Enter the Matrix

"Enter The Movie"

Enter The Matrix is an Action Adventure game that will test your skills to the limit, fighting in a storyline parallel to The Matrix: Reloaded!

GAMEPLAY (9/10)
Enter The Matrix is quite a difficult game, and requires lots of concentration. You can play as either the man, Ghost, or the women, Niobe. Ghost's storyline is more based on sniping, whereas Niobe's storyline is more action based. There are 3 difficulties for each character, easy, normal and hard. Easy mode is what it says, easy, but it does give you a chance to get used to the game and the controls etc. before you go on to the harder levels of play. Normal is a bit more of a challenge, and will probably get you fustrated quick. As for hard, well, this mode is for experts only, as Agents and so on are near impossible to beat, and the whole game feels like you're actually in the Matrix.
The bosses are pretty hard, but with practice very fun to fight.
The controls I thought were OK, but could have been better. You can hold L to initiate Focous time, which will make everything seem a lot slower, giving you better reflexes to counter-attack your opponents. This is particulaly handy when fighting agents. The controls do need some getting used to, but after about 10 minutes of practice you'll not hear yourself complaining anymore. And you'll soon be hooked when you master cartwheeling past bullets while shooting snipers etc.

STORY (9/10)
The storyline is one of the highlights of this game. The story has very many FMV sequences, both graphically drwan ones and proper filmed sequences. The story of Enter The Matrix revolves around the story of the second Matrix Movie, Reloaded. If you've seen the movie first, you'll fing this game twice as good. I highly recommend seeing the movie first. That way, when you're playing the game, you'll notice things happening in missions that happened in the film, or that you heard someone talking about in the film.

AUDIO/VIDEO (8/10)
Well, when the music does actually hit, you'll love it, and it'll set the mood great. Only trouble is, there is hardly any music in this game at all. The programmers have relied primarily on SFX to give a sort of ''what's round the corner'' Resident Evil feel. I myself feel that the game would serve much better if the music was going all the time, or even just when you're fighting. All the boss battles and big group fights have music though, so it's not too bad, and also the music itself is amazing anyway, you might not care that much of it's absence.

REPLAYABILITY (7/10)
As interesting as the game is, and as addictive as it is, there's not really anything to do once you complete it. You can complete the two different storylines, but if you do decide to play it through on easy first, you'll probably have it done in a few days, and then the only thing to do will be to go through the game on Normal or hard. This soon gets repetetive, and you'll wonder what to do with the game. There's always the hacking option, but that doesn't really do anything of great use, at leat, not that we know of yet...

TO RENT OR TO BUY?
I always advise people to rent things first, and today will be no acception. There is no possible way to know if you're going to like a game unless you play it. Preview videos might be controled by idiots who don't show off the game's potential, demos might not have all the features unlocked etc. You must rent the game first, unless you're sure you're going to like it. If you absolutely love The Matrix movies, then I don't think there is any way you can dislike this game. I didn't like the first movie that much, and I didn't rent the game either. I guess that makes me a hypocrite, but I'm glad I did buy the game because I believe that it was worth it. To reiterate, rent if you think you want the game, buy if you love the matrix.

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OVERALL (8/10)
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Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/03, Updated 05/23/03