Enter the Matrix, who's buying? (1 Viewer)

[Brian-W]

A lot of negative views about the game considering no one here has actually played it. It's easy to look at something and throw rocks at it without actually "getting your feet wet".

And graphics don't = a great game. There are plenty of pretty games that play like crap, and vice versa.

 

[Chad Ferguson]

All my review info has come from IGN, Gamespot, etc. WHo have played the near finished build of the game. Now it might not be the exact finished product but by the sounds of it, there are things here that will not be fixed just cause of time. Read those previews and even you will admit, the game has taken som bad turns. Don't get me wrong, I wish this game to be the best but I have a feeling I just bought the game for the FMV.
Thank you

 

[Javier_Huerta]

Yeah, the reviews I've read mention the following points:

1) Characters look full of jaggies and pixellated.
2) The driving / spaceship sequences are boring.
3) The game controls' seem too simple for such a game.

They all express hope at Shiny fixing these issues before release.

I guess I'll wait a bit before buying the game.

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

This games positively screams, "RENTAL." The deal at EB in canada, to be clear is the following, a $10 instant rebate, and then $20 in EB funny money you'll likely receive before the end of their fiscal year, so they can get if off their books. Last time it took these guys 3 months before they sent me the rebate dollars.

 

[Travis Olson]

I wanna buy it but I'm going to wait for some reviews to show up. I agree that the graphics could be a whole lot better, but they're not too bad. I guess people had there hopes up that the first Matrix game would be as ground breaking technically as the movie was, I know I did.

 

[Yoon Lee]

This game screams ET for Atari 2600. (even the publisher's same, after all) So, if you want to get this game, wait another 6 months and you'll see some at dumping yards, just like ET.

 

[Graham Michael]

I prepaid but I'm going to wait for the reviews before I pick it up. If it's wholly loathesome I shall transfer it to something more worthwhile, like, say, SimProctologist.

 

[MaxCarr]

Yeah, I've read the reviews, nothing new. It is just someone's opinion. If a title interests you, a rental is recommended, always.

I remember Gunvalkyrie being knocked for being pretty but the control was inadequate and extremely difficult; only for the hardcore. I have that game and is one of my all time favorites (it is one of the few games where you actually get trained in a stage). Reviews of Vice City, everybody stating that it is the best game ever. Tried it. Nothing special, very mediocre.

The only time I really find myself preordering is for Sega Sports games.

My point is: don't knock it 'till you try it, you might like it (when a game sucks, there is no doubt it sucks; Fantastic Four), you may not. You're opinion is the only one that matters.

 

[Chris Flynn]

There is a slight possibility that I'll be getting Enter The Matrix for Xbox later this afternoon.

If I do get it, I'll have some impressions of it up after I play it for an hour or so.

 

[Ian_Fisher]

If you have Max Payne for your PC, do a search on "Matrix Mods" (I can't remember the exact name or link where I got it)

You can play a kick-ass Matrix game today

 

[Chris Flynn]

Mission Accomplished

Enter The Matrix has been acquired.

Booting it up now. Thoughts about it coming later tonight.

 

[Javier_Huerta]

Chris, I guess we can't hardly wait. Please tell us what you thought about it.

 

[Chris Flynn]

Ok, after about one hour of playtime, here are my experiences and thoughts.

Firstly, my Xbox crashed HARD three times when I first put the game in. One was during a FMV scene, the other two times in-game, but during cutscenes. I shut off my Xbox, and retried, I actually skipped over the cinemas, so I don't know if they'll be a recurring problem, but I was able to play the game finally.

So far it's fun, but underwhelming. The menu screen is straight out of The Matrix. I found it kind of no-frills and simple. Standard menus are Load Game, New Game, Options. Finally there is a Hacking option, that I assume lets you do cheats via a pretty nifty DOS based system. I couldn't do anything with it, but it seems like a cool idea.

You start up a new game, and you get a nice FMV sequence introducing Ghost, Niobe and some operator guy, I don't remember his name. For some reason "Splatz" comes to mind, but I know thats not it. Game then goes into an in-game engine cutscene explaining what you have to do, etc. I won't spoil the story, so I'll just go into graphics, sound, etc. now.

Now, bear in mind I don't have an awesome home theater like some of you, so I can't talk about 5.1 sound, 1080i mode, or whatever.

Graphics are so-so from the levels I've seen. Everything has that greenish tint to it, like the movies which is cool. Texture work is ok I guess. Nothing stands out really. It looks like a game that's been ported to all systems with no features to take advantage of each systems graphical abilities. The characters and enemies look good in game, but the in-game cutscenes look weak at times. They're not detailed enough (faces are good, bodies aren't), and they look kind of disjointed.

