Enter The Matrix – Review

Enter The Matrix was hyped way too much for its own good. Concerning the inner workings of the hype machine, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly whose fault it is that the game fails to live up to expectations, fair or not. Maybe it was public relations, doing a bang up job in securing a million pre-orders for the game. Maybe it was advertising, liberally using fanciful conundrums like Morpheus, the spiritual leader of the Matrix films. Maybe it was Shiny, bragging about gameplay and graphical innovations that simply are not there. Maybe it was the Wachowski brothers, tapping into the curious nerve of our brains, wondering how they might make a videogame of a videogame fantasy film.

Whoever it was, Enter The Matrix is as average a game can get, with plenty of things going wrong for it, as enjoyable as it might be at times. The game follows the exploits of Niobe and Ghost, two small characters in the new film. The main draw of the game is that it fills in the blanks that The Matrix Reloaded intentionally left empty. The story is told through gameplay, in-game cutscenes and live action full-motion video. The ship Osiris left an important transmission in the Matrix itself, containing information that is vital to the human colony's survival. It's up to Niobe and Ghost to retrieve that package and use the information for the war against machines.

One of the biggest problems in third-person shooter/beat-em-up hybrid games is the melding of the two disparate genres into an experience as seamless as a John Woo flick. Games like Dead To Rights and Oni have failed where Enter The Matrix might've succeeded. However certain issues rear their ugly head, revealing a far from intuitive system. Shooting alone is hard enough with the awkward button-holding strafe system. Oddly enough, the right analog stick, usually used for strafing, is instead use entirely for the first-person look mode while strafe is assigned to a mere button. It could've very easily been the other way around, and it wouldn't be a smarter decision just because most games utilize a similar button layout. Right analog sticks have been creatively used for many games like The Mark Of Kri. Instead, its potential is wasted on an essentially useless function.

Once you decide to take it to fisticuffs, the camera, which usually obediently stays behind the player, switches to the side for a pseudo-fighting game feel. This actually works pretty well, giving a nice view of both combatants and anyone else that might be surrounding them. Once the fight is done, however, things go awry. The game eschews any player control over the targeting system (even while shooting), so once you knockdown an enemy, you're expected to wiggle the right analog stick to "unlock" yourself from the enemy. It's a definite step back from Z-targeting system The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time pioneered years ago. Both trigger buttons are occupied by the strafe and "focus" function (which triggers the now-famous "Bullet Time" mode, slowing everything down to a snail's pace), so there's no other intuitive button for a targeting system. Yet this is precisely why the controls for the game needed to be more thoughtfully planned out. For assigning the black button for firing weapons, it tells me that it was the last button that was empty, and decided to go ahead with it instead of rethinking their button layout.

This kind of apathy isn't only present in the controls however. While Shiny may have been touting the ability to motion capture the actual actors and actresses from the films as a great thing, the results are less than spectacular. All they needed were some good animators, and nobody would have to laugh at the ridiculous climbing or fighting animations. Granted, some of the animations are fluid and smooth, but they're all pre-programmed movements activated when you throw or counter somebody. The music is ripped right off the score of the films, yet even its usage is as misplaced as the animations. During moments of nothing, the score would blast really loud. And with the lazy level designs (hallways, power plants, underground sewers) and unclear goals for each one, there is often a lot of nothing going on.

The Focus feature works fairly well, and unlike other games that feature a "Bullet Time" mode, it's hardly a gimmick here. Fights become considerably easier in Focus mode, and most firefights are impossible to survive without it. However it makes some battles way too easy. All you need to do is a Focus dodge (a flip that will make you impervious to any bullet, even if it passes through your character model), flip towards the enemy and disarm him. Once you disarm, make sure to keep an eye on the enemy, for they have a tendency to respawn weapons right in their hands once they get backup.

All these negative points are here to make a point, which isn't that Enter The Matrix is a terrible game. There's just more bad than good to warrant the hype, or a purchase. There's a lot of excitement that comes with a Matrix game, especially if it comes with exclusive footage from the filmmakers themselves, or a neat cheat system which mimics hacking with DOS. However, what I'm reviewing here is the game content itself, not the extra bells and whistles, and whatever game is here isn't sufficient. What should've been a revolutionary collaboration between the games and film industry turned out to be another piece of advertisement for the film, even though it was marketed vice versa. If there's anything the Matrix films teach us, it's to free our minds and know the difference between illusion and reality, and that definitely applies to the illusion of hype. Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the Xbox version of the game.

Enter The Matrix – Second Opinion

I agree with Gene that Enter The Matrix is a disappointment, but my reasons for thinking so are a little more complicated. I didn't pay much attention to the hype surrounding the game, so in my mind it isn't a question of "does it live up to the hype" so much as "does it live up to the potential of the concept." Considering the fact that a videogame based on The Matrix is a unique opportunity to construct a "virtual world" where seeing and exploiting its artificiality is precisely the point, Shiny really blew it. Any game based on the Wachowski Brothers soon-to-be trilogy should be, obviously, the Matrix itself. When adapting a film that knows the conventions of computer and videogames so well, you'd think the designers would recognize that what they've been handed is already a finished blue-print for a great game. But no. Rather than try to adapt the aspects of the film(s) which lend themselves naturally to the pace, structure, and conventions of a videogame, they've instead focused on adapting those aspects which are inherently filmic which, to me, seems to defeat the entire purpose of making a videogame out of The Matrix at all.

