May 15th, 2003 (12:00am) - If you look hard enough, you may be able to find Enter the Matrix for your console of choice as early as today. Actually, retailers across the nation have been breaking the game’s scheduled street date (May 15th) as early as last week. Yet, today I finally got my hands on the Nintendo GameCube version of the Wachowski brothers’ Enter the Matrix...
Enter the Matrix is one of the biggest games of the year. So big that Atari even shipped 4 million copies alone to retailers across the nation. The reason for this phenomena? Well, Atari’s Enter the Matrix is written and directed by the Matrix creator’s the Wachowski brothers, a project so big that the Wachowskis wrote a 2,000 page script, and even called in the actors for Matrix characters Ghost and Niobe to film scenes for the game!
With so much work put into a movie licensed game like this, you would expect one of the most incredible gaming experiences ever correct? Well, prepare to be disappointed because Enter the Matrix isn’t anything more than an even more linear clone of the infamous Max Payne.
When you first start the game you are treated to a live action cinema where real life actors give you the lowdown of what’s going on. Your first goal is to enter the Matrix, visit a post office and pick up an important package before the Agents do. Of course, in the game you can select two different characters, and just because I thought he looked badass, I picked Ghost. Depending on which character you choose, the game’s missions will vary, but nevertheless the first stage was full of action.
The gameplay is entertaining, despite it being the same thing over and over and over again. Why? Well, the amount of martial arts moves you can perform are pretty cool, and essentially, very easy to pull off because it’s simply just button mashing. Then of course you have the infamous bullet time feature in Enter the Matrix, implemented to the furthest extent I’ve seen in a game so far. It’s just cool. Going into this mode allows you to walk on walls, and of course take out opponents much easier than in the normal mode, and it even gives you new abilities, such as the ability to jump great distances (something which comes in handy in a later level when you’re running from an Agent on roof tops). And since the game has pretty short learning curve, especially when compared to Dead to Rights, you’ll be running around, killing people like a mad man in no time. Oh, I almost forgot… When equipped with a weapon, you automatically lock onto targets for the easy kill. Easy kill? Yep, and your own life isn’t threatened too much either, since for some odd reason you character, either Ghost or Niobe, can regenerate their health, and last time I checked…they didn’t have a mutant healing factor.
That doesn’t sound so bad does it? It doesn’t and the fact is that it’s pretty entertaining, but every game has its faults and Enter the Matrix’s biggest fault is the game’s linear gameplay. Sorry, the game is just too straightforward. All you do is go from room to room killing bad guy, after bad guy, after bad buy. There haven’t been any puzzles so far, and you’re never lost, since a door is either locked or open, and I think it would be in your best interest to go through the open one. Oh, and there’s an onscreen arrow which tells you which way to go as well.
So from what I’ve played so far, Enter the Matrix seems to be another title in the Max Payne genre of action games. However, if it wasn’t for the game’s incredible cinematic presence I would flat out say that the game sucks, but the story is good enough to keep you enthralled at all times.
-Beware of over hyped Hollywood videogames...
* GameCube owners take note… Enter the Matrix is a two disc game
