Enter The Matrix - First Impressions?

vibe666

Got it on Saturday, finished the first half of it this morning, and that's not 24 hour gaming either. 1-2 hours a day.

You can play it as Ghost or Niobe, and to finish the whole thing, you need to play it as both (apparently), so I'm now about a 6th of the way through it as Niobe after finishing the 'Ghost' half of the game.

So here's what I have to say about it

PS2 Version
The Good:
You get to do all the cool things from the movies, like running along walls, bullet dodging and a lot of kung fu, with all the great swooshing sound effects from the movie too (remember the fight in the training room between Neo and Morpheus? well all those sounds!).
You get to see clips of action and storyline from the movie as (I suspect, but not having seen it yet, I can't be sure) well as additional footage shot for the game by the actors when they were doing the film (from the look of it).
Some good cinematics of the scene on the freeway/motorway with a significant chunk of it not seen in any of the previews that are doing the rounds.
A glimpse of the background story behind the movie that explains some of the plotline of the movie in more depth.
All this is rather cunningly done without giving too much away about the move, that would give away the plot of the film. I'd say it will actually enhance the movie experience, when I finally get to see it, which I reckoon is what the Wachowski's were trying to do with the game anyway.

The Bad:
Not much in this one, apart from the difficulty level going from p*ss easy for about 45mins and then getting almost impossibly hard at times (running from 'the smiths' coming to mind).
Also, the cut scenes aren't always where they should be, sometimes leaving you wondering about things, but only a minor complaint, which I suspect is more to do with hardware constraints of consoles I would say, than anything else.
The driving/shooting (Dep. on character) scenes are rudementary at best, with some very average physics for the most part. Kinda like the driving bit was tacked on the end for a bit of variety. SpoilerAs for the flying bit, does anyone remember Microcosm for the MegaCD? Very rudimentary, with only basic controls. Feeling very linear. And it's right at the end of the game, and a pretty poor way to finish if you ask me, although it does show some good clips of whats to come movie wise.

Ratings
Graphics 85% - Nothing new (not since Max Payne anyway, but they stole it from the Matrix anyway), but the character animations are pretty good.
Originality 90%
Storyline 95%
Longevity 75% - You'll have it completed and back to the shop to exchange for something else inside a week.
Overall 95% - Why you ask after all that? Because it's the Matrix, and you really wouldn't want to miss out on that now would you? The movie isn't complete without the game (as they keep telling you) so you absolutely HAVE to get it or you'll be missing out on a whole load of stuff. Especially when the 3rd movie comes out in November, and the whole thing gets turned on it's arse, and everything you thought you knew about the Matrix turns out to be wrong.

I'll leave you to think on that one.

Praetorian

I have it aswell. I was advised to play as far as the post office and then stop until I've seen the movie (tomorrow).

It's great the way it links up with the Flight of the Osiris aswell I'm getting the impression that if you miss out on the game, your missing out on an integral part of the Matrix saga.

8.5 / 10 (so far) because its the Matrix of course

Caesar_Bojangle

no doubt the gamecube version will be shiite? I wish i'd kept my ps2

Dooom

ive the pc version, its sooooo much fun to kick peoples heads in. i love it when they step of a ledge or wall and kick the unfortunate person in the face. the combat system is a bit unpredictable tho, i mean by accident just pressing one button i managed to get niobe to grap the barrel of a SWAT guys' mp5, smack him in the chin with it and then round house him to the other side of the room :cool:

if only my god damn pc wouldnt power down after about 20mins of play!!!!!:mad: :mad: :mad:

Thorbar

What temp is your cpu/mobo running at aragon? Are you overclocking or did you put in a new cpu without upgrading your fan?

Oh by the way I've seen the matrix in case any of ye didn't know can't wait to get the game this weekend.

Dooom

the temps are fine. its just when i play a game, after about 10-20 mins of play, the whole thing just powers down. green led stays on tho on the case. even to touch the grfx card doesnt seem that hot. bout the same as the cpu. (average cpu temp is 35 or so, mobo is average 21). it started doing this about a week ago when i got an extra stick of ram, and flung in an old hdd. ive tested the ram to see if its faulty but it just did the same thing. maybe i knocked a little connection? i'll rip it apart tomorrow and see what i get. all the drivers and bios are upto date and nothin's o/c'd my spec is:
asus a7n8x deluxe
amd athlon xp2600+
768mb pc2700 ram
80gb hdd
sapphire radeon atlantis 9700 pro 128mb
win2k pro with service pack 3
400w (or 450w, i'll remember later) dual fan psu

Zukustious

Originally posted by vibe666
not since Max Payne anyway, but they stole it from the Matrix anyway

Max Payne was in development for years before the Matrix came out so I hardly think they stole the idea.

