Reloaded or Redundant?
User Rating: 6.5 | Enter the Matrix XBOX
In the year 2003, the long-awaited sequel to 1999's sci-fi action blockbuster The Matrix is released alongside the final film in the series 6 months later. During this time, many Matrix fans wanted a Matrix game to remember. A Keanu Reeves simulator which had you beating up security guards and Hugo Weaving with a bullet time mechanic, and preferably a Keanu Reeves simulator that didn't involve you writing love letters to women in different time periods or being an extra-terrestrial representative for Greenpeace. Instead what we got was a somewhat lackluster Jada Pinkett Smith simulator or Anthony Wong simulator depending on which one you choose, you might be wondering what the difference is between the two. Well the main difference is that they go along the same story but with different dialogue, and the driving sequences change depending on which character you pick (Niobe does the driving and Ghost shoots cops out of the car window.) The reason I would say rent it is because of the cinematic sequences, which makes me wonder why they didn't just make this into a short film or something. The plot revolves around Niobe and Ghost going into The Matrix to collect a package with an audio log regarding the machines digging down into Zion and messing up the place. The origin of the package can only be explained by watching the short film "Final Flight of the Osiris" from The Animatrix, which is a pretty greedy move asking us to buy another DVD just to understand what the hell is going on. The gameplay aspect is pretty boring, all you do is mash buttons and occasionally press the left trigger to activate bullet time or "Focus" as the game likes to call it. Also there's a cheat system called Hacking but it's ridiculously complicated and is based around putting in codes that you can get from websites like GameSpy, and believe me that's the only way this cheat system works as the codes are so long and so complicated that the only way to get them is from the Internet. Also the codes are very difficult to remember, which doesn't help considering I never wrote them down. You can do some cool things in Enter The Matrix such as running up a wall and kicking an adversary in the chops, but those moments are bogged down by the sheer flaws of it all (glitches in The Matrix, one would say.) I would rent it for the cinematics only, but otherwise it's not really worth the money. Only die-hard Matrix fans like myself can put up with it for long enough to try and see it to the end, but for everyone else it's nothing special. We did get the Keanu Reeves simulator, but unfortunately I didn't buy it I was too busy playing through Silent Hill 2 to give a s**t about it. I will pick it up just so I can reenact the Burly Brawl scene with my own sound effects.
