Enter the Matrix

"The game accomplishes it's purpose"

EtM is a good game, period. The game was specially designed to give the gamer an expirience other games have not offered before, such as showing a storyline that goes with a major movie sequel but told through a different perspective, it was also designed to give gamers the opportunity to play as if you were in the matrix.

Controls:
The controls are a little funky to begin with, the black button shoots(really annoying at the beginnning) the white button uses secondary weapons(grenades, flashbangs, etc(not really usefull) Y does punches and B kicks(can be combined for different results and then +focus for even MORE!)
The right trigger in strafe and target lock while theleft trigger uses Focus. The most annoying part however is the movement, you move around with only the left analog stick(annoying 'til you get used to it) and you switch to 1st person perspective with the right analog stick(pretty much useless besides sniping). Controls should've been customizable or at lest more options, instead of having to use 3 combos.

Graphics:
Graphics are well done, they are not the best thing I've ever seen but they do the job well, the textures need some work however. The one thing that should have been changed are the levels, although they do the job required some of them can become very annoying. The part in which the development team hit a bullseye was animation. With 1000+ fighting moves in the game and virtually thousands of combos, though there are some flaws with counter, these are tolerable.

Sound:
The sounds in the game are average, you have your pain sounds and your gun sounds and your(though not a lot) level sounds. It is fun to listen to the sound of your boot kicking butt in bullet time(it has a very loud *POOF*). But the sound f/x contain nothing you wouldn't hear in other games. The jmusic is great! From classical tunes to those cool rock tunes, they literally ring in your head as you kick SWAT team members across the rooms.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is WOW. Max Payne is very famous for the fact that it slowed time and space to let you react to different situations, well EtM made this even better. You can dive forward, backward, roll, backward acrobatics and other stuff that has different effects. You can't dive sideways but you can do a cool cartwheel. In those first levels of the game you feel so omnipotent and later the agents make you feel otherwise. The gameplay in this game is the part that makes the difference, either you love this game or you throw it away. This part makes up for any flaws in the game.

The replay value is good but this only applies to matrix fans, if you are not, you may hate it. Once you kick butt on normal or easy with both characters and watched all the movies that go with the story you might just stop, hence the hacking option. These option lets you 'hack' into the matrix and unlock several goodies such as bios, character stats, view the videos you've unlocked, there is even a useable code for use outside the game(u figure that out). Besides viewing files, you can unlock cheats and other stuff.

Final Score: 8
The game is good. Since the game might suddenly appear too short for good or hardcore gamers, I would recommend trying to figure this game out by yourself, it is not that hard. The hacking tool is unique and adds A LOT to the replay value. Graphics are okay, sound is...okay(just because of that music!) the gameplay is awesome and the controls could be changed. RENT IT. I didn't but my money was worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/03, Updated 05/21/03