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"Enter the Matrix"
Walkthrough and Strategy Guide
(International and US)

Enter the Matrix Review

The much anticipated Enter the Matrix video game was launched last week amid an unprecedented amount of hype surrounding the movie The Matrix Reloaded. That movie went on to break the opening weekend record for an "R" rated movie. While everyone else went out to see the movie, Allison and I hunkered down and played through the game twice, once as Ghost and once as Niobe.

Enter the Matrix is a decent 3rd person fighting/action game. There is very little puzzle solving and lots of running and fighting. If you are a fan of The Matrix series, you'll really like this game. The "Focus" (slo-mo) moves are quite detailed and are generally very cool. The characters are rendered well and the plot follows that of the movies, so it actually makes some sense. Also, scenes from The Matrix Reloaded are interspersed with some of the cut scenes.

You play through the game as either Niobe or Ghost. The characters are pretty similar and neither of us saw much difference in their attributes. The missions for each character are almost the same except for a few levels. For example, in driving sequences, Niobe always drives and Ghost always shoots. Therefore, if you're playing with Ghost, you'll be shooting during the driving segments. There are also some levels where, if you're playing with Ghost, you will be sniping to cover Niobe. As Niobe, you'll be running while Ghost covers you. But, don't let me confuse you, there is not cooperative play and you don't switch between characters like Primal or Resident Evil 0. It just depends on which character you're playing.

Game play is mostly kick, kick, kick; shoot, shoot, shoot; punch, punch punch. You get the idea. There is really very little skill involved in playing this game. Simply brute force. I usually get bored with games like this (Buffy, Onimusha), however, for some reason I didn't in this game. Perhaps the ability to go into "Focus" (slo-mo) mode at any time and pull some truly incredible moves kept me going. I don't know. You do have a nice selection of weapons to use ranging from a simple pistol to a grenade launcher and everything in-between.

Graphics are nothing special. You've seen it all before.

There is also an interesting "Hacking" section to this game. This is the area where you enter cheats. Essentially, you get a Linux operating system on your and have to enter various filenames and commands to discover the cheats. It seems like a lot of time went into this part of the game. I don't know why. Just let me enter cheats if I want to, you know?

It hurts that I didn't really like The Matrix and I have yet to see The Matrix Reloaded. I thought that the first one was meh. That's right, I said meh. M - E - H. Meh. But, it says something that after all was said and done, I still recommend this game, although there are better games out there.

My feeling is that if you liked the movies you're going to love the game as there is nothing in the game which is annoying enough to make it a "bad" game and there're enough oohs and aahs to make the average fan go crazy. However, if you're a gamer who wants an excellent 3rd person fighting game, I'd look elsewhere. It's not that Enter the Matrix is bad; it's just average. I'd suggest Star Wars: Obi Wan or Grand Theft Auto Vice City for a more involved and mind-challenging 3rd person action game. This one gets old quickly and is more eye candy than substance. It does, however, scoot by with a "thumbs up," from both me and Allison for sheer hype and coolness alone.

-Jeremy

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