Enter the Matrix

Talk about scoring a movie license. The Wachowski brothers' ambitious vision of the Matrix storyline extended beyond the constraints of a movie trilogy, and in addition to contracting several animated shorts (The Animatrix) to add to the saga, they also asked for some video games. Shiny Entertainment landed the herculean task of developing their first game idea: Enter the Matrix, released simultaneously with the theatrical release of The Matrix Reloaded.

As any Matrix fan should know, the Matrix's appeal revolves around two key themes: philosophical storytelling and bare-knuckled action. Enter the Matrix retains these ideas - while the storyline included in the game may not be as thought-provoking as the movies', it's an original plot, developed to run parallel to Reloaded's. And in playing EtM, it's clearly evident that the focal point of the gameplay is to, quite simply, kick ass with a combination of martial artistry and gunslinging.

The story of EtM begins as a quest to retrieve a disk left in the Matrix by the crew of the Osiris, a fallen rebel ship (the story behind this is told in the Animatrix short "The Final Flight of the Osiris"). Once the disk is found, the information is relayed to the other rebel captains (as portrayed in Reloaded) that the machines are digging towards Zion with a massive army of sentinels. From there, Enter the Matrix takes two roles - explaining things that happen in Reloaded, and inventing new story events of its own. The two main (and playable) characters of EtM - Niobe and Ghost - are led around to many areas shown in the film, some by the film's accord and some by their own. They both meet the Keymaker, the Merovingian, Persephone, and the Oracle (who enlightens them with some very interesting information). The game's story concludes at roughly the same point as Reloaded, in just as much of a cliffhanger, albeit in a different situation. While some of EtM's story is told with in-game cutscenes and dialogue, a considerable portion is told in cinematic cutscenes (an hour of extra footage was filmed during the making of Reloaded explicitly for use in the video game), which can be re-watched again and again. To put it simply, any Matrix fan owes it to himself to unlock the story of Enter the Matrix.

Whereas the storyline is a must-see, the gameplay aspect of the game is more of a mixed bag. There are three types of levels in the game: third-person kung-fu and shooting (the majority of the game), driving a vehicle, and rail-shooting levels on a driven vehicle. Niobe and Ghost, as unplugged rebels and powerful hackers of the Matrix, have an edge on people in the Matrix in two ways: not only are they more skilled in martial arts and gunplay (for which there are dozens of weapons ranging from pistols to machine guns to grenades), but they also have the ability to Focus. When a player focuses, the game slows down, and the player is capable of achieving more (and more powerful) fighting moves - whereas non-focused combat might consist of kicking, punching, and knocking someone off his feet, focused combat could allow you to jump straight into the air and kick at two enemies in two different directions at once. Focus also allows you to run up walls to a limited extent. A player can use Focus as long as the Focus meter shown on screen lasts - using focus depletes the meter, and not using focus slowly refills it. Similarly, the health meter is slowly regenerated over time when not in the midst of combat. The fighting overall is fun and simple to control (revolving mostly around two or three buttons and the directional stick), and the enemy AI is at most times competent, but a downfall of the third-person levels is their usually uninspired level design. A player may all too often find himself wandering aimlessly around a labyrinthian room looking for the proper exit.

The driving levels invoke similarly mixed feelings. The actual act of driving is made more interesting than most driving games by the fact that the vehicle is going so incredibly fast - however, the level design is in some cases drab and in others downright confusing. The final levels of the game will put you inside the Logos, Niobe and Ghost's ship, and attempting to control it is barely possible. Shooting from vehicles is much more fun, as it takes away the challenging task of steering your way through obstacles at high speeds and instead simply asks you to destroy anything that happens to be in the way. As particularly exemplified in the driving levels, Niobe and Ghost's levels in the game are usually different from one another (Niobe does the driving, whereas Ghost is almost always relegated to the shooting). Their third-person stages are often different as well, taking place in different sections of the same general area.

The graphics of Enter the Matrix are simultaneously impressive and not. Many aspects are well done - character models are well-detailed, and when a character talks, his mouth moves very well with the dialogue. However, the overall appearance of the game looks like something from a few years ago. It's designed well, but provokes the feeling that it could have been done better. Sound effects are very nicely executed, and the voices from the game are taken directly (when applicable) from the movie cast. Music is also taken directly from the movies, so all the soundtracks are both fitting to the situation and pleasing to the ear - except in rare instances where the ambient sound engine goes berserk, and the music continually loops a dramatic score even when nothing is going on.

All the missions in the game can be replayed, though there's no motivation to do so in the majority of instances. However, there is another little segment of the game which will hold a player's attention a bit longer: Hacking. The Hacking feature of Enter the Matrix places you in front of a DOS-style terminal with scant direction, and from this you are able to unlock a short text adventure-style game as well as some nice extras. Though the "story" of Hacking is by no means long, there are commands that can be used here to play FMV cutscenes from the game's storyline, and view data files on things like guns, cars, and characters from the game. Finishing the "story" also unlocks a (very limited) multiplayer fighting mode. There are cheats for the game for things like infinite health and infinite focus - these are entered through the Hacking interface. And while many believe that the rabbit hole ends at multiplayer, there are some who hold fast to the idea that we have not yet seen all that Hacking has to offer...

Enter the Matrix is conceptually great, and it had the capacity to be as such. However, there are enough flaws in the game (dull atmospheres, awkward control moments, a flawed saving system, even occasional glitches) to bring it down to mediocre. The story is good, as is the fighting, and these are the key points of the game. But the rest could likely have been done better if Shiny hadn't rushed the game out the door to coincide with the release of Reloaded. If you're a fan of the Matrix and/or of slow-motion kung-fu, pick it up; but otherwise, you'd probably be better off exercising some caution with this game.

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