Character animation is generally good, but there's some weird transitions between some moves at times, so it looks pretty weak at certain points. The "Focus" aspects (The Matrix slow-mo stuff) is a cool effect, and there are some cool moves you can do a la Max Payne. My favorite move so far is jumping out from behind a wall and gunning people down while in Focus.

The levels seem kind of sparse at times, not Oni kinds of sparse, but you just get the feeling there should be more there. The level design is kind of linear, at least in the parts I saw, and there's this huge Crazy Taxi style arrow that points you in the right direction. The rest of the HUD is minimal, so you get a nice wide view of everything going on and nothing is hidden behind anything.

The camera is downright BAD at certain points. You have no control over it I don't think, and cocasionally it just picks a weird camera angle t play from. It usually resets to something better after a second or two, but it can be annoying.

Control is a mixed bag. It's VERY simple, perhaps too simple. One button for kick one for punch. There were times when I pressed a button, and it did a move that should have been on another button. For instance, I used the Action button and Niobe ended up kicking a guy. I was just running around levels, seeing as how I felt no reason to walk anywhere. You can just run from point to point. I'm not 100% sure there's strafe action, although I didn't pick up the instructions before I played.

Sounds is straight from The Matrix so it's good. All the obligatory Matrix-y sounds - Focus, title screens, etc. are included. The voice acting is well, good I guess. I can't wait to get my 5.1 system for my living room so I can try it out in 5.1.

The story is well, minimal at best so far. I didn't really do anything but follow the green arrow and kick ass for the duration of time I played. It'll be cool to see how the game fits into the movie when it's released this week.

All in all, it's very... Average. The license could be huge if they made a great game out of it, but for now, it's enjoyable at best, especially if you're a Matrix fan. But it's really nothing special. It doesn't suck, but it doesn't kick ass like it should.

I guess thats about it for now. I'll play more tonight, hoping that it doesn't crash on me again. I'll sit through the opening cinemas as well, to see if it does. Maybe it's my Xbox, I don't know. I have been meaning to pick up a new one for my room though.

If you guys want to know anything, jst post your questions in here, and Ill see what I can find out for you.

I just realized I was playing on Easy difficulty. The arrow is NOT there on Normal levels.

 

[Chris_Young]

Chris,

Thanks for the review. Has your Xbox crashed on other games? Mine has never crashed.

What are your thoughts about the game NOT having a two player mode? It seems like a big omission to me.

 

[Chris Flynn]

Umm, my original crashed and I had to replace it.

This new one hasn't crashed to my knowledge at all since I got it just over a year ago. I'm considering picking up a new Xbox tonight (for my room).

I don't think the game is well suited for two player mode to be honest. I don't think it'll be missed in any way.

 

[KevinRB]

I don't believe the fault lies with Shiny, either.

When was the last time Shiny delieverd a game that lived up to their hype? MDK is the only game I can think of. It's a amazing all the attention these guys get when they only kick out B level games.

Thanks for the impressions.

 

[MikeAlletto]

I played the PC version for a bit tonight and its aweful. The camera is down right horrid. When moving there only seems to be 1 speed, run fast. Basically just run up to someone and mash the mouse button. The characters models are pretty bad and there is some bad problems running around objects, you kind of just feel like your rolling off walls and boxes. When it got out of the intro movie (which was about the only thing that was ok about this) the 2 characters are just standing there talking, they looked really bad. Clothing kinda flickered and the models didn't look very detailed. Its got "matrix-y" music playing throughout. The demands on the system don't seem too great. I was running at 1024x768 with no slowdown. But the effects weren't too impressive, rather boring actually. Oh and its very PG'ish. No blood or anything. When you hit or kill something this greenish lightening like thing surrounds the body like its been taken over by the computer, but if that were the case it would be some big bad agent.

Yet another bad game based off of a movie. Considering how much money they put into this thing you would think it would be state of the art instead of another typical game based off movie trash.

I just realized I was playing on Easy difficulty. The arrow is NOT there on Normal levels.

On the PC version in normal difficulty the arrow is there.

 

[Dave F]

Earthworm Jim was pretty cool. The best Shiny game, IMO.

-Dave

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I got one pre-ordered for pickup on Thursday. If it gets real old, real fast I'll just sell it on eBay while Matrix frenzy is still in full swing.

 

[Chad Ferguson]

Why are some places having different release dates? I know I will be seeing the movie tomorrow for some strange reason but also,I preordered from EB and they say thursday. Their website though says the 14th, Ijust think I could go without getting it as soon as possible.