Enter The Matrix - First Impressions (XBOX)

Games
1

Being a regular customer at my local EB, I decided to check out “Enter The Matrix”, just after seeing Matrix Reloaded.

Before you ask, Matrix Reloaded is hyped up heavily. Its a good movie, but not “You have to see this movie, like…now!”. The sexual crap and excessive dialog garbage didn’t make it better.

So where to begin…the graphics are sub-par. Very sub-par. The characters and environments, while looking realistic, didn’t get me to go “daaaaaamn” kind of like Sacrifice, Max Payne, or Jenna Jameson. Its not hurting or pleasing to the eye.

Controls are rather lousy, probably because I loathe the XBOX controller with a passion. To fire, you have to press that little white button, while somehow pressing one of the four other buttons to hop around and do kungfu. To make it even more annoying, if you do some certain actions like climbing or KUNG FU, the gun disarms itself, making it extremly annoying.

Cutscenes - They are good, definaly the same quality as the movie itself.

Kung-fu - Badass. There is lots of moves and combos to give a good ass-whooping to the police, swat, security guards, agents, etc. They are somewhat repetitive, but I cannot say because I haven’t fully explored the game yet.

Focus - Double badass. Using Focus makes max payne look like crap. In focus, you can do much much much large jumps, leaps, and better kungfu moves. Also there is the occasional cartwheel, leaps, and seeing the bullets bit.

Drive-by - The car scene, at least with that asian fellah, isn’t totally great. It felt like playing a light gun game using the analog, where all I did was blast cars that kept chasing me while the vehicle was moving about. I didn’t really feel that I was in a car, more like a box with wheels.

Level/Mission Design - Confusing. Sometimes I will be lost and sometimes they will actually point the way for you. Weird.

Difficulty - I didn’t find it too challenging unless I got really cocky. Your guy heals slowly, so those bullet shots don’t really count. Then again, I didn’t finish off an agent or faced someone with a shotgun/assault rifle.

Woof…and thats how I describe my first 30 minutes in the game.

2

I was just thinking with the PC version that the controls would be much better on a gamepad. Maybe they suck universally, like the driving/piloting sections of the game. The levels start to drag when you’re in the sewers midway through the game, but things pick up again in the Chateau. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would when I began, but seeing Reloaded may have made the difference.

3

Why do you guys buy this stuff? Aren’t there better games you could waste your money on? :)

–Dave

4

Who said I bought it? They had an XBOX booth with Enter the Matrix.

5

I had this Enter The Matrix pre-ordered as well, but only because I (heart) The Matrix. The game isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. If you are a fan of the movies, it does a decent job of giving you the Matrix experience in a videogame.

BloodRayne is better from a sheer action standpoint, but it doesn’t have the nifty bullet-time focus effects like wallwalking and so forth.

One bonus: they filmed the hour of game-specific movie footage at the same quality levels as the theatrical release-- dolby digital, film, and a lot of the same actors you saw in Reloaded. This isn’t some cheap Westwood Kari Wuhrer bluescreen crap.

I wouldn’t rush out and buy it, but if you’re a fan of the movie, worth a rental for sure.

6

Sorry…when I read this…

Being a regular customer at my local EB, I decided to check out “Enter The Matrix”, just after seeing Matrix Reloaded.

I figured you meant you bought it. Either way, I was just pokin’ ya’ with a pointy stick. ;)

–Dave

7

Played the Xbox version at the store. Downloaded an “extended demo version” off IRC for the PC to see which platform was better before I bought it - and glad I did, because the PC version is a pretty rotten port. Went back and bought the Xbox version, and I’m happy.

My girlfriend really loves the Buffy game for Xbox - so Matrix being essentially Buffy + Max Payne = a natural sell to her. I’m keen on the ability to easily duck behind stuff and shoot around corners, so I might be able to get her over to Splinter Cell once she gets a dose of that.

Revolutionary gameplay… not really. However, it does a good job of capturing an interactive action movie feel.

My only real complaint is that I wish they’d consulted me about the first chapter - the postoffice. The workroom floor area is pretty much nothing like a real post office… the real deal would have been even more fun, with a ton of “shopping carts” and rows of sorting machines to leap over and around. Their basic mistake is having a lot of wasted open space - and a real post office looks like a factory floor inside. (Can anybody tell I’m a sysadmin at a big post office?)

8

9

Those guns look like something from the toy section of Walmart.

10

Funny, her guns look natural to me.

11

I just finished Generals last night, if there’s one thing that could’ve saved me from boredom there it would’ve been more of Kari and her guns.

12

Obviously you’ve never seen her with her top off.

13

Nope. Pics?

14

Bah, not my type. Anyone got an explanation for Stalin though?