The Matrix Online

"The follow up to the movies fails to live up to the franchise."

*note* This review is based upon me having played this game since november of 2004 and was written after having witnessed the finished product, a week after release. (I had a lvl 47 character prior to the last wipe in beta.)

If you're one of those type of people who just like to read the initial lines of a review and then choose to either heed the reviewer's advice or simply whine about it on the forums...then I'll give you my opinion. This game is not complete. It's somewhat enjoyable but mostly for aesthetic value, it's the Doom 3 of MMORPGs. Currently there are a ton of bugs and the game itself is lacking in content. But, it has potential and is worth coming back to six months from now. I dub it, Starwars Galaxies, the sequel.

Now for those of you who like to see the different aspects of the game, I'll get into it:

-Sound- 9.0
From the kicks to punches and even the pounding of the groin, the sound effects in this game are good. The music in the background is always good, it's mostly music from the movies. Sadly, a lot of the songs from the movies didn't make it in and the game has a lot of techno. (Well, it's not sad if you like techno.)

Sound goes down 1 point simply because I think techno is garbage. >_> But if you like techno then consider sound to be perfect.

-Graphics- 9.0
This game has great graphics, it's as simple as that. With everything turned on the game truly looks like the movies...and it's all shiny too! From the glowing overbright effect to the pigeons/cars roaming the city it truly gives a feel of a modern world. Though with great graphics comes a huge requirement videocard/RAM -wise.

Graphics loses a point because if you don't have a top of the line (or close to it) system then you will need to play at low settings and at low settings, the game looks like crap.

-Character Creation- 7.0
The character creation in this game isn't anything special. You choose a pre-set package with attributes. (Like having +2 perception and -2 belief) In addition comes physical traits. The clothes you have access to in the beginning is very few but that's not much of a problem. The first thing most players do when new is go shopping for a leather trench coat anyway. As for physical appearance, well it certainly isn't EQ2, you only have access to 3 body types, skin color, hair/color, tatoos, facial hair, face, eyes, etc. It's definately not elaborate like City of Heroes.

-Combat- 6.0
Positive: Combat in this game is unlike any other. In other games if someone hits you and misses it will still look like he hit you and the only thing that reveals that he missed is the huge word "MISS!" This game is completely different. You will actually see your character dodging every blow with his body, blocking punches and doing real martial arts. It truly is something great to look at and drool over.

Negative: Drooling is just about all you will be doing. Interlock combat (melee) is turn based. You and your opponent roll a dice and the one with the higher number gets their attack off. Sound simple? Well it is. But that merely means that combat is simply rolling dice with your opponent. You can't move around in combat, auto-attacks are all that govern your life.

Of course, you can use special abilities but it adds very little spice to a horrible combat system. There basically is no strategy involved, simply rolling the dice. The system is so random though that it's possible to beat the crap out of an opponent until they're down to 10 hp and then lose every roll from then on and have your butt handed to you.

In addition, while in melee combat, other opponents can shoot at you and you will be unable to switch targets. The only way to improve your chances in winning in combat is either to rely on luck, get items that boost your roll chances or...stat points.

Free look combat plays extremely similar to other games, where dodge and attacks have their own random parameters. You are allowed to move while in free look combat but only guns and hacking is allowed. If you've played SWG before you will find free look combat to play exactly like that.

If you're wondering if there's any strategy involved in combat...well then you're in luck, there are hackers. For a deeper description on hackers look down.

Combat loses 4 points due to the sheer randomness of the system and lack of any real strategy. PVP with melee players and gun users is determined by how good your items are. Though, if you're more into aesthetics than actual gameplay than this system is for you. The combat looks spectacular...if only there was some strategy involved. :-(

-Crafting- 3.0
Crafting in this game is simply horrible. All items collected come in the form of "codes" found off of enemies. Players who become "Coders" can compile items with it. The problem? Well nothing is truly mass-produced unless you get enough items off of enemies. So a player is unable to be "only a crafter", you're forced to fight for your ingredients.

In addition, in order to learn a recipe you need to "decompile" an item. Thus you must destroy an item in order to learn how to craft it. The problem? The process has a good chance at failure. Thus, people become frightened to decompile any rares they find. And even if you took the chance and sucessfully found out the item's recipe...it would most likely require a ton of coding in order to make it.

