"For Matrix Fans only."

First off let me start of by saying the Wachowski's are damned smart. Not because of their first film The Matrix revolutioning the way we look at Action Movies because you won't understand everything that happen in The Matrix Reloaded without watching Final Flight of the Osiris oh and playing this game too.

Graphics: 8/10

Obviously this game strongest point. The character models look spot on to their movie counterparts. But not everything is A'Ok the running in this game looks...horrid. The character models move really really jerky. Even when fighting they look like they're puppets on strings. But it's not all bad the finishing moves for fights kick ass they show some realy decent choreography, such as jumping off the walk or table corner and coming back to kick a dude in the face. Another plus here is The Wachowski's shot FMV cut scenes specifcally for this game. Acted by the actors featured in the movie. Many familiar locations and scenes from the movies are here and will pick up right where they left off. Only bad things about the graphics are the jerky models, fogging so pop ups won't show. Though they do keep the green tint and that's cool.

Sounds: 10/10

Another strong point of the game the game soundtrack is right out the movie. All the voices you expect are present it sounds like you're playing the movie. The bullet whizzing and the whishing and whooshing of the martial arts are all there.

Gameplay: 5/10

Meh. Is how to describe it as a whole, first off let me say how much this games enemies are pansies! Yeah I know Ghost and Niobi can bend the rules of The Matrix but still enemies die in like 3 or 4 hits Even the ones at the Chateau! Thankfully Agents are faithfull recreated as you cannot beat them. EVER. They dodge bullets and you can wail on them all day but they'll pop right up. You can go about this game two ways guns blazin or my faveorite way hand to hand. Shooting is more of a challenge here since there's no First Person camera it's a little hard to aim. But also it takes alot more to gun down an enemy to just beat him to death.

Also what makes this game somewhat simple is the focus meter. Now Focus is basically ''Matrixing'' It allows you to slow things down. Now what's cool about this is this allows you to do things faithful to the movie run on walls. Dive and shoot, carthweel etc. Comboed with the martial arts to finish off your enemies Matrix style. But with this and some luck you can go through a level unhurt. When enemies start shotting at you just use focus and dodge the bullets or run toward them focus dive and shoot and I gurantee you'll kill everyone standing. Like I said I know it's expected by using Ghost and Niobi but I just wish things were a little harder.

Another gripe is you get to choose Ghost or Niobi at the start of the game. But there's no real difference between beside cutscenes and what not. If you played with one you've played with both. I just wish they varied them in some way maybe have Ghost the stronger but slower of the two. He's a weapons expert right? Well let that show! How about having Ghost be able to do all sorts of gun acrobatics that Niobi can't do since she's the Martial arts Expert. Have here able to do some off the wall insane crap that he can't do instead of carbon copies of one another!

My Final Gripe is the driving and shooting levels. UGH First the Driving stages while thankfully few in number the car has soooo much bounce and drift that you'll be popping up and down off the ground more than if you were on a dirt bite track! You'll barely be able to see where you're going from all the flying in the air you'll do! Second the shooting levels are INSANELY hard. It's a rail shooting type thing where one character drives while you shoot. You can shoot till the cows come home and won't do a lick of damage oh and the shooting stage against the twins SUCKS!

There's also a hacking mode to access all sorts of cheats and junk I didn't spend too much time there but a friend of mine says it's almost as fun as playing the game itself.

Control: 6/10

Another Meh here. The controls work and they use that annoying spin the world around the chracter to turn. But my gripe here is while fighting hand to hand you never have the real feel of control. It feels like you're just watching really, Most times late in the game I just ran to an enemy rapidly tapped A just to get from point at point be and each time it felt like the character was just doing everything on their own.

Rent or Buy:
When it comes down to it, if this was just another game and didn't have MATRIX slapped onto it. It would be just your average mediocre game. There isn't much that stands out in this game so even for Matrix fans I'd say rent then decide if you want to buy. There ain't much replay value and while the bonus content of the extra cutscenes or indeed cool it's not worth the $50 purchase alone.

But for a Matrix fanatic who most have everything related to it, you might as well pick this up.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/03