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What it does right, it does well, but when it misses...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: May 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've stopped playing it three days in. While the environments and sound were nice, the character graphics were pretty bad. The movement of the characters was suspect and I'm not just saying that because I hate games where I have to use the thumbstick to move my character (at least in Vice City I get the option of using the directional pad vs. the thumb-cracking joystick); these characters moved pretty ugly.

The targeting system was non-existent and illogical, the driving portions of the game atrocious and the in-game movie footage, while superior and meaningful, not worth the hassle of gettig form one piece ot the next, especially at the price most people will pay for it getting it out the gate. The hacking section was a good idea, but in the end fairly pointless. Unlocking the multiplayer was cool until you realized that the characters you coudl fight with in these new environs didn't have the "focus" (bullet time) feature enabled, so they just did regular kicks, punches and throws...all of which, by themselves, was not up to industry par in a game with this much buzz. Being able to do real combos would have been nice, as opposed to the smash the buttons and see what happens fighting engine we're pretty much subjected to.

I'll be returning my copy because of the game's many bugs (PS2 versions have been freezing while playing Niobe about halfway through and there is an incessant sound echoing in some of the cutaways) and because of its Atari 2600-Pitfall-esque replay value. What it does right it does very well (movies, the focus feature), but when it misses, it misses hard. Practicaly all of the gaming elements that are the real reason why you bought the game have been done better in other games. It's pioneering in scope and license relativity, but the game - the reason why people are sitting in front of this thing - fails.

Stay Tuned for An Incredible license!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 43
Date: January 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

There is little doubt that this is going to be one of the top games of 2003. The December 2002 Game Informer Magazine gave this a full-length feature, and it left little doubt that this is going to be a powerhouse game. Enter the Matrix is being developed with a close collaborative effort between gaming industry and Hollywood so that they can create a game experience "as rewarding as the movie."

There will be ultra-realistic character movements with the over 4,000 motion captures performed and encoded into the game. We are promised over 200 minutes of in-game cinematics and voices from the actors of the film including Keanu Reeves (bless his heart). You can play as Niobe or Ghost, and you play along side characters from the first movie (Neo and Morpeus). Screen shots look promising with plenty of special effects. Unless the something goes terrible wrong between now and the release of this game, we can expect ONE AWESOME GAME!

Great Game, but [Minorly] Flawed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you want my review in a line, here it is: the game is worth buying. However, I suggest discretion in making that choice. Be careful: the game has flaws.

First of all, Enter the Matrix has a lot going for it. Considering that the Wachowski Brothers both wrote and directed the game, you can expect a good story with believable characters and a cool environment. Niobe and Ghost both have depth. They have motives. You should care what happens to them. The story is interwoven with the script for the movie. If you ever found yourself puzzled and scratching your head, saying, "How did this come up?" while watching Matrix:Reloaded, here you just might find out how. You visit a lot of the same locales that you see in the movie. You set up events that will later come to fruition with Neo and the Gang. And don't forget the hour of footage that you can only get in the game. It's very, very cool.

There are other benefits, as well. The fighting system is as cool as I would have hoped. You have two buttons for hand-to-hand, but they do a lot more than just jab and kick. You can perform roundhouses, throws, and more cool moves from out of the films, as well as some other cool maneuvers unique to the game.

The versatility of this game will keep you on your toes. From recon to massive fights to driving to manning the guns of the Logos for battle, this game has a lot for you to do. For example, it's a pure adrenaline rush to be sprinting away from an Agent, just to find he's taken the body of the SWAT team member around the corner. Freaky.

And don't forget bullet-time. In this game, it's called focus, but it makes for some fun experiences that you just have to see to believe. Max Payne doesn't hold a candle here.

The graphics are of moderate calibre, too. Characters are a bit jaggier than I would have hoped, but still not obsolete by any means. Environments, however, are extremely detailed and cool. The ambiance of this game is through the roof.

Sound and music are both also bury the needle on the How-Cool-Is-This Meter. The voice acting is top-notch (they used the same actors from the movie, of course) and the music brings the tension to just the right level.

All of this great stuff being said, there are still a few issues which really need to be brought to your attention.

First of all, sometimes the sound cuts in and out. During a few of the cinemas in the first level (and perhaps later), you get audio echo (let's say the syllable "a" is said... a half second later you hear it again, and over what was being said at the same time as the repetition.) It's annoying. Really, really annoying. Sometimes when loading, the game gives you the impression that it just might crash. Whether or not this premonition will come true remains to be seen. These issues do not affect gameplay in any significant way.

