Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Enter the Matrix

Written by Tony Kennetz on July 02, 2003

Full Review: "Yes, you need to enter the Matrix...just not this Matrix."

I'm sorry to all of you who got suckered into buying this game before I was able to give the PlayStation 2 version a proper analysis reading. Over a million copies are in the hands of gamers' everywhere, and I'm positive a large majority are thinking to themselves, УDude, this isn't the Matrix...this is crap!Ф I found myself thinking the same thing when I played the game for the first time, and then the second. Truth be told, if this game didn't have the Matrix license on board, I can assure you that there would be absolutely no reason to play this game whatsoever. That said, it does have the Matrix license attached to it, and that does give the game some leverage. Want to see how far the rabbit hole in this Matrix really goes? Then just keep on reading, and engross yourself with some knowledge.

The biggest selling points for Enter the Matrix were that it enhanced the story of the movies. It was said the game would add all sorts of story elements and game-exclusive live-action movie clips not seen in the movie. For the record, all of this is well represented in the movie. You'll meet Niobe and Ghost and see how they ended up in Reloaded. Over an hour of movie-like exclusives are here for the taking. Give the Wachowski brothers plenty of credit for all of this; they managed to cover up a lot of the mediocrity (and worse) than Enter the Matrix holds elsewhere.

If I could only tell you about one complaint I have about this game (I have more than one, actually, and I will tell you all about them), it would have to be the simply idiotic controls. Keeping your character headed in the right direction and other basic tasks are so cumbersome and annoying that it adds a level of artificial difficulty to the game (even though it is still an easy one).

In a lot of ways, Enter the Matrix does give off that certain flair and style that fans of the movies and gamers alike are going to look for from an action game. You'll be sniping out a plane tire to save a compatriot one minute, then the next you find yourself chasing down another plane in a hotwired Jeep-like vehicle. Of course, you will also get to have some slick looking hand-to-hand fights with swarms of foes surrounding you at once. The problem with all of these scenarios is that they all manage to feel forced and don't match the level of gameplay that similar titles reached so long ago (think Max Payne here). Combat is nothing more than simple Уdisarm, tap X, repeatФ warfare, the driving physics are jumpy, and sniping is made difficult by the unresponsive controls. There is no excuse for making such large blunders in a game with a license this big.

With all these discrepancies counting against Enter the Matrix in the entertainment department, it is hard to believe that the developers at Shiny didn't even think to add a large array of weapons to at least help compensate for the other issues at hand. Instead, what you have here is a basic set of tools that, while getting the job done, become less and less fun each time you use them. And you'll use each of them quite a lot, which is really saying something.

The Matrix movies have been given credit for a lot of things. They changed the face of the action movie forever. They made Keanu Reeves look like a good actor. But most importantly, they managed to make bullet time one of the biggest features in the video game world to date. Once the movie was out, all developers wanted to do was make it possible for the gamer to slow down time in the fantasy world. The trend started with Max Payne and progressed to become a phenomenon that couldn't be stopped. Therefore, it is a given that Enter the Matrix would have to implement the feature. It did, and to my surprise, it was done fairly well. Known as the УFocusФ ability in Enter, it isn't perfect, but being able to run up walls and make death defying jumps in slow motion is just way too cool. So for that, I give Shiny credit. They made it work here.

As possibly the most Уhardcore gamerФ feature you'll find in Enter, the hacking portion is a really cool way to implement a cheats section. By УhackingФ the Matrix through a very DOS-esque system, you can pull up invincibility, weapon drops, and even a 2-player fighting mode (it really is lame, but at least this feature shows Shiny's trying). On its own, hacking can manage to entertain for a few hours if you can get into and have some understanding of DOS.

Typically, load times aren't something I like to worry about for a review. They're always going to be there for a console that uses CDs and DVDs to carry their information. I changed my mind about all of that after I beat the first mission here. Please realize that the first job I had wasn't exactly long, and I soon found out the one following wasn't either. No matter. I had to face one of the most ridiculous loading periods I have experienced in this generation of consoles. I don't understand how it could possibly be that hard to streamline a game like this a bit better, considering the graphics to be found in Enter the Matrix aren't what a gamer would call Уstate-of-the-art.Ф

Speaking of graphics, we all know how visually pleasing the Matrix films are. They are nothing short of delicious eye-candy for us all to devour. So you would assume that the same level of greatness should be achieved in the game based on that same franchise? If you bet your life on it, you would be dead right now. There isn't much here that resembles the movies in terms of polish or style. Yes, the Focus sequences do look pretty good -- but if you're watching, there aren't a lot of strengths in the visual arena.

The attention to graphical detail is fairly minimal, to say the least. Have you ever wondered how a car would run on wheels that aren't quite circles? If you believe Enter the Matrix, it would run nice, fast, and it would be as responsive as the program that it is set in. Little nuisances like these aren't big, but they are in the game, and they make me wonder how hard it would be to fix these issues before shipping.

The animations here are quite a mixed bag, ranging from average to just plain mystifying. Example, let's say we have Ghost walking down the hall. It looks good enough, nothing too goofy to laugh about. Now, let's start him running. Watch his arms go flailing into the air as he chugs away at the distance between he and his target. He looks like a fourth grader running the mile in gym class. What has happened, I don't know. Maybe Shiny tried a bit too hard to make this thing look realistic, and in turn made it look insane.

The audio is nothing more than slightly above average. There are some ultra powerful pieces that can be heard, but at the same time the music tends to seem like it's all been done before. The sound effects are bland, offering up nothing more than the sounds of guns firing; the generic sound of punches hitting their mark; and the like. The biggest bright spot is shown in the voice over work however, as it is implemented by many of the actors from the films.