Official Website

Platform: Playstation 2, GameCube, Xbox, PC

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

When the original Matrix was released a few years ago, it was a film that took audiences worldwide by storm. Even though the film had perhaps one of the worst actors on the planet in the lead role, and we all know that I’m talking about Keanu Reeves, the rest of the film made up for that especially when it came to the innovative special effects and thought provoking plot. What surprised gamers though was that the film had game written all over it, and although just about everyone expected some type of adaptation to be released, we saw nothing.

Matrix Reloaded however is a completely different story. Anyone who follows the video game industry has known for quite a while that the sequel had a game attached to it, and to add to the fan anticipation, it was announced that the Wachowski brothers themselves were going to be behind the project. There were teasers released to make fans drool, and a huge advertising campaign went into effect prior to the release of the film and the game, hailing the title as “the future of video games.” That’s a pretty big claim for any company, and is almost on line with “there’s no power greater than X,” which certainly is a true statement if it referrers to the power of losing money.

Enter the Matrix doesn't in any way, shape, or form follow the Matrix Reloaded as a film. Instead, Enter the Matrix is more of a side story that fills in the gaps on some of the films details. You won’t be playing as Neo or Trinity, but instead you will be assuming the role of either Ghost or Naobi. The game features close to an hour of original video footage that was shot just for the game and places players in situations and events that connect in directly with what is seen in the film. As far as plot, unless you’ve already seen the film, the game won’t make too much sense since it is a tie-in, but for those that have, the world of the Matrix starts to take on yet another form, and some events in the movie become crystal clear.

First of all, I do have to say that it’s nice to see a game that’s based on a film that doesn’t attempt to directly emulate what we’ve already seen on the big screen. We’ve all seen it time and time again with games that really shouldn’t have been made and fail terribly in their effort to give a good movie experience. Recently, Spider-Man: The Movie would be a prime example. The game doesn’t follow the movie too closely; and while some of the events of the film are in fact represented, the game actually offers more action that what the film did, but it still is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to cash in of a movie franchise. With Enter the Matrix though, you at least get a companion for the film, adding more into an already astounding world. However, this is where my praise ends. This is a good idea gone terribly, horribly bad. The cut scenes may be done perfectly, which is no surprise since the game was created right around the filming of the two Matrix sequels, but innovative cut scenes certainly can’t save any game, not even Enter the Matrix.

The first problem crops up when the game starts. I’m a gamer that can’t handle load times, unless of course I see a sound reasoning behind it. Huge and detailed levels that need to load are fine, loads covered with a quick cut scene are tolerable, but then there are those games that need to load far too often. Enter the Matrix loads up more times than Cheech and Chong did in any one of their films. The initial game load is fine, I understand that, loading when I start I understand, but then there are loads between every level, and these stages far too short. Sure, the levels are detailed, and even better is the fact that you can shoot just about anything, but there certainly could have been other ways to load up entire sections of the game all at once. I would understand if it was a brief moment to load another cinematic, but this isn’t the case. After playing for only 5 minutes quite often, I’m prompted to save, yet again. In fact, after watching the first cut scene and selecting my character, I was asked to save my progress. What progress? I didn’t even do a damn thing, what exactly am I saving?

Then there’s the problem of the overall look of the game. The backgrounds look fairly good, but the characters themselves, especially yours, have a look that’s too, shall we say, shiny (no pun intended.) This, combined with some very poor character animations make the game that much more uninteresting to play. While running, the characters have a very stiff movement pattern, resembling earlier game animations and lacking some of the more subtle qualities that we see in animation in other games, and climbing is even worse. My first thought was of some earlier games like, let’s say, Elevator Action. It’s just simply horrible.

The camera angles are worse. While you can move and rotate the camera, it tends to become more of a burden while fighting. Sure, there are some slick animations during the fight scenes, and the game will prompt you with notes regarding different moves that you can perform as you progress farther into the game, but the camera isn’t set up to follow your movement, often resulting in your not being able to see all enemies that are present. Fortunately though you’re not just stuck to just having to physically kick butt, and you’ve got weapons as well, and will be picking up some more along the way, but even bullets don’t always prove to be quite enough to work around the games bad camera.

The controls overall just weren’t thought out too well. Button combinations are fine and everything, but this all flows back to the prompts. They tend to show up right in the middle of some huge amount of action, meaning that you need to jump into the submenu quickly to read exactly what it is that you are now able to do. Most of the moves do require some sort of combo to be performed properly though, and in some ways it becomes a little pointless. I can do those cool side flips if I want to, but most of the time I’m far too busy trying to get the camera back into a position where I can see just what the hell is going on instead of impressing myself with flashy moves. Then there’s your “focus” mode that allows you to slow everything down, really letting you see just how badly the game was put together.

Enter the Matrix doesn’t stop suffering there however. The music in the game does come directly from the film, which certainly adds to having the feel of the film, but the loops are done incredibly poorly. While the untrained ear may not be able to pick up on it, those that have any knowledge or experience with things such as sampling will hear the obvious and badly edited loops time and time again, especially with the orchestral pieces. The addition of Fluke’s “Atom Bomb” isn’t a bad thing, but keep in mind that these guys have been using this song to keep their bank account built up since Wipeout XL was released on the Playstation, and since that time we’ve heard the song in countless films, television series, and car commercials. I don’t really want to hear it anymore, and having it put in as part of Enter the Matrix’s soundtrack isn’t a blessing, so much as it is to have something that causes groans while you think, “God, not this song again.”

The voice acting isn’t too bad obviously, but there’s something I can’t determine if it’s intentional, or just another part of bad programming and design. Occasionally, the audio will become very echoed and reverberated. If this is something that was done on purpose by the programmers, it’s fairly annoying. But, I’m guessing that it’s just the result of bad quality control. The thing is though, no matter how good the voice acting is, it still doesn’t make up for the bad game play, and most of the cut scenes tend to be very brief in length, bring us back once again to having to wait for the next scenes to load.

The game plays quite a bit like an attempt at doing a new generation version of the old Final Fight games (anyone else remember those?) But then, it seemed that the programmers and designers had some other ideas. Many of the levels the player will spend time beating down and shooting security guards and police. Uh-huh. Anyone else smell a rip off of Grand Theft Auto? That’s really all Enter the Matrix is, minus the criminal element. Take as many cops down, make it to the next stage, lather, rinse, and then repeat. Even the whole focus idea is something that the game Max Payne already used, as have other games, and thus it’s nothing innovative.

All this title amounts to is an excuse to sell software based on being a movie tie in, which is painfully obvious due to the simultaneous release on all platforms, including PC. Try is it might, this is a game that really cannot compare to some of the higher end, and more though out titles, and while there are definitely games that are duplicates of others on the market, this is one that tries using just about every known genre trick in the book, missing only the elements of extreme sports, first-person shooters, and edutainment to complete its stealing from every form of gaming. Not even the hacking option, which opens up cheats and a few other interesting things, or the multiplayer mode (opened up in the hacking section) save this game from being nothing more than a cash cow. To further illustrate my point, this was a free rental that I received from a local video store, and that didn’t even keep me from being completely disgusted with it. There are plenty of other games that will offer more entertainment and replay than what Enter the Matrix will, and the only thing that might keep fans interested in it is the fact that it fills in some more details for the film. Simply put: it’s a game that’s been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

I should have taken the blue pill. 

-mike-