There have been lots of games based on motion pictures in the past, and there seems to be an industry subset devoted exclusively to pumping out ordinary action games based loosely on books, TV programs, motion pictures, and cartoons. Enter the Matrix attempts to take the idea to the next level by delivering a new storyline that runs simultaneous to the movie it’s based on, The Matrix Reloaded, completing a few of the back story that the movie does not have time to deliver.
While there are a couple of circumstances in the game where that is indeed the case, the game’s story isn’t really strong enough to base on its own, and the gameplay simply does not 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.
The game shows that assumption right, as you’ll select up the story just after the conclusion of one of the short stories that make up The Animatrix and make your way from objective to objective until you reach the video game’s conclusion, which takes place around the same time as the end of the movie. Even the video game’s FMV ending is little bit more than a “Whew, that was close” sequence with a trailer for the film thrown in for good measure. There is a smattering of FMV made use of throughout the video game, but many of the noninteractive series are rendered with the game’s engine.
Enter the Matrix’s engine delivers a pretty standard third-person action video game. You’re able to fire weapons and participate in hand-to-hand battle versus a collection of enemies. A lot of the battling puts you up against security personnel, police officers, and SWAT forces, however you’ll also deal with the Matrix’s own brand of vampires, as well as a number of well-placed run-ins with dangerous agents. The game is objective-driven. It opens with your character in a post office, attempting to get to a specific PO box to recover some info. As you make your method through the game, you’ll chase after aircrafts in an SUV, rescue caught rebels, browse a sewer system, destroy a nuclear power plant, and fight off a guard attack from on board your ship, the Logos. None of the goals are expanded horribly well, and it’s tough to truly get a feel for exactly what, precisely, your group is doing and how, precisely, it ties into the plot of the movie. Areas also stop and begin very, extremely abruptly, as the video game pauses to load up brand-new sequences or give you the opportunity to save quite often.
The Matrix might have been credited with bringing the slow-motion “bullet time” result to the big screen, however video games like Max Payne have actually currently brought the result– which slows time down to offer you cleaner shots and more control of your character– to video games. The AI in the video game is also a bit of a mess, so you can expect to see things like enemy police officers running into a wall and remaining there, opponents clipping through walls and doors instead of running around to get to you, and so on. The game is hardly ever tough, and like in Activision’s recent movie video game, X2: Wolverine’s Revenge, you can simply stand still for a minute or so and restore all your health, which takes away almost all the tension.
Enter the Matrix’s a lot of grievous defect is that it draws from a highly stylized universe but fails to profit from any of those strengths. Despite the fact that your characters will occasionally make some very bold escapes, you never really get to do those things yourself. The video game lets you run right up to the ledge, as an example, however an in-engine cutscene always starts just as you’re about to jump off. Likewise, some of the results just look hokey. The video game’s below average animation prevents a lot of your balancings from looking specifically excellent, and little touches, like the way the agents become a blur when they transfer to dodge bullets in the film, are absolutely missing right here– which is particularly silly, since it makes the agents appear like they’re attempting to dance whenever shots are fired in their direction. Even the video game’s final series, which has you either piloting or covering the Logos as it runs from a lots of sentinels, seems ill-conceived. Maybe it’s fitting that a game with so much full-motion video has an end sequence that plays like it was taken directly from a Sega CD video game– namely, Sewer Shark.
Speaking of full-motion video, one of the huge draws for The Matrix Reloaded fans is the truth that Enter the Matrix showcases new sequences shot specifically for the video game, making use of the same actors and places found in the motion picture. Aside from a brief series showcasing Carrie-Anne Moss, a sequence showcasing the Oracle, and a very brief look from Hugo Weaving, the only time you’ll see the motion picture’s primary characters is when the video game is merely replaying scenes from the film. By and large, the FMV will certainly be uninteresting to anybody other than die-hard The Matrix fans, and it does not do anything to include depth to the video game’s razor-thin plot series.
Enter the Matrix is a video game that, done right, might have been something unique. The video game serves as little more than an advertisement for the film– it does not have a story that stands on its own, and the gameplay doesn’t really provide anything that we have not seen in better games.