Anime Forum Games Links Movies Music Profiles Survivor TV Shows Released on the same day as The Matrix Reloaded, Enter The Matrix gives players a different view of what happens in The Matrix Reloaded. The game actually takes place right after the Animatrix that was shown with Dreamcatcher called "The Final Flight Of The Osiris" which had a group of people dropping off a package with information about the Sentinals drilling down into Zion. As Niobe or Ghost you must find a way to the package and as you progress further into the game you get a different view of the events from the movie. While the graphics won't blow you away or impress your friends, they hold their own. There is some clipping and some very very mild slowdown. Some areas are a little dark and at times some of the cutscenes have varing graphics where it might look good one second but the next second it might look like crap. The sound is one of the best aspects of Enter The Matrix. The actors from the film provide the voices and there are some scenes filmed with the actors just for this game. The sound effects are great and if you have surround sound it's even better as the game makes great use of it. The music is action packed and seems like something right out of the movies. Sadly, the sound area is the glitchiest area of the game. Sometimes you will encounter a cut-scene where there is no sound, forcing you to restart and hope the sound has returned. There are also times when the sound echoes which is really weird to hear. The controls are very good and very responsive. You can strafe with the L2 and R2 buttons but I never really used it. You fire your weapon by hitting R1 and you can change your weaon by hitting left and right on the D-pad. You move around with the left analog stick and you use the right stick to go int third person view. The game says you can zoom in and out whe using a rifle with a scope but I wasn't able to do this or figure out how to... You jump by hitting X and you can use square to open doors and stuff. Triangle and circle are your fighting buttons and while tha may seem basic for fighting hand to hand, it works good and there are plenty of moves. And of course you can use focus by hitting L1. Now for the main part of any game, the game play. The game is split up into two storys. Niobe's and Ghost's. The storys are basicly the same but the characters take different paths so it's like a completely different story. The levels are split up into areas which basicly serve as checkpoints. There are no checpoints within an area but some of them are really short, like one or two hallways shorts. It's hard to tell how many levels are there but there are over 50 areas and some are really long. Most of the game takes place in a third person point of view but you can play in first person if you wish but it isn't as much fun. The action is pretty fast and can be intense on some areas while other areas have little fighting a lot of jumping and wandering around. The focus feature is a lot like what was in Max Payne except it's so much cooler. You can dive through glass, run on walls and do pretty much anything you've see the characters do in the movies, except fly. You can't dodge bullets though which is a little disappointing. There is also some driving stages for each character. Ghost has one where you drive and his others have you shoting other cars. Niobe has three or four driving stages and no shooting ones. The enemy AI isn't the best around but it does it's job, however Niobe has some really bad AI during Ghost's shooting stages. Anothercool aspct of the gmae is hacking. There is an option on the main menu that lets you hack into The Matrix and do different things, it's a really cool option and gives players something to do. The game is actually really long which suprised me, it took me about 7 hours per character and I didn't even unlock any secrets in the hacking mode so that's all actual play times. The loading is a litte sow but it isn't too bad. Enter The Matrix is one of the few games based on a movie that doesn't suck. It's full of action and cool scenes and with it being linked directly to the movies, it gives fans of the movies something else to do while waiting for the final movie to be released in November. I highly reccomend thi game to fans of the movie and to anyone interested in the gameplay which is really fun. Control: 9 Gameplay: 10 Graphics: 8 Replay Value: 7 Sound: 8 Story: 8 Grade: A- or 93/100 Reviewed by Americanpieflute Reviewed on May 25th 2003