So what exactly do I mean by this? Take the way Enter The Matrix is paced, for example. The game is saved practically every few minutes, so that each mission becomes an endless string of save-points that the player can go back to if he or she fails. What seems frustrating about this is that the films actually had a much more compelling save-game paradigm: phone booths. One of the reasons the films are such a pleasure for a gamer such as myself is because of their ability to leverage videogame logic for suspense. In the films the tension of having to get to a phone booth to get out of the Matrix is, essentially, the tension any gamer knows of having to get to a save-point. You'd think that a videogame based on this fictive world would simply copy this, since that would easily recreate the suspense and excitement of the films in one effortless and economical design choice not to mention take advantage of the videogaming metaphor which is the backbone of the whole franchise. However, Enter The Matrix seems to have been designed with only the vaguest awareness of this and shows a general failure to realize how its transmedia aspects could (or should) have been used to make the persistence of the Matrix universe stronger rather than weaker. This can be seen again in their use of cut-scenes. The idea of film footage shot with real actors might have been a nice way to differentiate between the real world and the world of the Matrix, but no. If the Matrix is a videogame and the real world isn't, doesn't it completely muck up the metaphor to have there be no rhyme or reason as to which portions of the game are portrayed on film and which are portrayed with computer graphics? What sense does it make for us to see events going on in the real world seen in graphics, let alone play arcade-style sequences set in the real world? Where does the "game" stop and reality begin? A game designed by people with even the slightest curiosity as to how the potent metaphors and themes of the films might play out in a virtual space could have been a fascinating piece of work, a videogame that was about videogames which might have used the excellent lead of the films to explore ideas inherent to digital media. Unfortunately, there is nothing even remotely this interesting going on in Enter The Matrix.

So Enter The Matrix obviously isn't the game I would have made with the Matrix license. That much is clear. At this point I suppose I should ask myself if this is even fair criticism. I know that I sometimes read reviews and get annoyed with critics who seem to be reviewing the game they wanted to play, rather than the game they did play. If we leave aside for a moment the fact that Enter The Matrix doesn't make good on any of the metaphors from the films, what does it accomplish? I'd say that in terms of "giving the players the experience of the films" it does deliver in one—and only one—area: combat. If nothing else, it does allow the player the opportunity to dodge bullets in slow-motion, run on walls, do flips, and take apart opponents with the Hong Kong/anime-inspired finesse of the films. However, this mostly works on an aesthetic level, since both the control scheme and difficulty balance is rather sloppy. I cannot deny that—even for the 50th time—running up a wall and kicking a cop in the face was a thrill. However, the fact that I rarely did so exactly how I intended to made the experience ultimately superficial. It's true that there are dozens of moves available to the player, but the controls, while seemingly intuitive, just don't allow for the kind of mastery that better action games have. Players can count on doing cool movies successfully and often, but they can forget pulling off a complete strategy with any kind of consistent precision. So even on a more modest level of simply comparing Enter The Matrix to other games of its genre, it still does not stand out (although it does provide some entertainment). Ironically, it is not as good as the action games that were inspired by the aesthetics of original Matrix. Games like Max Payne and Devil May Cry did a much better job of mixing intuitive controls, cool looks, and gratuitous gunplay.

I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on Shiny. I do realize they weren't exactly given free reign to do whatever they wanted with this game. The incorporation of film footage alone probably dictated a lot of the design, much of which they were depending on the filmmakers for. Enter The Matrix no doubt is an experiment, the third prong of the ambitious transmedia "synergy" of which The Matrix Reloaded and The Animatrix are also a part. In truth, this is much of the appeal of playing the game. Although it is clearly a much uninspired adaptation of The Matrix and only a slightly better-than-average action game, I do admit that its continuation (or, I should say, complementation) of Reloaded's plot was well worth the rental. Even with all its flaws, I can't say it's a game I wouldn't recommend under any circumstances. If you're a fan of the films and merely want the chance to don the studly clothes and kick butt, Enter The Matrix does that much if unevenly. However, I can't help but be genuinely depressed at the apparent lack of thought, creativity, or inspiration that went into the long awaited videogame adaptation of the most videogame-friendly film in the short history of the medium. Rating: 6 out of 10.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PlayStation 2 version of the game.

Enter The Matrix – Consumer Guide

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Despite the teen rating, parents might have plenty to object concerning their children and this game. While there's no blood, some of the disarm moves can look pretty brutal. The S-word is uttered a few times, and there's live footage of two female characters kissing.

Fans of the Matrix films might want to pick this up, as it adds more to the saga, especially the second film.

Others might not be as enthusiastic, especially since the game's difficulty level ramps up considerably in the middle.

First-person shooter fans might not find the control layout intuitive.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers are in luck. Subtitles are available for the in-game and live-action cutscenes.