Enter the Matrix by Atari

                  Reviewed by Dog Solitude

AOL and Time Warner have proclaimed 2003 to be the 'year of the
Matrix' and what's more they are trying to make you believe it.
The film sequel, "Matrix Reloaded", the animated films "Animatrix"
and the game "Enter the Matrix", are all released in May with the
three titles designed to compliment each other by providing extra
dimensions to the whole experience before the third film. "Matrix
Revolutions", follows in November.  Alternatively it's another
attempt to exploit the cash potential of a movie tie-in,
particularly at what is traditionally a quiet time for the game
industry while simultaneously maximising Christmas penetration.
The hype surrounding the release schedule has done much to
increase the already salivating anticipation into a drooling
frenzy, resulting in ETM having the largest rollout for a game
ever.  Released cross platform (simultaneously on PC, Xbox and
Playstation 2) and four million units being produced it's no
wonder that ETM shot to number one in all format charts and, at
time of writing, has stayed there for five weeks.

The original film, under the direction of the Wachowski brothers,
was chock full of revolutionary special effects which, combined
with the William Gibson like cyberpunk genre, made it ideal video
game material.  The big budget and star cast ensured that The
Matrix appealed not only to sci-fi fans, but also to the mass
market.  This, combined with the timing of the release, served to
make The Matrix the killer app. that sold DVD players and
bizarrely at one point sold more copies on DVD than there were DVD
players on the market.  Indeed current figures suggest that one in
five households possess a copy and it's still selling well.

The franchise sought to capitalise on this desirable game license
stressing the huge development budget by emphasising the striking
graphics and cinematic cut scenes. The FMV includes over an hour
of film sequences shot, using the actual actors voices and movie
sets, specifically for the game and directed by Wachowski brothers
who were involved with developer Shiny Entertainment throughout.

The game's story is quite loose and assumes some familiarity with
the film. So for those of you who've been living on Mars the
matrix is a virtual reality world created by machines as a prison
for humans in order to milk our body's electricity as an energy
source.  Resistance fighters living in the post apocalyptic
reality hack in and out of the matrix in a bid to rescue humanity
from the machines.

ETM is a third person action game in which you play one of two
minor Matrix characters, Niobe or Ghost, following a plot set
chronologically between The Matrix Reloaded and the Animatrix
short "Last Flight of the Osiris".  Choice of character doesn't
make much difference to the gameplay apart from an occasional
level, where for example; Niobe drives while Ghost leans out of
the window shooting stuff. Both characters are seen sparingly
throughout the film, but appear to have been introduced solely for
their story to be told in the game.

Levels are objective-driven with your first mission being to
retrieve the message sent from the ill fated Osiris and get out of
the Matrix before the agents get you.  Further missions include
chasing aeroplanes in an SUV, rescuing captured comrades and
fighting off a sentinel attack from your ship, the Logos.  None of
the objectives are fleshed out terribly well, and are very linear
with little interaction.  It's also difficult to really get a feel
for how your actions tie into the film.  Quality fluctuates
between levels with the vehicle chase scenes looking decidedly
dodgy, as they are not only blocky, but suffer serious clipping
issues.  A more cynical person than I might suggest that these
game breaks appear to have been added as an afterthought, as a
form of padding or to link game sections, as they stop and start
abruptly.  These filler missions have particularly horrid AI and
jerky controls making them a chore to play.

As you may have anticipated ETM makes judicious use of the old
slow motion trick.  Called 'Bullet Time' in Max Payne the Matrix
refers to it as 'Focus'.  Focus levels increase steadily with time
and can be unleashed to allow your standard combat moves to become
gravity defying gymnastics of death. While the hand to hand
fighting is fun and fairly fluid unfortunately you have little
control over the moves and Focus levels regenerate so quickly as
to make it a constant companion so the novelty soon wears off.
Enemy AI is not good and security guards, cops, SWAT forces and
vampires are easily dispatched with some quick punches and kicks
when they're not running on the spot or clipping through walls.
There's a good selection of weapons available but there's no
crosshair as, just like the guys in the film, you don't have to
aim, so it's easier to just pump enemies full of lead rather than
bother with your kung fu skills.

Similarly health levels constantly regenerate which serves to
encourage extravagant behaviour in the face of the enemy, which is
necessary to maintain continuity with the film series.  Along with
the frequent save opportunities this does make it difficult to
die. The game is rarely difficult, and 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.

In keeping with the Matrix mythos additional material can be
accessed through the curious feature of the Hacking screen.  This
section allows you to enter codes hidden within the game on a
pseudo command prompt type OS to access special features, i.e.
Cheats and Easter Eggs (List of codes attached).  While I'm aware
of cheat codes per se, I've personally never seen a cheat screen
so integrated into the game itself before.

Like many movie to game adaptations, ETM seems rushed and shallow
and is ultimately very much a victim of it's own hype.  It's a
reasonable enough game although somewhat uneven and we've seen it
all before with a gent by the name of Max Payne.  The real shame
of Enter the Matrix is that it gives the impression of just
another marketing monster masquerading as a game (the manual even
advertises the official McFarlane action figures).  What did we
expect?



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