Enter the Matrix

"Pathetic"

I see people stating at the beginning of their reviews that they're a fan of The Matrix. I'll begin with this: I'm not a fan of The Matrix

Proceeding: When I rented Enter The Matrix, I can say without a doubt that I had how I felt about it in my mind down pat. I knew it'd be another mundane, lame attempt at a 3rd person action game. It primarily feeds off the hype that its counterpart had already created in the entertainment world. How can we sum up Enter The Matrix in one sentence? Another title that needs to be thrown into an overflowing pile of garbage known as ''Redundancy''.

Thus, it begins.

Let us elaborate on the points mentioned beforehand. Matrix's storyline began a long time ago, with the choice of what pill to take. The rest is history or just spoilers, to say the least. The game begins with you, Niobe or Ghost, being in a building. Depending on what character you choose will change little about the game. Let's pretend you're Ghost. You'll get cut scenes that will show Niobe helping you out at random intervals during the game. These are supposed to be ''action'' scenes. They end up being nothing less than a barrage of bad sound effects and voice-overs. The gameplay can be summed up in two words: Really Lame.

I've seen many movie-based titles come and go. Some, like Spiderman, are at least playable. Enter the Matrix is not. For starters, you have the usual attacking combos that can be executed by pressing the same button three times. You'll start with karate chopping the enemy once, then the camera angle will change. This will allow you to see the rest of the two hits land in slow motion. The first two times I saw this I thought, ''Wow, this is pretty cool. I just handed that guy his own ass.'' Don't think they'd let you just be able to beat the guys up with your hands. You have the kick combo too. It can be executed by pressing the corresponding button three times. You'll just start kicking the enemies in the face/body till he succumbs to either the physical beating or the bad graphics.

Bad graphics kill people?

The developers probably thought something like, ''We can't just have a regular beat 'em up; we need something that'll make Enter the Matrix deeper.'' The result? You have a total rip off of Max Payne's ''Bullet Time''. This skill is entitled ''Focus''. It, like Bullet Time, allows you to slow down time and perform inhuman stunts while everything is slowed down. Some of these are just thrown into the game for show. Let's talk about one in particular: Jumping off the wall and then doing a backflip. When will this ever be used? Never. I've not had one point in the whole game where I needed to do a backflip off the wall. The other moves are usually pretty useful under the right circumstances. While in focus, bullets can't hit you as easily as they normally could. This allows for you being able to make quick work of the enemies. This can be done by either jumping in the air at them, or just shooting them to death. A case of the latter happens to be a tad more fun.

FFM, YOU IMMORAL BASTARD! Shooting people isn't fun!

Speaking of shooting, you've got a very wide arrangement of guns to take out the enemies with. Where shall we start? You have the standard pseudo-pistols. The reason in which I call them pseudo-pistols is because they can fire extremely fast when compared to real ones. Lets go right down the list, shall we? Automatic machine gun? Check. Shotgun? Check. Mandatory grenades that can clear a house? Check.

Check....Check....Check

All these guns! All these ways of kicking the bad guys' asses! No, this wasn't enough for the developers; they thought they needed to add even more depth with an option called ''Hacking''. This allows you to ''hack'' the Matrix, and basically do whatever you want. You can add an item in the middle of battle if you see fit. Want to see what Niobe's ass looks like close up? Hack the Matrix to where you can see character designs. The possibilities are endless, yes. But, doing so is usually time consuming and downright boring. Who wants to sit in front of their television and try out thousands of different combinations of commands to get one thing? I can assure you that I'm one that wouldn't want to do that. Maybe if you were like stoned or some **** it'd be fun. Speaking of which......................let's move on to the graphics.

FFM, your comedic timing is impeccable!

Reader, You feel the pain and torture I've had to go through; I will explain. Let's start with character models. They don't have any real detail to them. Their bodies are just......blah. Blah is probably the only word I could think of at the time to describe what they look like. Physical features are able to be noticed with ease. If you look for anything other than that, it won't be there (Reframes from immature pun). Their faces are detailed to the extreme. You can see the actual hairs on their face, also known as facial hair. The sunglasses they wear have light reflecting off of them. Their jaws move with the words as they speak them. Levels are another thing; there's nothing detailed about them at all. The floors all look the same; they totally rehashed all the same textures over and over again. The final product looks sloppy. The final product usually consists of a wall, tile, or box in the middle of the room, all looking the same somehow. The doors have no real shape to them. They're just there. As your character moves around, there's no shadow that is created. There's absolutely no eye candy at all. Just plain 128-bit graphics.

Plain = Bad

After hearing the audio, listening to them talk is probably one of the last things you'll want to do. The audio is the same bland action music repeated. It's all exciting music that almost comes off as dissonance to the untrained ear. They attempt to get your adrenaline pumping with fast paced action music from the start. But, in the end, it leaves you wondering what the hell you just listened to. The music only lasts about one minute before it loops over into its endless cycle. It changed per level, yes. But the emotion behind it is the same every time: Intensity.

The game might not sound like a ''2'' yet to you, in your opinion. Then you meet the controls. The controls are extremely confusing to the point in which there are only a few moves in which you'll remember how to perform. The controls usually involve you holding down a button and pressing something else to get the desired effect. Remembering combos in the middle of battle is hard enough. Having your fingers twisted in the act of trying to perform the move is another. This might cost you a boss battle or two later on, due to not being able to execute the right move. This ultimately leads to frustration. Frustration leads to either a smashed controller or a broken object. This could've all been avoided if the controller scheme would've been set up better. Making your fingers look like pretzels is one thing Enter the Matrix can do for you, just in case you're into the kind of stuff.

In the end, you have what the intro stated: Another mundane, lame attempt at a 3rd person action game. It primarily feeds off the hype that its counterpart has already created in the entertainment world.

Final Verdict

Graphics = 2
Gameplay = 4
Sound = 2
Control = 2

Final = 2

Stay away from this game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/03, Updated 07/29/03