Praetorian

He means they stole the bullet time (slow motion) idea. Which they did. But the wachoski brothers stole it from anime movies.

vibe666

Anyhoo,

PLayed it a bit more as Niobe now, and although there are some different scenes/levels when played as Niobe most of it is the same as with Ghost, which personally is pretty poor. You play through the game as one character and then you have to play the majority as another with the same goals. Kinda sucks. I thought they'd have a bit more imagination considering the game itself.

I know with Splinter Cell they had to cut/shorten a few levels because of the way the PS2 works, apparently they couldn't fit the whole thing on one disk so maybe it was something to do with that, but I would've said that given what the game is about a 2 disk version wouldn't have been out of the question.

But, that didn't happen, so what can you do?

nada.

Shinji

If it didn't have the word "Matrix" in the title, nobody would pay it the slightest bit of attention. It's a poor Max Payne rip-off with dodgy graphics and some TERRIBLE sub-sections, like the driving bit which is actually genuinely painful to play, it's so bad.

6/10 at best. But the sheep will lap it up because it's the Matrix. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, little sheepies, baaaaaaaaaaaaa.

vibe666

hehe. I didn't want to say it that plainly for fear of hurting poeples feelings!

saved me the bother.

But it's not all that bad really. I've payed for and played much worse that got nearly as much hype, not mentioning any *cough*Primal*cough* names.

logic1

Originally posted by vibe666
hehe. I didn't want to say it that plainly for fear of hurting poeples feelings!

saved me the bother.

But it's not all that bad really. I've payed for and played much worse that got nearly as much hype, not mentioning any *cough*Primal*cough* names.

You gave it 95% then agreed when someone said it was **** and scored it 6/10 a meagre 60%.

Do you actually have your own opinion?

Personally I think it sucks the fat one, frankly 6/10 is a generous score.

.logic.

vibe666

I was agreeing with it not being anything special without it being a matrix tie-in. And I gave it 95% because of that, if you'd read my original post properly you'd hae noticed that

As a Matrix fan I don't have a choice but to rat it highly for the Matrix content within the game.

but as a game on it's own (which it isn't) I would have given it a much lower score (about 70-75%), but it isn't a game on it's own is it?

Sorry I thought I made it clear, but I guess not.

Deadwing

Theres a lesson to be learned here people....MOVIE TIE-INS ALMOST ALWAYS SUCK!!! *L*
The only good movie licensed games i can think of were Goldeneye (which i personally didnt think was all that amazing anyway, just decent) And ummmm...indiana jones and the last crusade:the graphic adventure, on the Atari ST *L*
Developers have to spend bloody millions buying the rights to put the name "THE MATRIX" on their cd case, and that leaves them with a teeny tiny budget left to actually MAKE the game, corners get cut, ideas get stolen (and poorly executed) from superior games, and the end result is ALWAYS disappointing. Think about it, Blade2:Pants. Wolverines revenge(the x-men2 game):Pants. Every james bond game since goldeneye:Pants. Minority report:Pants. Do i even have to go on?

vibe666

I don't knkow if anyone noticed, but Samsung and Intel both have advertising within the game itself. There are posters for the Pentium4 on lots of walls around the game. sometimes on the street levels and also in the airport on the ground floor.

And the Wachowski's don't sell out eh? so much for high moral standards!

Thorbar

Dark forces and tie fighter are both star wars movie tie ins and they're excellent games.

I'm still undecided if I'll buy this game myself. Its after getting fairly mixed reviews, some people loving it others hating it. Personally I think I'd buy it just for the matrix content and if the game is just a shadow of max payne fair enough that was one of my favourate games so if its anything like that I'll be pleased.

Miguel_Sanchez

Originally posted by vibe666
And the Wachowski's don't sell out eh? so much for high moral standards!

Whoever said that? Sure wasn't the first Matrix film chock full of product placement - and there were tons of ads with Matrix photos and clips - Phone and boots spring to mind but there were probably more.

vibe666

the phone in the first one wasn't a licenced one, it was one their effects guys codged together and spring loaded especially for the film. nothing to do with nokia, but the main reason the 7610 had a spring loaded cover after the film was released.

so it wasn't really a tie in, and in any case nokia declined their offer to have the phone for reloaded and we've ended up with some crappy Samsung thing that looks like a tazer or something.

Thorbar

WTF is the point in calling someone a sell out just because they want to make money from their product. Do you consider yourself a sell out when you open your wage package every friday?

vibe666

all I meant was, that the brothers Wachowski are very big into the whole thing being about art and not money, but having advertising inside a game kinda contradicts that don't you think?

Tusky

Originally posted by Thorbar
WTF is the point in calling someone a sell out just because they want to make money from their product. Do you consider yourself a sell out when you open your wage package every friday?

well...a sell out in my eyes is som1 who makes a cack game but has a good licence i.e knows ppl wil buy it but doesnt care ab00t the quality

and as for...

