It’s time to jack again in and re-experience the film tie-in recreation that attempted to be greater than only a slick commercial. There was a time when the try and safe a pipeline straight from blockbuster movies to online game releases was enormous, however few reached the formidable degree of Enter the Matrix. This simulation is way from excellent, however as Cypher so potently mentioned, “Ignorance is bliss.”
It was the primary recreation based mostly on the enduring movies, however that was solely as a result of a foul determination had been made. The Wachowskis knew they needed a recreation for his or her visionary mission set to launch in 1999 and approached Shiny Leisure, however founder David Perry believed The Matrix can be “one other hacker flick.” One thing that Perry would later inform Polygon was one in every of his worst profession errors. Fortunately, the corporate would obtain a second probability and one other alternative to play on this computerized world.
As an alternative of merely performing out scenes from The Matrix Reloaded in an overblown gamified type, there was an authentic story written by the Wachowskis, who had been closely concerned within the improvement of video games utilizing their world. The creators had been hands-on when it got here to overseeing a majority of these tasks and needed these followers that had been deep into their lore to not solely see the movie, however watch The Animatrix, learn the comics, and play the sport, all in an effort to get as many particulars in regards to the story as they might. It was cross-promotional synergy at its best, and The Matrix franchise might stay unbeaten in that regard.
Enter the Matrix put gamers within the function of two characters exterior of the principle motion, however in an project that also felt very important to the heroes’ success. Choosing between Niobe (Jada Pinkett) or Ghost (Anthony Wong) provided a set of levels with completely different paths. The duo fights the identical enemies, however in varied components, the main points change, and choosing one over the opposite does decide whether or not the participant handles extra driving or taking pictures. Some followers had been upset they didn’t get to play as Neo, however there’s one thing cool about being in on the bottom degree and seeing how different events had been serving to behind the scenes.
There’s a considerable amount of live-action footage, and over an hour of it’s new to the sport, shot whereas they had been engaged on the movies and utilizing a whole lot of the identical actors and crew, which makes the sport extra attractive. With all of this being canon, nonetheless, it will probably make the story really feel a tad extra convoluted, and it positively means new gamers must have seen the flicks to really profit from the plot. Everyone seems to be welcome to enter The Matrix, however for diehard followers, the sport does add some necessary story additions price noting.
This can be a recreation that obtained a bit of wild, in a great way, loosening the belt from the flicks and permitting gamers to discover a number of the dirtier work from what they’d beforehand seen. The second movie noticed an excellent little bit of the ghost twins, whereas the sport allowed followers to play with the vampires and werewolves extra, in addition to discover motion sequences that Reloaded didn’t take the time to indicate.
Enter the Matrix tried to lift the bar for film video games
Enter the Matrix was attempting to begin a pattern, set a brand new bar for the place films and video video games may very well be married, no less than throughout the realms of character, story, and expertise. Gamers use martial arts, weapons, and the Focus means to decelerate time and watch bullets fly by, all whereas wearing modern hacker apparel. The world mimics the flicks whereas Brokers really feel like an actual risk (at first anyway), and the drive to see extra of the story and cutscenes strikes us ahead. Essentially the most memorable function although could be the hacking-based cheat system, the place customers can entry the mostly-forgotten multiplayer and make the most of DOS instructions for varied results.
It doesn’t matter what caught out essentially the most, the sport was extremely welcomed upon launch, promoting fairly nicely and making means for one more installment in a while. Enter the Matrix can be rereleased as a price range title, and a few variations had been even barely revamped with new mini-games. Every model of the sport had points and fascinating bugs, however not one of the releases escaped with out some type of efficiency downside. For many, nonetheless, the PS2 providing appeared to offer the very best total expertise.
As fulfilling and inventive as Enter the Matrix was, there have been a whole lot of issues. The traditional controls work advantageous and look stable in lots of situations, however they are often sluggish and assaults usually are not snappy when coping with a number of opponents, which is made worse by usually horrible AI, inflicting the enemies to both be too simple to defeat or ridiculous to hit. Driving and on-rail shootings sections could be irritating and really feel tacked on whereas melee encounters are missing and degree design comes throughout as uninspired aside from wanting the half. It does supply varied modes within the gameplay, which required a number of engines, and that is one case the place a extra streamlined expertise was most definitely wanted. Even Perry mentioned the crew, “bit off a bit of greater than we may chew,” and in some circumstances had been creating for platforms they weren’t precisely conversant in.
Although the sport apparently spent over two years in improvement, the discharge date was set in stone to coincide with the movie. Enter the Matrix had positives for certain, the place the entire bundle nonetheless managed to return collectively even when a number of points fall brief, however a whole lot of these successes hinged on the IP it represented, and this batch of code may have used some extra time in manufacturing. Lead Programmer for the sport, Michael “Saxs” Persson, mentioned to Polygon, “Regardless of who you ask, Enter the Matrix was like Dante’s seven ranges of Hell,” which appears a bit of harsh, but it surely feels like this wasn’t a simple manufacturing interval, regardless of how a lot enjoyment gamers might have gotten out of it.
Some critics felt that the sport cheapened the film, however I don’t see that in any respect. In actual fact, Enter the Matrix might have suffered barely for having to make the story slot in with the flicks when that was the strongest side of the entire bundle. The sport isn’t fairly equal in its components, some parts are epic, others are awkward, however its energy lies in what it was, an formidable program that sought to offer main followers one other probability to enter the simulation.
