PC Games 4 U: Enter The Matrix

Enter the Matrix focuses on two side characters named Niobe and Ghost. You'll see both characters sparingly throughout the film, but they rarely get any meaningful screen time. However, it's assumed that the duo is off doing something important when they aren't hanging out with Neo, Trinity, and the rest of the film's principal characters. The game proves that assumption correct, as you'll pick up the story just after the conclusion of one of the short stories that make up The Animatrix and make your way from mission to mission until you reach the game's conclusion, which takes place around the same time as the end of the film. The game's story is very fast and loose, and it assumes that you're already familiar with the film. Even the game's FMV ending is little more than a "Whew, that was close" sequence with a trailer for the film thrown in for good measure. There is a smattering of FMV used throughout the game, but most of the noninteractive sequences are rendered with the game's engine.Enter the Matrix's engine delivers a pretty standard third-person action game. You're able to fire weapons and engage in hand-to-hand combat against a collection of foes. Most of the fighting puts you up against security guards, cops, and SWAT forces, but you'll also face the Matrix's own brand of vampires, as well as a couple of well-placed run-ins with life-threatening agents. The game is objective-driven. It opens with your character in a post office, trying to get to a specific PO box to retrieve some information. As you make your way through the game, you'll chase after airplanes in an SUV, rescue captured rebels, navigate a sewer system, destroy a nuclear power plant, and fight off a sentinel attack from on board your ship, the Logos. None of the objectives are fleshed out terribly well, and it's difficult to really get a feel for what, exactly, your team is doing and how, exactly, it ties into the plot of the film. Sections also stop and start very, very abruptly, as the game pauses to load up new sequences or give you the opportunity to save quite often.The Matrix may have been credited with bringing the slow-motion "bullet time" effect to the big screen, but games like Max Payne have already brought the effect--which slows time down to give you cleaner shots and more control of your character--to video games. Enter the Matrix, of course, uses this effect, and it's governed by a "focus" meter. You can use focus at the touch of a button, and it does things like let you run up walls, jump farther, and cartwheel out of the way of oncoming bullets. The ironic thing is that you really don't need to use the effect all that often, as the enemy AI is easily dispatched by hitting the action button to disarm them and then finishing up with some quick punches and kicks. You'll pick up an array of guns along the way, and it's quite easy to just pump enemies full of lead rather than bother with your kung fu skills. The AI in the game is also a bit of a mess, so you can expect to see things like enemy cops running into a wall and staying there, enemies clipping through walls and doors instead of running around to get to you, and so on. The game is rarely difficult, and like in Activision's recent movie game, X2: Wolverine's Revenge, you can simply stand still for a minute or so and regain all your health, which takes away almost all the tension. Short chapters and frequent saves combine to prevent you from ever having to replay lengthy sequences, should you actually die.Enter the Matrix's most heinous flaw is that it draws from a highly stylized universe but fails to capitalize on any of those strengths. Even though your characters will occasionally make some pretty daring escapes, you never actually get to do those things yourself. The game lets you run right up to the ledge, for example, but an in-engine cutscene always kicks in just as you're about to jump off. Also, some of the effects just look hokey. The game's subpar animation prevents most of your acrobatics from looking particularly good, and little touches, like the way the agents become a blur when they move to dodge bullets in the film, are totally missing here--which is especially silly, because it makes the agents look like they're trying to dance whenever shots are fired in their direction. Even the game's final sequence, which has you either piloting or covering the Logos as it runs from a ton of sentinels, seems ill-conceived. Perhaps it's fitting that a game with so much full-motion video has an end sequence that plays like it was taken directly from a Sega CD game--namely, Sewer Shark.