2003 Infogrames
In April 2003, Infogrames announced it would purchase Shiny Entertainment from Interplay. In addition, Infogrames' $47 million transaction secured them the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and publish videogames based on the Wachowski Brother's directed sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
Shiny worked very close with The Matrix's Wachowski brothers and had full access to materials related to the movie. Enter the Matrix places the player into the shoes of two new characters Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Ghost (Anthony Wong).
All of these factors combined to create incredible hype. Nothing could have ever reasonably lived up to such hype. Both the movie and game have since been met with mixed reviews. Now a month after the release of the movie and game, the hype has settled. How does the game hold up?
Features
- Over a half hour of movie footage to expand on the Matrix storyline
- Choose to play as one of two characters, Niobe or Ghost
- Use "focus" to slow down time and have an advantage while fighting enemies
- Kung Fu, directed by the Matrix fight scene choreographer Yuen Wo Ping
Glen Bayer: It's your chance to
choose either the blue or red pill and Enter the Matrix. When you begin a new game you're
given the choice of playing with either Niobe or Ghost. Both characters were featured briefly in the
movie Matrix Reloaded. However, in Enter the Matrix their characters are the main focus.
Therefore, playing the game and watching the movie really helps to round out the story and better
explain particular scenes and events. Over a half hour of extra movie footage can be seen in the
game. For some, this alone will make the game a necessary addition to your game collection.
The developer Shiny did an impressive job with the graphical engine. Extra care was taken to bring out the life in the two main characters, Ghost and Niobi. The voice work is done very well with the real actors & actresses lending their talent. The environments were also well-done with shadows and diverse textures. Wide-open rooms can be entered with no slow-down. Although, the level design themselves can become a bit repetitive, with the player running through what appears to be the same room or corridor. Luckily the handy "objective arrow" will point the player in the right direction. What the game might lack in variety, it makes up for in its combat system.
The character animation in Enter the Matrix is the best yet in a game. With a wealth of running, hand to hand combat, and gunplay, your character's moves never fail to impress. Although the standard punch, kick, block/counter and throw are there, the developers have managed to put the spectacular slow-motion of the Matrix in the game. This is the slow motion camera work used in the Matrix films to show how a character can manipulate the Matrix to achieve the impossible. Called "Focus" in the game, you can move your character towards a wall, do a flip, kick a cop nearby, and land on your two feet. Although it may sound confusing, it works out considerably well and is possibly the best feature of the game. The game's auto-target system was made with care so that diving into the air and firing onto a crowd of cops is done with ease.
The developers have added a variety of additional moves to compliment the fighting. Niobe & Ghost have the ability to put their back to the wall and look around a corner. As well, they can creep along narrow ledges, and move hand over hand on overhead pipes. While on the pipe the player can wrap his or her legs around it and all the while unload a gun onto enemies. The players can also duck and hide behind boxes and tables to shield from gun fire. Using their "focus" the player can jump or dive over huge holes in the ground or between buildings. Your health and focus will replenish itself after about 15 seconds of non-action. Despite this, there are instant 100% health packs hidden around the game.
Sound too easy? Don't worry as the game has three different modes of play, Easy, Normal or Hard, giving those players who wish for a challenge or wish for a relaxing play the ability to do so.
There are also driving and two flight stages during the game. The driving scenes are the normal cops vs Niobe and Ghost. Depending on which character you chose at the beginning of the game, you either drive as Niobe or shoot at cops as Ghost. During the flight scenes you control Logos, Niobe's ship. Neither the driving or especially the flying scenes were impressive. The flying scenes brought up memories of Sega CD's Sewer Shark. Anyone who has played Sewer Shark can attest to the fact that it's pretty terrible. This is probably the biggest shortfall of the game. The driving and flying sequences pale in comparison to the ground action in the rest of the game. Luckily they are few.
There is also a hacking game that is available, accessed from the main game menu. I've yet to play it in-depth, however it seems the mini-game can actually give you the ability to hack into the Matrix, bestowing the player with cheat codes and other cool things and ways to alter the Matrix.
Despite the few downfalls, Enter the Matrix is one of the best movie to game licenses to come along since Goldeneye 007. If you're a fan of the Matrix and enjoy video games, you would be doing yourself a favor by going to the store and buying a copy. For those still sitting on the fence uncertain, you can always go for the rental route. One play through of the game can be done in around nine hours. At the end of the day, this is probably the best 3rd person action game available on GameCube. If you're a fan of the genre, don't be hesitant to jack into the Matrix.