The curse of the Matrix isn't the fact that humanity has been enslaved by batteries; it has to do with wasted potential. The first film captivated audiences with dynamic action, a new trick called bullet-time and a fascinating concept. When Reloaded and Revolutions came out though, the franchise tanked before you could even decide which pill to take. The Wachowski brothers squandered the potential and really mucked things up in the eyes of diehard fans.

The gaming industry hasn't been treated well by the Matrix franchise either. You'd think that playing as Neo would have proven to be a godsend but when we were subjected to Enter the Matrix we realized that the disappointment continued. The game was a mess in just about every way imaginable and was pretty much a nail in the coffin for future endeavors. Oddly enough though, somebody out there saw the possibilities and realized that gamers would grab a hold of a "good" Matrix game rabidly. That's where The Matrix: Path of Neo comes in.

The new game by Shiny and Atari puts you in the shoes of The One as he goes from regular bloke to savior of humanity. Sure you've already seen it, but playing through it one step at a time has its benefit as well. Reenacting scenes from the films is a given as something that you'll be doing, but in order to make this game a fresher experience there obviously needed to be more. Several bits were fleshed out and new scenes have been added in as a way to fill in the blanks with stuff that wasn't shown in the movies. It all comes together to make a significantly better package, but let's get one thing straight; this still isn't the game that Matrix fans wanted.

Gameplay:

As I mentioned you start off playing as Mr. Anderson before you even have a hint at what fate has in store for you. There is a stealth mission involving your escape from the office to avoid the hands of the agents and from there you fall deeper down the rabbit hole. The game does a nice job of slowly feeding you new powers and abilities so you're not super powerful right at the start of the game. Sure Neo was plugged up to a computer to learn kung fu, but did you ever want to see exactly how he was trained? Now you can go through the training yourself and experience some cool bits that weren't included in the films.

Once you get your groundwork of powers in place that's where you can build from. As you play you'll learn new abilities, gain more focus (I'll get to this later) and be able to upgrade skills as well. It all happens in a pretty linear fashion at the beginning, but you'll gradually be able to spread your wings a bit. Making decisions about what to upgrade gives the game a slight feeling of customization, though I really do have to admit that most of the time it doesn't matter thanks to the shoddy controls.

There are some really cool moves that you can do, but you'll be pounding the buttons in order to do them. Controls prove to be extremely unresponsive and quite often they prove to be inaccurate. I lost count of how many times I pressed jump only to have Neo throw a punch. I'd go to grab an enemy but instead Neo would stand there and get hit. Heck I'd even go to dodge an attack and wind up grabbing someone. It was irritating to the point that I swapped out controllers to see if I had a busted one on my hands, but the only thing that was broken for my PS2 was Path of Neo. It's not all doom and gloom though. The controls respond like 85 % of the time, but it's that other 15 % that is a killer.

My initial impression of the combat system was that it was almost what a game based on The Matrix deserved. The controller set up is simplistic with a single button set aside for attacking, throwing, dodging and jumping. The good part is that there is enough variety with the maneuvers to keep things fresh (if not frustrating) for most of the game. You also get your hands on a variety of weaponry throughout the game but using the ranged ones in particular gets tiresome after a while. The lock-on system rarely works and in order to change targets you have to use the right analog stick. At least with melee you just have to point Neo in the direction you want him to attack.

The thing to keep in mind when you are fighting is that Focusing makes everything better. As you progress through the game your Focus meter will gradually grow to the point where you can stay stronger for longer. Your attacks get more impressive, your ranged aim improves, plus you can jump farther and run along walls. You have to be careful though because as you use this power the meter's energy will deplete. Fortunately as you take damage and do cool stuff it will replenish itself. Focus also proves important because it's pretty much the only way that you're going to be taking down agents.

The Matrix is easily something that could be called a victim of its own success. It may have basically invented bullet-time, but everybody under the sun has ripped it off since then. The Focusing in Path of Neo adds a bit of depth to the already thin gameplay, but the problem is that it's all been done before. We've seen this feature implemented in games like Max Payne and Dead to Rights so experiencing it in The Matrix universe just doesn't feel as good as it should.

Another thing that doesn't feel good is the pacing of the game. The action can get so erratic at times that you'll go for a stretch feeling bored, then for a stretch of being overwhelmed; and don't even get me started about the ending.

Graphics:

The Matrix films may have left a lot to be desired by the end of it all, but they really proved to be works of art. Too bad the same couldn't be said for Path of Neo.

This game suffers from some ugly and rough textures on character models and environments alike. The strange part is that the quality seems to vary and while Neo may look great in one scene, he looks terrible in the next. Fortunately the framerate stays fairly constant with the PS2 version and all of the snazzy effects really light up the screen. I have to say that while the control ticked me off more often than I'd like, the animations that followed were usually well worth it. There really are a lot of cool moves in this game and they all look great.

The cut scenes aren't all that beautiful and the randomly shuffled scenes from the films tossed into the mix really kind of muck things up a bit. There is seemingly no method to the madness of what is shown and at what point in the game it is. There are many clips that are reused and it really feels like the minds behind the project had to fill in a certain time slot. If you haven't seen the films before playing this game, you'd have no clue what's going on. Even if you have seen the movies following the pattern of clips can be a daunting task all on its own.

Audio:

Most of the voiceovers in the game are pulled from the films, but there are some for the new scenes that have been added. The actors from the movies provided their talent (though I use that term loosely when talking about Reeves) and for the most part the quality is pretty good. The sound effects and music don't do a lot for the experience though and really leave a lot to be desired. The drawback of the PS2 console is that the best it can hope for is Dolby Pro Logic II while the Xbox version can work a Dolby Digital 5.1 with the best of them.

Conclusion:

Either way you look at it, Path of Neo is a worthwhile game adaptation of the trilogy and significantly better than Enter the Matrix. The only problem is that the game has many of its own flaws as well that prevent the game from being what fans truly deserved. There are many glitches in the gameplay and graphics alike that bring to mind questions about the production budget. Downfalls aside I do have to admit that I had a lot of fun playing the game and recommend it for anyone still in love with the franchise. It's almost the game that it should have been but it could have used some more polishing to iron out the wrinkles.