The system is definately something unlike the normal tradeskills found in most other games. Kudos for trying out something new but the reason why most other games have a similar type of tradeskill system is because they have a good thing going on.

-Classes- 8.0
Operatives: The grunts of the game, these guys deal with physical damage. They can either specialize in becoming spies or soldiers, each dividing into their own respective sections. (Soldiers can specialize in Martial arts or guns as an example) It's a nice variety shown but in the end it's still "Rogue=Spy", "Ranger/Warrior=Soldier".

Coders: These guys can either become crafters or "summoner-types". By summoner I mean they can create guards constructed of data to fight for them, similar to the cliche' summoner.

Hackers: These guys actually use strategy, big shocker. They can either become healers or offensive hackers. (Priest or mage types) The healers aren't much fun in my opinion but if you're into healing then more power to you. As for hackers, well currently they are the flavor of the month. They are incredibly weak within the first 25 levels but then they begin to shine.

They can spew out status effects to stop players from attacking them and can even instantly send a player back to the loading screen. Other than that, not much more to them. As for those who think that there's a strategy against them...well, if you wear items that resist viruses then you will render them useless...other than that, not much more strategy.

This section gets 8 points just for saying a job done well for taking the basic archetypes found in most other games and renaming them while adding certain twists. It could be worse though, they could be like City of Heroes and go as far as calling them "tanks and blasters", real creativity there.

-Skill System- 7.0
The skill system in this game consists of a tree system. You pick a skill and from there you can go onto other branches that you have access to. Players who have played Starwars galaxies will be very familiar with this.

In addition, every time you lvl you gain "memory" which allows you to activate more skills. Of course, you can mix and match skills like being a martial artist with some specialty with guns.

The coolest feature for those who hate creating alternate characters is the fact that you can switch abilities on the fly. If you're a lvl 20 martial artist and choose to become a hacker, you can just buy the abilities to become a hacker and switch all your martial artist points into being a hacker. Ta da, you are now a lvl 20 hacker. (You can switch back and forth.)

The problem with this awesome system that made it lose 3 points? At lvl 50 everyone will have access to the same skills. So there is very little creativity between players. Although, it is cool that if your team needs a hacker you can switch your abilities on the fly and become one.

-Weapons/armor- 6.0
Weapons in the game right now consist of only range weapons...guns! There are no melee weapons as of yet even though people are crying for a sword or two. As for armor, well traditional armor is thrown out and Starwars Galaxies' clothing system is placed in. Armor consists of trendy looking clothing with stats on them.

The problem? The stats are too powerful and people tend to have two types of clothing...battle clothing, where everyone looks the same and casual-wear, where people look fashionable. Ashame that the crafting system wasn't better where people could create good unique looking clothing that was good for battle as well.

-The World As A Whole- 7.0
The world is big...but compared to Warcraft, SWG, EQ and a few others...it's small. Although the world is full of buildings, most of them have locked doors that are meant only for spawning missions.

As for the economy...it doesn't exist! Cash in this game is very easy to come by after lvl 16. This is good for players who don't like being restricted by the economy (anyone coming out of FFXI) but it is once again another blow to people who like to play as crafters. (The virtual sweat shop workers.)

-Mission system- 9.0
Now here is something that I truly liked. The mission system works exactly like City of Heroes, you get a contact and call them for missions. You then parade around town, going from objective to objective located in buildings that spawn floors/rooms meant for your group's eyes only. (A lost fellow can't track you into your mission.)

What makes this better than city of heroes is that the mission time can easily be adjusted from quick to long. (When I mean quick, I mean 6 minutes missions, ideal for casual players.) Also difficulty is easily adjusted via your phone, from easy to hard.

-Storyline- 9.0
They haven't even begun the story line in retail yet and I'm going on this purely by what they did in beta. They promise that there will be a ton of events that will propel the movies' story. If you are a big roleplayer then this is for you. I'm personally not into roleplaying but I have seen more RP'ing in this game than any other. This game is like a movie and the players want to be the actors.