Another issue that does, however, is the control scheme. It seems almost counter-intuitive. First of all, the player has to make a choice between assigning L2 and R2 to strafe, or assigning them to Target Lock. Both are necessary, and you can only have one. This makes me want to swear in the game. Button layout is a bit tricky as well... it would be terribly convenient if you tapped L1 to activate "focus" instead of having to hold it down. The need to hold is frustrating because now your index finger on your left hand is out of commission for as long as you need Bullet-Time. They could have done more with the right analog stick than they did... why not assign directional movement to the left stick and rotation to the right? It would have been doable and made movement more fluid. Just thinking about it frustrates me. Still, this does not make the game unplayable, just a bit more complicated than necessary.

Given the sum total of all this, you should still not hesitate to buy this game. Rent it, at the very least. It is truly an experience worth... well, experiencing. With that, I bring this lengthy review to a close.

cool but not nearly as cool as peaople say it is

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok Yeah this game looks great, Yeah it has good controls , yeah the moves and combos and slow motion stuf is all cool. BUT!!
the fact that every level is the same thing over and over again is totally boring, all you do is beat up and kill cops over and over in each level, it gets a little old after a few hours of that. every once in a while you get to fight an agent, other than that its pretty much just beating cops up and shooting them.
the game is WAY too easy as well, levels are too short and the story is not interesting. every once in while you get to drive a car around and get away from cops and you guessed it SHOOT them.
this game is only entertaining for about the first few days, then it just gets repititious.
Worth a rental but in my opinion not worth buying.

Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Enter the Matrix had loads and loads of promise considering it was in development by Shiny for over three years and was overseen by the film's directors the Wachowski Brothers. However, even with all the hype surrounding it and the time put into it, Enter the Matrix is just another licensed game which doesn't live up to it's license. The game's storyline attempts to fill in some holes seen in the film The Matrix Reloaded, but the game's story doesn't have enough to hold on it's own. You get to play as Niobe and Ghost; two characters sparingly seen in the film whose missions take place after the animated short "Final Flight of the Osiris" (which saw time in theaters as a short before the film Dreamcatcher and can currently be seen on The Animatrix DVD). There is a plethora of FMV sequences throughout the game, some of the most I've seen sice the days of the Sega CD, but one of the most annoying things for me personally is that right when your about to do something really cool like in the films (such as jumping long distances and in a few battles), the game shifts to an in-game cut scene to illustrate the action. Now while this may not be such a biggie for some, it sure annoyed me. Also worth noting is the hoopla surrounding new sequences filmed for the game, and yes there are a few, but they aren't anything special or worth just owning the game for. The game's action engine is pretty much standard third person action fare; ranging from firing guns to hand to hand combat with cops, security guards, and Agents. The bullet time feature, which the first Matrix film popularized, is used to a good effect here, but the need to use it isn't often thanks to the game's unbelieveably easy difficulty. And, last but not least, the game suffers from a number of bugs. While each console version has it's share of problems, the PS2's has a very unstable frame rate and frequent audio problems, plus there is some weak animation here and there, and in the end Enter the Matrix just feels rushed and unfinished. However, Enter the Matrix does have it's good points. The controls are dead on and easy to learn, and the game's designers clearly knew their source material. No matter what problems the game has though, it's sure to be a big hit namely because of it's license. In the end though, just like a lot of other games of late like Blade 2, Reign of Fire, and X2: Wolverine's Revenge, Enter the Matrix is just another licensed game that doesn't live up to it's source material. All in all, the game is definitely worth checking out if your a fan of The Matrix or action games in general, but I'd never lay down that much of an amount of my hard earned dollars for it.

Were the developers sleeping this whole time?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Enter the Matrix was one of (if not THE) most hyped games of the year. Unfortunately, the game fails miserably to live up to even a fraction of that hype.

Let me start with some of the things I like. First, the Focus/Bullet Time is excellent. Much, much better than Max Payne. You can see the contrails of the bullets as they whiz past you, you can run up walls and flip cartwheels. Very nice!

Well, that's about it for the stuff I like. The graphics are pretty bad. Characters look blocky, and the environments look dull (and not in that greenish-tinted Matrix way -- although they are tinted green -- but in that horrible graphics way). Movements, when not performed in bullet time, are choppy. When Agents dodge bullets they look like spastic dancers. Given that the environments in The Matrix movie looked so rich, the graphics are downright terrible. Poor framerate is another issue (I know that the PS2 chip is getting old now, but I've heard the framerate is a problem even on the XBox).

