The Matrix Online Impressions - E3 2004

We took the opportunity of visiting Warner Bros. Interactive's booth to see The Matrix Online at this year's E3. The upcoming game will be based on the series of motion pictures created by the Wachowski Brothers, and it will actually pick up the story just after the events in the third motion picture. If you haven't already seen the three movies, be warned that the following information may contain spoilers for the movies.

In the game, you'll play as a newly awakened "blue pill"--a human who had previously been plugged into "the Matrix" (an illusory world not unlike our own created by the collective conscious of legions of enslaved humans), but was recently freed. Like in the movies, the Matrix is maintained by "the machines," the merciless robots that staged attacks on the last human settlement of Zion. Since the game picks up after the end of the third movie, the humans and the machines have stricken an uneasy truce, though a third rebel faction, the Merovingians (led by the haughty and mysterious Merovingian--an ancient entity in the Matrix and the primary villain of the second motion picture, The Matrix Revolutions), remain at large in the Matrix as well. You'll spend your adventures "plugged in" to the Matrix--which means that you'll spend most of your time exploring a gigantic metropolis, often wearing sunglasses and a great deal of leather clothing, as the characters in the movies did. You'll begin the game allied with Zion, and you will take on a few missions on behalf of Zion until you gain enough of a reputation for being a skilled fighter, at which point your character will also be approached by representatives from the machines and from the Merovingians, each of which will give you the opportunity to work for them rather than for the humans. Over the course of the game's life, the overarcing story will change, as will both the focus of the missions you'll have available, and the headlines of The Daily Sentinel, a daily periodical that broadcasts news updates throughout the Matrix.

Developer Monolith is attempting to make sure The Matrix Online is accessible enough for movie fans who are perhaps not familiar with massively multiplayer games. To that end, the game will feature an open-ended character development system based on skills rather than professions. Your character will have a certain number of memory slots (higher-level characters will have access to more memory slots, as well as special clothing imbued with extra slots) into which you can add many, many different skills. These skills include: Hacking skills, which alter the fabric of reality in the Matrix and essentially act as magic spells that can heal allies and damage enemies; martial arts skills, like aikido; and, firearm skills for pistols and submachine guns. While there will certainly be some high-level skills that only experienced players may use, and while an exceptionally high-level player will usually always defeat a first-level character in terms of sheer power, beginners will still have access to a huge array of skills and abilities from the get-go. You'll also be able to switch out your skills at any terminal in the Matrix so that your characters can fill out a variety of different roles. As the developers explained, this system solves the typical online RPG problem of playing in a group and having a critical character with a unique skill, such as a healer, decide to call it quits, leaving the rest of the group out of luck. If your group's primary healing hacker decides to stop playing and go to bed, you or one of your teammates can simply swap out some memory slots in favor of healing skills, and then you can continue as you were.

Like the characters in the motion pictures, your characters can commission a varied wardrobe that can, if you wish, consist mainly of leather overcoats and lacy dresses, along with a variety of different kinds of sunglasses. These clothes will help you make a distinctive-looking character, but players with advanced hacking skills can actually create special clothing fitted with additional memory slots so that your character can outfit himself or herself with additional skills.

The game's combat system will clearly draw inspiration from the over-the-top action sequences featured in the movies. Your primary means of combat will be through fast-paced martial-arts battles that you'll fight using four primary abilities--grappling, speed maneuvers, power maneuvers, and defensive blocking. These abilities won't necessarily counter each other (that is, there won't be a rock-paper-scissors balance among these abilities), but successfully pulling off attacks of the same type will help your character build momentum and open up more powerful attacks of the same type. Among others, your characters will be able to perform Judo hip tosses and rapid flurries of punches and kicks. Hackers can also use programs in battle, while other players not engaged in hand-to-hand combat can use firearms.

The Matrix Online is scheduled for release later this year.