Enter the Matrix

Additional Screenshots

All things aside, just having the concept of a game revolve around The Matrix is awesome. How can you go wrong? Is it possible? When you play a Matrix video game, you expect to be able to do all of those awesome karate-like moves in slow-mo. That is the one thing that Atari really does well in this game: moves in slow motion.

What's Cool: Matrix Moves in Slow Motion and Videos

On almost every level in the game, you will get to battle with enemies through use of your guns, or through your hands and feet. A button called 'focus' enables you to do everything in slow motion. You can do everything you see in the movie, and so much more. Dodge bullets, walk on walls, roll while shooting, back dive, front flip, fly sideways in the air while shooting, run up against a wall and flip over, and so many more things. One move I really liked was when you approach an enemy, rip their gun out of their hand, twist their arm around, push them on the ground, and shoot them with their gun until they are dead. Is that cool or what? The one thing you have to understand is that you are going to have to be willing to take a lot of these moves. Like a lot. The entire game lies its foundation upon doing these moves.

The videos in the game are pretty nice, I have to admit. There is some movie-style footage, which looks very nice, and the in-game cut scenes are very good.

Two Different Campaigns?

You can play as Niobe or Ghost. At the beginning of a new game, you choose your player, and 'Enter the Matrix.' So OK, this sounds like a pretty cool thing, but in reality, it's not. See, Ghost and Niobe's campaigns are almost the same. When you need to stop an agent in control of an airplane, Ghost will do the driving and try to pick up Niobe who is in the plane. So, when you play as Ghost, you drive, and when you play as Niobe, you kill the agent in the plane. Two different sides of a mission = good. But when you are infiltrating a post office and the mission is the same exact thing for both Ghost and Niobe.. no way, that's too much.

Average Missions

In general, the missions are average. Like I mentioned earlier, having to fight an agent with your hands and feet (any shot fired on an agent is automatically bogus, because agents will dodge any bullet you throw at them) on an airplane with an open back; Hey, that's pretty cool. Other missions however, just aren't. Some of the worst missions are when you have to protect your comrades. In one mission, you will run across your rebel friends Ice and Corrupt, and you have to protect them from all the police SWAT guys. Why can't these babies take care of themselves or even HELP you?

Annoying Protecting Jobs

Protecting missions by far are the worst. Another mission involves you (this one is in both the Ghost and Niobe campaigns) protecting this guy Ballard from snipers. This is almost impossible; even on easy mode. You climb up this ladder, and then BAM! Ballard is being shot at, and even when he is at 100% health, two shots will kill him. This barely gives you enough time to take out your sniper rifle, acquire your targets, and kill them.

Fighting Enemies

Your most frequent enemies are police SWAT teams. In the beginning of the game, you will fight normal police men with little pistols, but when you move up, SWAT is all you will see. The occasional agent will show up, and they are the only real challenge. Since you don't always have to use your hands and feet to fight enemies, you get a pretty neat arsenal of weapons. Usually you will be stuck with your pistol, but you will come across M5's, sniper rifles, SS shotguns, MAC 11's and more. Overall however, using focus while firing is really the best way to go. You might worry about the amount of focus you have, but don't! Both your focus and health will recharge, so you will have plenty to last you.

Overall

In conclusion, Enter the Matrix is not a bad game; if you just want to do some nice moves in slow motion and watch pretty movies. There is no multiplayer, which is a huge letdown. That might have brought this game up 15 points, if done correctly. If you can take the repetitive campaigns and the abundance of moves, you might like it.