-How close it is to the movies?- 10.0
To be blunt, this game is like paying 15 bucks a month to see a movie. Combat doesn't require much involvement, just get the items needed, go into battle and make a sandwich. But, the battles themselves include so many cool moves that you can watch the characters do that you can't help but get giddy.

Also occasionally the game will go into bullet time and pull off a cool stunt. (Of course, you can't control bullet time, it just sometimes does it for cool factor.)

-Community- 5.0
Some people want to know about the community and even though I shouldn't judge...well, I'll review them. The community consists of two type of people. Fanboys who will die for the matrix if they must and then people who just plain out hate the game. Of course, the fanboys outweigh the rest and although most of them are humble, there are some very vulgar people. Heck, even if you asked for a review on the message boards this minute you will get someone who will just say the game rocks and perhaps a lurker who will say that it sucks. (Whether or not they give a reason is random.)

The community falls in between the horrible WorldofWarcraft bnet buddies, and Starwars Galaxy community that thinks that George Lucas actually wrote episode 1 before 4,5 and 6.

-Game Stability- 4.0
OMGWTFBBQ <- What you will say when you are unable to complete several consecutive missions simply because there was a bug that prevented you from doing so. There are a ton of bugs in this game, enough to rival Starwars Galaxies' launch. Bugs ranging from abilities sometimes not working to doors not opening, doors leading into your mission. Enough bugs to drive a man into killing someone else. As for server stability, well some servers experience no lag at all while others have players rubber-banding every 3 seconds. (Oddly enough, population isn't a factor with lag in this game.)

-Customer Support/GMs- 6.0
Every ticket for a bug I've ever sent to them, no matter how descriptive, comes back with an error saying that it was lacking info. No wonder there's so many bugs. In addition, currently this game has no online function to cancel your account, you need to call them and wait on the phone for 30 minutes.

In addition, a number of the GMs were once beta players so there will be favortism in this group, especially since a number of organizations (guild/clans) have GMs leaking info to them. Just look up the RIP scandal.

-PvP- 7.0
Full scale pvp isn't in the game yet though it has been established that hostile servers will make it so that all players are exposed for combat at all times. Lack of safe havens = ganking? You bet it does. Although players state that they plan on policing ganking, I doubt it will happen. The only way ganking can be prevented is if GMs interfere.

Points off not because of potential ganking but because of imbalance among classes. Hackers have the ability to render players unable to fight and can even send them into the loading screen. That's just wrong...

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People like to compare MMORPGs with eachother so I'll make a run-down of this game compared to others.

MxO vs CoH:

If you want great combat get CoH.
If you want something to do out of combat then get MxO.
If you want great server stability get CoH.
If you want a storyline and want to RP a lot, get MxO
If you want a gloomy setting get MxO.
If you want pvp get MxO. (until city of villains comes out)

MxO vs SWG:

Unless you like Starwars...ALOT...then get MxO. It's as simple as that. (Although they are revamping SWG a ton.)

MxO vs EQ2:

If you want great combat get EQ2.
If you want something to do out of combat get EQ2. (best tradeskill system ever)
If you want great server stability get EQ2.
If you want a storyline and want to RP get MxO.
If you want pvp get MxO.
If you want a gloomy setting get MxO.

MxO vs WorldofWarcraft:

If want great combat get WoW.
If you want something to do outside of combat get WoW.
If you want great stability...well, you won't find it in either but MxO wins.
If you want a storyline and want to RP get MxO.
If you want pvp...hmm...WoW, just because of the "safe zones". (battlegrounds will be awesome.
If you want a gloomy setting get MxO.

MxO vs Halo2:

OMG Halo2 is d@ r0xx0rz! <- true story
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My final thought: Only get this game if you're a VERY BIG Matrix fan. In addition, if you like graphics/aesthetics more than actual gameplay then you will like it. Also, if you are a roleplayer then this game is for you. This game is THE game for roleplaying, simply because of the GM events that rival Neverwinter Nights.

This game had a ton of potential and I truly did try to enjoy it but in the end, it simply wasn't for me. If you like the game then more power to you. This game gets a 5 out of 10. There is still a lot of work to be done.

(I just realized that putting that tenth digit in all the scores was moronic and pointless.)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/05