I won a small little review contest on PCGR.com a while ago (I posted it here about what game I should get), I decided to nab “Enter the Matrix” since I needed an action game.
A few days ago, I played the XBOX version and I couldn’t wait for the PC version to mail in.
Today, I get a nice parcel package with Enter the Matrix slapped on the box. I was happy…
Until I played it.
What the hell did Shiny do to this game? XBOX version (and PS2) were pretty well done. The controls, while taking to get used to, were good. Yet this…this! My frame rates were less then 5 frames until I realized that I had to take down my sound acceleration. The “focus” mode blurs the entire screen for a nice effect, but reduces my frame rates horribly making it unplayable at times. It runs much poorer, it is horribly unstable, and even has glitches here and there. I even suffered from various freezes every now and then.
Just a warning for anyone who is interested in Enter the Matrix…get the console version, it works.
I’ve come to not expect very much from games based on movie licenses, but I when I heard about this, I thought to myself “If anyone can pull it off, it’s Shiny.” Later on, that evolved into downright hope, and I started thinking “Shiny’s going to pull it off. Shiny won’t let me down.”
Please tell me you’re joking. Shiny hasn’t made a truly good game since Earthworm Jim. MDK and Sacrifice were almost decent, and Messiah was a pile of dog crap. Shiny is one of the most overrated developers in the biz. The Infogrames/Atari execs who OK’d the buyout deal are probably hanging out of their windows by their frilly French neckties (or “cravats”) right now, while the Ghosts of Business Sense Past swirl about their festering corpses, wailing “I toooooold you not to buy that loooooooooooser company! I toooooold yoooooou!”
Please tell me you’re joking. Shiny hasn’t made a truly good game since Earthworm Jim. MDK and Sacrifice were almost decent, and Messiah was a pile of dog crap. Shiny is one of the most overrated developers in the biz. The Infogrames/Atari execs who OK’d the buyout deal are probably hanging out of their windows by their frilly French neckties (or “cravats”) right now, while the Ghosts of Business Sense Past swirl about their festering corpses, wailing “I toooooold you not to buy that loooooooooooser company! I toooooold yoooooou!”[/quote]
Sorry, but Messiah was overhyped garbage. Dave Perry talked that thing up like mad (as he does with all his games) and it turned out to be a buggy piece of crap.
MDK2 was Bioware’s game.
The phrase in the handle does seem silly, doesn’t it? Maybe game reviewers will finally stop using it, then.
I just don’t like the controls. They just don’t feel smooth/crisp like other 3rd/1st person action games. Just feels “clunky”. The console carry over of auto-targeting throws me off too. But even though I don’t feel like I’m in control very well its ot hard. The AI osn’t the best and you slowly heal over time. It feels like a game made for someone who is a fan of the movies but may not have ever played a video game in their life.
We actually played recently. It was after a super late night Shoot Club and there were maybe four of us still around at 8am the next morning. So we had espressos and played Sacrifice in that slightly delirious no-sleep giddiness you get as the sun rises after you’ve committed to a ‘fuck it, I’m pulling an all-nighter’ judgement call.
In other words, just the right state of mind for Sacrifice.
And damn, does that game look good on computers these days. Crank everything up and no framerate worries.
Enter the Matrix is a decent action game, but thats pretty much it. The action may be repeative (well no duh, same with Unreal Tournament, Quake, and Max Payne), they definaly have the challenging flowing well.
Its pretty obvious the Wal. Brothers really wanted to make this a really good game with the amount of effort put in. The cut scenes, the in-game scenes, the storyline, the new characters, and all that other stuff go well with the movie license.
Its just too bad Shiny couldn’t even make a really remarkable game out of it. Its “Okay”, but not the best.
I bet if Remedy entertainment was working on it, that would be amazing.
Sacrifice was a great game. It’s too bad that it didn’t sell very well while Enter the Matrix is selling like hot cakes I’m sure. Unfortunate.
Shiny went from a respectable developer (aside from the Messiah fiasco) to just another studio that screwed up w/ a great license. While they may not be completely to blame, they chose to take on the project in the first place. Of course the publisher is going to demand the game be released w/ the movie. Did Shiny slack off and find themselves without enough time? Or was it simply an unrealistic time frame for doing a multiplatform title?
This isn’t necessarily true. Obviously in this case there was a hard deadline of game released with the movie, but often the game follows the film and comes around the time of the release on home video. I think there definitely was not enough time for them to put together four versions of the game by the movie release date. They should’ve just held the thing until the third movie comes out in November to allow enough time for Shiny to finish it right.
