Spoiler Warning: This review talks about events that occur in all three Matrix films. If you haven't seen them yet, you probably should before reading this review.

It was pretty interesting watching the Matrix franchise crash and burn as the series progressed. The first film was great. It had a creative and interesting story, astounding special effects, and a lot of action scenes that blew away just about everyone who saw it. Things were looking good for the Wachowski Brothers who co-wrote and co-directed the film. They penned a deal to film two sequels at once, kept the interest high by releasing a series of animated films set in the world of The Matrix on the web, and even scheduled a video game to be released concurrently with the second film.

That's when things started to go down hill. The Matrix Reloaded didn't quite capture the magic of the first, but it was okay I guess. Shiny's video game, Enter the Matrix, wasn't the tour de force that many people where hoping for. Met with harsh criticism, the game was mediocre at best. Then Matrix Revolutions was released. It was a horrible mess that made many fans wish they never bothered sitting through the second instalment, not to mention the third.

Now Shiny has released another video game based on The Matrix, and the first thought to run through many people's mind was "why bother?" With the franchise in a downward spiral, what were the chances of this game being any good?

Well, I'm happy to report that this game is a definite improvement over the first game, and a good entry to the whole Matrix series. While it does have some problems, it's a fun game that should please fans.

Gameplay:

Shiny got one thing correct right off the bat: In this game you play as Neo. No longer are you just part of the Zion warriors. In this game you get to play as the Chosen One. You can do cartwheels while shooting enemies, slow down the action, and even stop bullets. This is what they should have let you do in the previous game.

This game follows Neo through all three movies, though it does take a few detours on the way. After a quick assessment to decide which difficulty level you should play on, the game starts in Mr. Anderson's office with the agents right on his trail. This scene is longer and ends differently than it does in the first movie. The story then progresses much as it does in the film trilogy.

Which brings me to my first complaint: the movie clips. Between levels there are one, and often more, clips from the movie. They aren't long enough to let you actually follow the plot, they just serve to jog your memory a bit. I found them tiresome and boring, since they just get in the way more than anything. They didn't even show them in order, and no attempt to create a linear story exists. Make no mistake, if you've never seen these movies before, the plot to this game will make no sense at all.

There are some interesting levels in this game where you find out what happened to Neo while Morpheus is fighting on top of the semi traveling down the highway or what all of the training programs Tank gave him are like. As the title suggests though, it follows Neo the whole time, so the battle to save Zion and the aforementioned highway fight aren't present. As a matter of fact, the whole third movie is pretty much glossed over, but more on that later.

The first level aside, this is mainly a fighting game. You're Neo and you get to kick some agent butt big time. The gameplay is very good and the system they have makes it easy to do some very cool moves with a limited number of buttons being pushed. Special moves are very easy to accomplish, and the results on screen are spectacular. Even novice gamers will be able to pick up an Agent and throw him into a wall or spin around and shove a your sword behind you to skewer a villain with no trouble.

In order to do all of these cool moves, there are a series of training programs that players are put through, in the context of the game, these are supposed to be the programs that Tank put Neo through soon after he escaped the matrix. This is a low point in the game. These six (!) training levels take a long time to get through, and since you can't skip them they just seem to slow everything down. It took maybe an hour to complete them all.

One rather fun aspect of the fighting system is the ability to "focus" or go into bullet time at will. You can slow the action down and look at the scene as just matrix code (which reveals weaknesses and allows you to see the trajectory of bullets). This lets you dodge bullets, which is very cool, and pull off some impressive moves. This enhanced the game play considerably.

On the down side is the system for using guns. While I first thought it would work well, I soon discovered that it was pretty much a pain. When you draw a gun, the automatic targeting system will select an enemy to aim at, and you can cycle through the available targets by pressing a button. The thing is that the game treats dead bodies as a viable target, causing the player to waste valuable time selecting another target.

This isn't just a fighting game though. They mix things up a bit with different objectives and strategies for different levels. My favorite level was the helicopter rescue of Morpheus from the first movie. Neo is operating the machine gun, and you get to shoot the crap out of anything you see. It's a great way of relieving stress.

There are some areas to explore and you are presented with few puzzles that must be completed throughout the course of the game too. The puzzles are pretty simple overall, which was a bit of a disappointment, and they won't hold up anyone for long.

The tone of the game was a little odd in places too. For the most part it is a serious game, but there are some comic elements thrown in that don't work too well. One level takes place in a theater, where Neo fights Seraph the Oracle's body guard. The single patron of the theater complains loudly, over and over, that he can't see the movie and they you're in the way. The first time it was amusing, but by the end of the level it became irritating.

Another odd point section was the ending, though this worked for the most part. Since the game follows the events in the movies pretty closely, while the game was progressing I was wondering how it was going to end. After all, the ending to the film trilogy wasn't too upbeat, to say the least, and it would have been a real bummer to fight through the whole game hour after hour only to have your character die. After glossing over just about all of the third movie, the game climaxes with the big fight between Neo and Agent Smith. If you are able to defeat him, the Wachowski Brothers appear. Well, what they would look like if they were Atari 2600 characters at least. They explain that though the original ending worked well in the movies (I'd argue that point with them, but they don't let you) it wouldn't function well in a video game. What they thought would be cool is "15-minutes of sweaty-palmed, button-pushing action." A sort of "hope vs. Galactus" scenario, and that's what they give you. Instead of the martyr ending of the films, there's one super boss left to defeat. It was funny when they said it, but the ending of the game, like the ending of the trilogy, was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for something more, especially since the boss is easy to defeat after you figure out just what to do, it just takes a good bit of time.

Graphics:

The graphics are a mixed bag. The characters themselves aren't that great and leave something to be desired. The texturing of the faces seems pasted on and not very realistic, with Neo's face sometimes looking like he has a skin condition. The way clothes hang off of arms and legs is much too planar with a lack of curves that you would normally expect.

On the other hand, everything else is pretty good. There are some great looking effects, and this game really is advanced in terms of lighting and giving the game a feeling of depth. The backgrounds and objects are rendered very well, and you can destroy just about everything in the game. Pillars can be punched through, vases and background objects can be smashed, and in the level where you're operating a machine gun on a helicopter every window you can see, along with crates and air conditioner units, can be broken.

The game is also able to handle a large number of characters too. There are more than a few levels where Neo is fighting several enemies at once, and the processor is able to control all of these various moving figures without slowing up or getting bogged down. I was impressed.

Audio:

The sound to this game isn't as impressive as the movies, but it is still pretty good. The gun shots and explosions sound similar to the effects in the movie, but don't have quite the impact. The 5.1 sound is fairly enveloping too. Though I could have used a bit more music in the game, the audio definitely adds something to the gaming experience.


Conclusion:

While this isn't a great game, it is a good one. The training levels are too long and not that interesting, but the fighting system is good. It allows for impressive moves without a lot of complex button sequences and these look fantastic on the screen. In the final analysis though, a game is only good if the player had fun working their way through the various levels. I found it very enjoyable, even with the flaws. Recommended.