The Matrix: Path of Neo

"The best Matrix game out there...though not without its flaws."

Well well well. I can't say I wasn't waiting for this game to come out. When I first bought Enter the Matrix, I thought it was an okay game. It was pretty cool. The graphics were just aweful and as I continued playing it, it just got worse. Don't worry though, this game is not nearly as bad as ETM, though many will disagree. I don't exactly see why everyone is hating on this game. Was they hype that crazy? It's starting to remind me of the whole Fable thing. Anyway, getting back on track here, lets focus on the review. I am neither a Matrix fanboy, nor do I dislike it. So I will try to give as much of an unbiased opinion as I can.

Story: 7/10

Not gonna spoil anything here for anyone but lets just say the movie follows the story from Neo's point of view and you go through all the parts of the movie that he was involved in. Though, you tend to stray into weird levels and you will do things that you did not see in the movies. I suppose this was just done to lengthen the game. But the story does take some odd twists and turns. And it doesn't really focus on choice, which would have made the game a little better if you could choose how the story went. That is what the Matrix is about so it would have been a nice addition. The story is still basically what you see in the movies with a few differences here and there. Some major ones as well. Nothing too aweful here though. If you saw the movies, you will know what is going on in the game for the most part.

Gameplay: 8/10

Well, here is where you will get some mixed views on the game. Many people think it's aweful, others think it's great. I am one of those people that thinks the game is real fun to play. You have 2 attack buttons, one is your basic set of punches and kicks, and the other is a stun move that lets you get into some major combos. The combos in this game are really cool and fun to pull off. You will often find yourself using the same ones over and over, even though there is a lot of variety in the moves you can do. The combat is the best part of the game. Hand-to-hand fighting in this is some of the best I've seen in any game. It could use some work though as in real hectic fights, it can get annoying when Neo will just suddenly stop fighting even though you are hitting buttons or you will be hitting nothing because you are stuck in a combo. Part of this is that the framerate is to blame. Yes, this is where we unfortunately get into the negative parts of the game. It depends on how you look at it, I see them as being major sometimes and other times they aren't so bad. Framerate, for instance, seems to be different for different people. Many people have said it's aweful. I have not experienced this. The most I've seen is that sometimes I won't know what is going on because I am ahead of the screen because it hasn't caught up to what I'm doing yet. Also I've had it where I've killed a guy and he remains standing for like 5 seconds. None of these have ever been too major or gamebreaking but they can get annoying every once in a while. And the weird thing is, the framerate drop seems to happen more frequently when you are fighting less guys than when you are fighting a larger amount. I have also heard that the Xbox version is slightly more laggy and glitchy. This could be due to the extra lighting and stuff that they put in that they left out on the PS2. The gunfighting is pretty bad but it's not too hard to get used to. Sometimes you will lock on to someone several floors above you or you will get stuck being locked on to a dead body and can often take unneeded hits because of this. But, once you get used to getting around that stuff, the bouncing off the walls can get fun. For the most part, guns are useless though because the presence of Agents is much much higher than in ETM. Expect to see at least 1 or 2 in every level. I can't really think of anything else to say here. Overall, the good outweighs the bad.

Graphics: 4/10

Better then ETM but only by a slight margin. For an Xbox game being released this late in its life cycle, there should be some impressive stuff. The bullet time effects look nice and the destructible environments look cool, but everything is really low-res and just pretty ugly looking all around. Some of the models are okay, but overall, I wasn't impressed at all with the graphics. The fun of this game doesn't come out of the graphics though. The action is moving so fast you don't really take time to look at the fine details of the character models anyway.

Sound: 5/10

Another thing I was a bit disappointed with. Almost no (if any at all) songs from any of the movies are in this game. I was hoping that while fighting Agent Smith both in the Burly Brawl from Reloaded and the final fight from Revolutions, I would get to hear the music from those fights. Also the lobby fight and some other spots as well. They do play some decent Matrix-esque brawling music though so it isn't all bad. Also, I don't think any of the actors do the voice overs except for Lawrence Fishburne who lends his voice for Morpheus. I was disappointed because they got the actors for ETM I don't see why they couldn't get more for this one. Oh well, that's just the way it is.

Fun Factor: 8/10

It's just a fun game, what can I say.

Replayability: 6/10

It depends here. If you are a die hard Matrix fan, this might be the game for you depending on how you can take the story. If you like brawlers then I would recommend this one. For the most part, this game is just straight up button mashing with a couple very minor platforming-type elements. I would definitely recommend everyone at least give this one a rental. I bought it and am not regretting it at all.

Now, we are gonna break it down...

Pros:
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- Fighting is very fun in this game
- Lawrence Fishburne is a minor plus I guess
- Boss fights are pretty cool and challenging
- 3 difficulty levels that would probably give anyone a decent challenge
- Burly Brawl...heck yeah!

Cons:
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- Glitchy
- Some random Story changes (to me this isn't a bad thing but I will put it in Cons anyway because most people didn't like this)
- Poorly executed gunplay mechanics
- Aweful graphics
- Twitchy framerate

Overall: 7/10

Again, I highly recommend at least a rental. Is this Ninja Gaiden? No. Is it good? Yes. There are a lot of cons, sure but they really aren't that bad or gamebreaking.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/05