Goldeneye (which i personally didnt think was all that amazing anyway, just decent)

did you play goldeneye when it was first released or long time after ? if you played it when it was first out i fail to see how you werent jaw droppingly happy with it

vibe666

sell outs, like I said.

they are always going on about their 'art' and declining interviews because they don't want to get into the whole 'hollywood' side of the industry, and they claim they are gamers and wanted to make something 'by gamers, for gamers' (heard Joel Silva say that in an interview about the game side of the project) and then they use the game as a vehicle to milk more cash out of their fans.

I'm not saying it's a sh1t game. personally, I think it's an almost good game lifted to the level of just above good (not exceptionally great mind you) by the extra content from the movie.

There's still a long way to go though if they plan on making a decent game for the next movie. Back to the drawing board.

Caesar_Bojangle

Goldeneye was superb, its by far the best movie tie in i've played but saying that if i was to dust off my n64 now it would probably feel real dated

Raz

Goldeneye will never feel dated.
I have never enjoyed taking a handgun and poping a few shots into some unwitting guard more than in goldeneye.
Firing as quick as you can using the Z-trigger made you feel like you could do that with a real gun.

Wow that sounds very pro guns :eek:
Oh well

weemcd

I think that games like this are slagged so much cos of the hype, i think no matter what the game is like someone will be dissapointed- because they had big expectations thats what was so good about the first matrix film it wasnt like the MASSIVE thing u see on the news now everydy. The wach-whatever brothers are alot more smart about the merchendise- instead of some crap action figures and a piece a **** toy at mcdonalds for the kids you buy the game and possibly the animatrix- both cost more than a happy meal.

yossarin

The wach-whatever brothers are alot more smart about the merchendise

Its true - this is the first time that I've ever seen a piece of merchandise (the game) that was sold as essential to understanding the main product (the movie).

Its not a bad thing in this case, but ominious nonetheless...

Spunog UIE

Originally posted by Deadwing
Theres a lesson to be learned here people....MOVIE TIE-INS ALMOST ALWAYS SUCK!!! *L*
The only good movie licensed games i can think of were Goldeneye (which i personally didnt think was all that amazing anyway, just decent) And ummmm...indiana jones and the last crusade:the graphic adventure, on the Atari ST *L*
Developers have to spend bloody millions buying the rights to put the name "THE MATRIX" on their cd case, and that leaves them with a teeny tiny budget left to actually MAKE the game, corners get cut, ideas get stolen (and poorly executed) from superior games, and the end result is ALWAYS disappointing. Think about it, Blade2:Pants. Wolverines revenge(the x-men2 game):Pants. Every james bond game since goldeneye:Pants. Minority report:Pants. Do i even have to go on?

I loved the Die Hard game, with the three games on it for the ps1. Esp the car bit. It was dirt cheap when it came out and was very good value for money.

Indiana Jones, oh and Blade Runner too were great.

Hobbes

Originally posted by Shinji
If it didn't have the word "Matrix" in the title, nobody would pay it the slightest bit of attention. It's a poor Max Payne rip-off with dodgy graphics and some TERRIBLE sub-sections, like the driving bit which is actually genuinely painful to play, it's so bad.

6/10 at best. But the sheep will lap it up because it's the Matrix. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, little sheepies, baaaaaaaaaaaaa.

I agree. The fighting is nice in it (very funny), but the game is very short (beaten in two sittings) and appears to be a glorified advertisement for the movie.

Also the Niobe AI is piss poor. I played Niobe so didn't have the driving problem, but Jag played Ghost and Niobe would constantly just run into walls on purpose and just sit there.

The hacking was intresting but easy and very short.

Btw there are also alternate endings to the game. Some of the missions you can actually loose and still have the game continue on.

vibe666

Originally posted by Hobbes
Btw there are also alternate endings to the game. Some of the missions you can actually loose and still have the game continue on.

AFAIK the only difference in the ending is if you fail to beat

Seraph in his tea rooms.

You don't get the

oracle cinematic (one for ghost, one for niobe, both giving clues about character/movie stuff) and you don't get to fight/run fron the Smiths.

You just then go straight to the last level.

BTW Hacking question, but

I've worked my way right through (i think) the hacking section. I've unlocked the B:, V: and RAM drives and have run help on any *exe files I could find in those drives, and run directly any that didn't have any help files, such as the rootsearch etc. and worked my way through the dialling bit. I registered on the website and got the code to unlock the training level (which sucks beyond belief) and loaded the sword add-on from the .dsk file, but I can't find it in the game. Anyone know where I can pick it up?

Also, something I noticed this morning is that there is a multiplayer option 'mano a mano' in various scenes from the 2 movies and wondered if anyone had noticed that. If you load a game and where you can pick the level, if you go left past the post office, you get the multiplayer levels. Unfortunately you need to have someone nearby who is willing to fight you (I only have my gf and she's not a big fan) so I'm not really sure how much fun it is.