Gameplay is okay, but not great. The fight combos are worked out for you, so basically you just have to do some button mashing. Gets kinda boring after a while. The biggest problem, though, is the camera. The thing gets in the way far more often than it helps. It is essentially locked just behind you and at slightly above head level (at least in third-person view). You cannot move the camera at all, which makes it very difficult to move while looking around. When you get near walls or objects the camera gets screwy, often obstructing your view of the enemy. I know that there are many games with camera problems, and that it is probably one of the hardest things to get right, but you'd think that something coming out of the Matrix franchise would be better than this.

The sound effects are good, I must admit. But the dialogue volume is so low compared to the sound of gunfire that I found myself constantly turning the volume up and down. Annoying.

Lastly, the biggest problem is that the game locked up on me right at the start of the start of the fight with the helicopter (the second one)! I've tried it several times, and same thing each time. I've heard of other people having the same problem. That is simply inexcusable in a full-release game.

In the end, I'm not all that upset with this game, but only because a) I rented it, and b) I got it for free since my local movie/game rental place guaranteed it would be in stock and it wasn't. If I had actually had to pay to rent this game I would be annoyed. If I had bought it, I would be downright pissed. What were the folks at Shiny doing this whole time? It feels like they were sleeping on the job, and then rushed the game to get it out in time for the movie. As a demo, it might be fine. As a full-production game, it is horrible. I gave it two stars only because it is a game about The Matrix, and does have some appeal strictly on that level.

it was ok

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game had its highs and its lows,graphic whys, i would give it a 2 tops, a good example of the good graphics would be Niobes hair.If u just take a look at it it is done great, now and example of the bad would be on the level where u have to chase morpheus on the semi, when sparks calls and ghost picks up the phone,his hand is seriously just rectangles colored tan, i laughed the first time i saw it, if u look at grand theft auto:vice city, the bodys are done almost perfectly, i think the reason of this is because of the game haveing to be released the same time as the movie. over all i give it a 3.5, when u first pull off a cartweel as u jump from behind cover and u nail two guys while dodgeing the bullets...its pretty sweet, but that feeling eventually dies off.

Also the hacking thing is too short i beat the hacking level in about an hour...and i really didnt know much of what i was doing.

Rent this game ... dont buy it like i did, it is fun for about 2 weeks tops, but it gets old. this game was neither as good nor worse then it was predicted to be, but its still good

a must buy ONLY for the die hard fan

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

THE GOOD: Storyline ties into the Matrix: Reloaded and "The Final Flight of the Osiris" from the Animatrix. The characters can replicate many of the martial arts and gravity defying moves with the "Focus" feature. Well acted and scripted real life cut scenes.

THE BAD: The camera view switches chaotically while you move and fight. Martial arts moves are difficult to control. Essentially becomes a button mashing session during combat.

Everyone had high expectations for this game, especially since the Wachowski brothers had a direct hand in story development. And in many ways, the game does deliver. The story follows the events of "The Final Flight of the Osiris" and then picks up right before Reloaded starts off. The story adds to the depth of the Matrix universe and continues on the theme of people versus the machines. We also get to see other characters in the matrix universe.

Where the game falls short is in the gameplay. The camera swings wildly from different points of view every time you enter hand to hand combat. Don't forget to take some Dramamine if you get motion sickness. In terms of combat, mastering the different types of moves takes some time. If you're impatient and just rush in, the game will degenerate into nothing more than mashing as many attack buttons as you can. The "Focus" feature is innovative, and like bullet time, you move at superhuman speed, and in relation, everything around you slows down. You can dodge bullets coming at you, attack more, walk on walls, and a few other moves seen in the movie.

I've heard that on some platforms, people literally get stuck in walls and need to reboot/restart. News in the gaming business was that this game was rushed out in a hurry. And it shows.

To sum it up, this game is definitely a rental for the casual Matrix fan. For diehard fans like me, unphased by a lackluster product, I shelled the $$.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is hot, its based on the movie"The matrix Reloaded".There is even an agent smith...but im not going to tell u much more of that. I suggest u get this game. it has fairly good grapics and good AI.

the good review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

this is a realy cool game.every thing about this game is cool
exept two two things, the graphics arent so great and i think
that the game is to long but thats only my opinion.other than
that this is a great game!

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