Enter the Matrix

"Greatness deprived for the sake of money"

Licensed games are, to put it bluntly, worthless piles of crap. Yes, there's your occasional gaming great, such as Goldeneye or the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade game, but licensed games are generally the worst games in the industry (just ask Superman), yet they somehow sell insanely well while high quality games get left in the dust. 'Tis a sad fate, truly, but one which is undeniably commonplace here in the day where the casual gamer rules. Shiny's Enter the Matrix, the first attempt at a videogame based on the blockbuster series, is one of the better licensed games to be released as of late, but really, that's not saying much.

Enter the Matrix feels more like a supplement to the box-office hit The Matrix Reloaded than a full-fledged game. The game focuses on two of the minor characters from the Matrix films, Niobe and Ghost, and their quest to help the ''big dog'' Neo in the war against the sentinels. The plot is a vague one; unless you've already seen Reloaded, you'll find yourself wondering many times exactly what the heck is going on. In-game cinemas filmed by the stars of the movie, while quite interesting to watch, hardly help to advance the plot and will likely only leave you in a more dazed state. But just when you're about to reach for the power button and demand a refund from your local gaming retailer, the gameplay kicks into action, and things start getting very, very cool.

Enter the Matrix plays like a pretty standard third-person shooter. You'll have a wide array of weaponry at your disposal, ranging from machine guns to grenades to your own bare fists. Enemies can be targeted with the L button for a more accurate gunshot. Even then, however, aim will be quite dodgy as you watch a flurry of bullets from your MP5 dance around the SWAT team member you're trying to kill, only to have him remain standing and fill your ass up with lead from his own UMP. These battles are generic and boring.

Hand-to-hand combat is a tad bit more interesting, as the camera swings around to a Tekken-style view so you can lay the smack down on antagonistic law enforcers. The view doesn't work incredibly well, though, since you'll find yourself wanting to get back into the regular 3rd person view but being forced to strafe backwards a long distance from your enemy before the camera returns to its normal position. As for the fighting itself, it's surprisingly deep. There's a wide array of punching and kicking animations. With correct timing of the Z button, you can counter your opponent's attacks. Unfortunately, the movements happen much too quickly to seem realistic or for one to really appreciate the animations. Most of your opponents in these match-ups are incredibly easy to defeat, and the whole complex process simply devolves to button-mashing. Overall, normal combat in this game is pretty lame, and this game likely would have been doomed to ultimate crapola if not for that one special ability...

What would a Matrix game be without bullet time? Enter the Matrix offers the staple of the Matrix series in quite a hefty amount, and it's implemented surprisingly well. While in the Matrix, you can Focus (channeling your mental energies) and slow down time so as to dodge bullets, increase your gunfire accuracy and give some serious beatdowns in melee fights. A Focus meter which slowly depletes as you perform the slow-mo action prevents you from abusing the power and just kicking ass all the time. The meter replenishes itself slowly when not in use, though, so there's usually a good amount of in your reserves whenever the need for it arises. And that need is often. Focus makes the action much more intense, letting you dodge a flurry of bullets only to run up to an enemy, flip off the wall next to him and nail him in the jaw. Actions such as these are as simple as the press of a button. Hand-to-hand bouts are much more enjoyable while Focusing, the whole process looking, feeling, and playing better. Focus never grows stale in Enter the Matrix, and it's really the game's only saving grace.

Everything else in the game feels deeply flawed, from level design to graphics, to the enemies you're forced to fight. Just glancing at some of the levels of Enter the Matrix, the game seems incredibly open-ended and non-linear. But then this wouldn't be a licensed game, would it? Nearly every door you come across in Enter the Matrix will be locked, forcing you to carve out a sole, incredibly linear path through the levels. And most of these levels involve the same basic strategy: Focus, gun down all the cops/SWAT team members, pick up their weapons to use on the next batch of cops/SWAT team members. There are a few instances where you'll need to go into sniper mode, but these are unbearably boring and frustrating, since the horrendous lighting of the game makes it impossible to see the assailants you're supposed to be picking off until they're filling your partner up with lead. Undoubtedly, sniping is the worst part of the game. There are also driving missions, in which you'll either play the role of driver (Niobe) or shotgun (Ghost). The driving is seemingly Grand Theft Auto on crack (crack being a BAD thing in this situation) with horrendous controls and bad handling. Shotgun is undeniably fun. Blowing up cop cars or, even better, innocent drivers, is pretty exhilarating for a short while. These missions feel tacked on overall, though, simply made as an excuse to say that the game ''transcends genres.'' Occasionally, Enter the Matrix attempts to break the tedium mentioned above successfully, and these are the places where the game really shines. One level, set in a huge mansion that forces you to fight unarmed, and another that's an intense escape scene, stand head and shoulders above the rest. Had the other levels in the game broken away from the same boring format, this could have been quite the title. Health replenishes automatically at a very quick pace, meaning that if things get too intense, you can simply hide from enemy fire for a moment to regain health. This takes away any mild challenge the game might have offered.

Visually, Enter the Matrix is generally less than stellar. The lighting is absolutely atrocious. I'm not sure why Shiny bothered with all the dark locales if they couldn't implement better lighting. You'll find yourself bumbling through dark passages with no earthly clue which direction is the correct one, or making blind leaps into the abysses that looked like solid ground in the darkness. One level is surprisingly gorgeous (and well-lit), though, so it's obvious that, if given more time, this could have been a beautiful game indeed. The character models look quite good, though you've surely seen better in other games. The animations, however, are horrible. Every last one of them. Ghost can only jump about two inches into the air in most situations, he sprints like an overly dramatic track star with his hands swinging above his head, and he walks up ladders like someone who is extremely constipated. Or mentally impaired. Take your pick. Special effects such as fire and smoke range from unimpressive to downright ugly. The effects while in Focus are pretty nice, though. The world becomes distorted with an odd tint of green, and you can see the bullet trails brush by you. Overall though, there have been many, many games that looked better than Enter the Matrix.

The game's sound is decent. The music fits the mood pretty well most of the time, but there are too many instances where there's no music at all. Voice acting is top-notch though, and sound effects are generally nice.

As far as extra features go, Enter the Matrix offers the coolest little extra feature I've seen in a while: hacking. Quite similar to a DOS screen setup, the hacking feature allows you to enter cheats for the main game, but digging deeper into the rabbit hole uncovers new gameplay modes and unlockable items. This feature is about ten times cooler than the game itself, and if expanded upon a good bit, could be featured in a game all its own.

Enter the Matrix does what it's supposed to do. It gives people the feeling they're experiencing the world they've lived through the films firsthand, and more importantly, it gives the publisher and developer (Atari and Shiny) a whole lot of money (the game has sold through one million units in a week's time). It's slightly above average, but just slightly, and only thanks to the Focus meter. Given a longer development cycle, this title could have been great. It has those moments where it teases such high-caliber gameplay. But being forced to coincide with the release of the movie brought Enter the Matrix down drastically, from high-flying action title to mediocre licensed game. It might prove an interesting rental for some, but if you never play this game, you really won't be missing much. But for the sake of good games and humanity in general, don't buy this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/03, Updated 05/29/03