When you hear the name "The Matrix", you think of an extremely popular movie,
not the video game. Most people would agree that games that come from the idea
of a movie are never good. Well in this case Enter the Matrix did a great job of
the story and the game play but lacks in some other important areas, such as the
graphics. The publishers of this game (Atari) did a tremendous job of hyping the
game before the launch and most people expected it to be as good if not as
popular as the movies. However, when it was released it was viewed as just a
so-so game that was fairly fun to play through but after that quite boring.
Gameplay:
The greatest part of Enter the Matrix is its interesting story line. The story
is not an exact of the movies so you have no clue what will happen next in the
story. In the beginning of the game you can either choose to play as Ghost or
Niobe. Then you are off into the game and the story line will actually
intertwine with the story line of the movie. For example, in the famous highway
scene you are helping Morpheus and the key maker on top of the semi-truck. The
story is so interesting it is probably the one thing that won't let you put the
controller down because you will be too interested in what is going to happen
next.
Aside from the interesting story, how can you forget about the bullet time
madness? In Enter the Matrix this is called your focus. In the lower right hand
corner of the heads up display there is a meter that indicates how much you have
left to use. The left trigger on the Xbox controller will enable you to enter
the focus mode. At any time you can release the trigger and you will come back
out of the slow motion mode. Once the focus meter reaches the bottom you will
automatically come out of the focus mode. It is defiantly a great part of the
game and you can always use it if you need to get out of a sticky situation, or
finish off your opponent with some high speed slaps.
The majority of the time spent playing this game is spent fighting. Either
shooting down your enemies before you reach them, or in hand to hand combat. If
you are using a weapon when you take it out you will begin to run slower because
of the big weapon you are now carrying. Once your weapon is out there is no real
aiming up a shot. All that is required by you is to look in the direction of the
enemy and press the black button, then if you are close enough the enemy will
drop. If you get close enough to someone to start hand to hand combat you can do
normally things such as a combination of kicks and punches but you can also do
some other fancy moves such as flipping off a wall and then kicking them in the
head, or disarming them and then punching them in the face. Most of these other
moves will require you to use the bullet time feature which is known in this
game as focus.
Another interesting part of the game is the hacking mode. It is very similar
to an actually computer on an operating system such as dos. There is only text
on the screen and you can do this such as enable different cheats inside of the
game. You can even place weapons on certain levels. Then exit the hacking mode,
go into the game and there will be the weapons you placed. It is defiantly a
great way to cheat the game because it is not easy to do. Learning exactly what
you are doing in this hacking program is probably one of the hardest parts of
the game.
Multi-Player:
I don't believe I have ever laughed so hard in my life other than the time
that I was playing the multiplayer part of Enter The Matrix. I am not sure if it
is because of how fast each of the characters move, or how either player can fly
all the way across the level after a simple thing like an uppercut, but this
part of the game had me rolling on the floor laughing several times.
The multi-player is very different from the actual game play. Only two people
can play at one time. The two players are placed in a room and they have to
battle it out till death. Some of the levels consist of the Dojo, the Subway,
and the Ballroom.
Graphics:
All games have their weakness and for this one it would have to be the graphics.
When you first start playing the game they are not that bad and just average.
But once you get past the first few levels the graphics are still look very
similar and repetitive.
Before I start talking about the worst part of the graphics, let me talk
about the eye candy. The character models are extremely detailed and look
similar to the actual people in the movies. Such things as their faces and hair
look very real and the animations are done nice as well. The cut scenes are
actually real people and not computer animated which gives a realistic feel to
the game. The bullet time mode is probably the best looking part in the game.
You can actually see bullets whizzing by your head, and back flips in slow
motion never looked better.
Now for the not so good part. A lot of the textures in the game such as the
walls and the floor are very bland. There is also a big glitching problem with
the character animations that does not look quite right when the character
starts to run or does any other move. Another thing is the camera that you view
the game in is quite difficult to master and can be very frustrating if you
can't really see what you are doing. Aside from those few problems with the
graphics, many objects in the game look quite nice.
Sound
The sound of this game is by far the best and most enjoyable part. The
voices of the players are all done by the original actors so they sound exactly
like the character. The music in the game is very nice and similar to the great
music in the movies. The sound when you enter a big fight or even go into focus
mode changes to suit the mood of the game very well.
Overall
Overall Enter the Matrix has an very fun gameplay to it. The fighting system
and the ability to run up walls and then kick your enimies in the head never
gets old. The multiplayer part of the game has got to be funniest part that you
could spend hours just fighting your friends in. The graphics are not that great
and there are a few problems with some of the animations and textures on the
levels, but the character models are nice to look at for the entire game. The
sound overall defiantly wins as the best part of the game with basically the
same music from the movie in the video game.
| The Core Score |
Overall
7.5 |
| Fun |
|
8 |
| Gameplay |
|
8 |
| Graphics |
|
7 |
| Audio |
|
9 |
| Replay |
|
7 |
|
