Enter the Matrix

"A Virtual Reality never seemed so ... fake."

Enter the Matrix. I bought this game assuming that it would be a faithful reincarnation of the virtual world known to many as ''The Matrix'', sadly I have been terribly disappointed. It isn't all that bad, there are still some redeemable points but some things just drag it down. In a nutshell, Enter the Matrix is your typical 3rd person shooter with various other tasks thrown in to stop the ''tedious'' 3rd person experience, namely driving and shooting/piloting a hovercraft like the one seen in the hit movie the Matrix. The game is based on the Movie the Matrix Reloaded and centers on 2 of the main characters, Niobe and Ghost. The missions are based loosely on the story of the movie and tries to explain things that did not make sense

Gameplay: I have split the section so I can give credit where credit is due.
Fighting: 9
I give the Fighting system a 9 here because it utilizes the same ''bullet time'' seen in Rockstar game's Max Payne, and uses it to do martial arts melee fighting in slow-motion just like in the Matrix flicks. The ''bullet time'' meter is renamed the ''focus'' meter now and has the same effect the bullet time meter had in max Payne. It determines how long you can have the slo-mo effect. In Max Payne you were limited to only using guns while in this mode, in Enter the Matrix you can do martial arts in this mode and just about everything else, assuming you have a lot of ''focus''. It makes normal moves have more effect and looks damn cool while you're doing it. I also like the inclusion of throws, especially throws with a weapon. For example you could holster your weapon and when you are like right next to the enemy you whip out your pistol or gun and you would jab it into the enemy's gut and blast his guts out... or it would be like that if it included any gore. I've ranted about the Martial arts now let's talk about the guns. When out of the ''focus'' mode your character can't shoot anything, their aim is terrible. I have never seen anyone miss with a pistol when the enemy is so close before. But I can overlook that fact with the inclusion of throws with weapons equipped.
Driving: 1
The Driving in this game is Horrible! I can hardly find words to describe it. First off the Driving System in the game is Horrible. The Cars don't even stay straight or parallel to the ground even (points off). Secondly, the physics for driving is so bad that a little uphill (a 5 degrees slope at most) will send the car flying at 10 mph. When you touch ground after the brief flight you spin out of control (more points off). Third, the driving Ai is terrible. When you are ghost and you have to take shotgun when Niobe drives, (you'd probably be fending off the agents for over 40 minutes due to the fundamental fact that the Ai CAN'T DRIVE IN A STRAIGHT LINE, they never make turns at all, 90% of the time you'll end up being helpless the computer Ai struggles to drive through a wall, once out of the predicament it drives into yet another wall or post, and if you are ghost you are powerless to do anything.
One last thing, They use these driving missions far too often and it disrupts with the general game.
Hovercraft: 7
Well it does recreate a hovercraft experience. It’s ok at best, nothing really special, nothing really bad, except you have to follow a bunch of tunnels. The shooting from the hovercraft is mediocre at best you could literally press and hold the mouse button and you'd hit everything no problem.
OVERALL GAMEPLAY: 6
Graphics: 7
The Graphics are good for what it is. It has Graphics that are like Max Payne but with more detail on the facial features. I personally have an AMD Duron 800 and a Radeon 9100 and the graphics I saw wasn't anything to get excited about but it was pretty good nonetheless. The entire Matrix slo-mo bullet effects are all here with the circle thing around the bullets. The Animations were superb and makes the game that more enjoyable. It's great to see a combo that is executed flawlessly done on screen flawlessly as the animations blend seamlessly into each other. Like a punch to the ribs to a kick to the ribs to whipping out a gun and blasting them in the gut.
Now the bad. Some of the gun textures look like they've been a jpg file that is stretched over. The car textures are laughable; they're like same graphics from metal gear solid. There's also constant clipping in the game when a cutscene happens where they come out of the car, you can see the character models sticking out through the door and roof.
Control: 7
The control was supposed to be suited to an analog stick for consoles, so the mouse doesn't do a good job here. The Zoom in/Zoom out thing is laughable, instead of using a mouse's scroller wheel it uses the 3 and 4 buttons, one for zoom in the latter for zoom out. For people without the Mouse wheel, you'd have to press the 3 and 4, this works with other 3rd person shooters but not enter the matrix. The zoom in is slow and not very helpful and the zoom out is the same. The keyboard config of the typical w,s,a,d scheme that is seen in every shooter is used here. Also they used e for weapon withdrawal/holster. F for use. The f or e buttons can be used for f = normal throws (e.g.: Kung fu like throws) e = whip out your weapon type throws (e.g.: kick the enemy and then pull out your gun and shoot them a bit while they are in mid-air, or if using pistols the dodge-a-punch-whip-out-your-pistol-shove-it-in-the-gut-of-your-foe-and-blast-away.) or press both mouse buttons to perform ''special'' throws (e.g.: while in focus mode you can perform the throw agent smith used against neo in the original matrix, the grab a leg then toss thing.) or when you have a weapon out already the ''special'' weapon throws (e.g.: twist a guy's arm and put your gun at their face and shoot him). the throws are pretty concrete. the left mouse button for punch or primary fire and the right for kick or secondary fire. I had some problems with mouse sensitivity due to the fact that the game is supposed to be played with an analog stick.
Story: 6
The Story of Enter the Matrix coincides with the events from Matrix Reloaded. It fills in the Missing or confusing parts of Reloaded. I haven't seen reloaded so I’m not sure. It revolves around Niobe's Crew (Niobe, Ghost, and Sparks) and the missions they are given from Morpheus. For me the story didn't make too much sense. All I got from it was that 1. Machines are drilling to Zion 2.they're going to use an EMP shockwave to stop them 3. There are hundreds of Agent Smiths. That was all I got from the story. The story is ok, but if it were a stand-alone game without a movie tie in the story would not make sense.
Sound: 7
The sound is good and adds to the atmosphere of the game. Like no music when no ones around and when an agent is about to appear it suddenly bursts into a scary music, that is done quite good. Sound doesn't play a large part in the game it just adds to the atmosphere. Excellent voice acting thou, Considering that the people doing the voice acting were the real people acting in the movie.
Replay value: 6
I only finished the game with ghost, because Niobe had too many driving missions and it just made me sick of retrying the missions. There is little replay value after initially finishing the game. I thought that you could play as Neo because of a sentence found in the ''tips'' section in the game. It goes as follows:
AGENTS:
When you see an agent run. The only person to stand toe-to-toe with an agent is Neo.
Boy, that was misleading. I only played again to fight certain bosses with kung fu and gun throws. Other than that I never played any of the driving missions again nor any of the hovercraft ones. The game was kinda short; I finished it in less than 8 hours adding in the 3 hours that I spent frustrated over the driving missions.
OVERALL:
Gameplay: Melee: 9 Driving: 1 Hovercraft: 7 = avg: 5.666 or 6
Graphics: 7
Story: 6
Sound: 7
Replay: 6
OVERALL SCORE: 6.4 but I feel generous so it gets a 7
Rent or Buy? I think it is worth a rent to play the kung fu battles and gun throws. but it is a short game so a 5-dollar rental is better to a 50-dollar loss.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03