and over again, more often than not with repetitive moves. Good god, the driving levels in this game aren’t even that good, but you thank the heavens for them just for the change of pace.
The game also has a unique approach to health in that if you can find a quiet spot to stay still, your health will begin to regenerate. This quickly becomes a crutch that takes much of the tact out of the gameplay, because at any time you can plow your way through any gunfight, and when you start to get low on health, make a hasty retreat and heal only to jump right back in again. What’s worse, this feature is removed during some of the game’s boss fights, meaning that players who relied too heavily on this crutch will be hopelessly lost during one of the game’s more challenging moments.
And while the original film recieved numerous Oscars for its special effects, the game is nothing to write home about, and often laughable. Just one look at Ghost shimmying up a ladder is enough to send you into a laughing fit. At the very least, the game’s soundtrack and sound effects are well-done, and fit well with the theme of the films, although like much of the rest of the game, it all gets very repetitive far too quickly.
What’s perhaps most damning about Enter The Matrix is that the cool gunfights, the bullet-time… everything good about the game that makes it worth playing, all of it was done better two years ago in Max Payne. Strange, that a game seemingly inspired by The Matrix film would be better than a game based on it.
On a final note, it should be mentioned that Enter the Matrix includes an unusual minigame of sorts that has the player “Hacking” into a text-based system vaguely remeniscent of the old DOS operating system, with the incentive of unlocking all manner of cheats and bonuses. It’s an interesting distraction, but it also serves as a reminder why people so willingly abandoned DOS when the GUI was invented.
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.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
-Great storyline ties in with the Matrix Reloaded and the Animatrix -Simple, yet intuitive controls. -Gunfights can be extremely fun |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
-Essentially every aspect of the game is horrendously repetitive. -The graphics are decent at best, hillariously bad at worst -Max Payne did this better, and that was two years ago |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| No doubt fans of the franchise already own the game by now, and most likely they're enjoying it for the added insight it provides into the movies. As a game, though, Enter the Matrix is frustrating and repetitive, and was beaten to the punch by Max Payne two years ago. | |
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Tags: Enter the Matrix
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 11th, 2003 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
