Review #551: Enter the Matrix

 No, do not go inside, stay out! TAKE THE BLUE PILL!

The cover doesn't look as good as they thought, I bet.

 Enter the Matrix was a very ambitious third-person shooter that did something to stand out among other licensed games: The Wachowski sisters(Then brothers) wrote the script for the game, and, alongside the cast and crew from the movies, filmed exclusive scenes for this game. If that doesn't give it brownie points I don't know what will.

 The story takes place at the same time as Matrix Reloaded(Matrix 2), but follows Ghost and Niobe as they work behind the scenes, and a few times alongside Morpheus and his crew. Neo makes but a few, unvoiced appearances. The story itself is nothing to write home about, but the 40 or so minutes of exclusive footage were, and still are, a fantastic treat for fans. Ghost and Niobe have pretty much the same stages, but there're a few variations here and there, Ghost even gets to spar against Trinity. Still, these differences aren't enough to make two playthroughs worth it, so playing as just one character will suffice for most people. There're plenty of audiovisual bugs all the way throughout, there's an audio glitch exclusive to the PS2 version that makes dialogue and sound play twice at different speeds, which is very grating to the ears, and thankfully, not too common.

Melee combat is the best thing about this game.

 There's no way to hide it, this game is an obvious beta. Besides the audiovisual bugs, you'll notice how janky the entire game feels. Melee combat consists of characters flailing their limbs about, which is hilarious, running and climbing animations are awful, and things like targeting enemies with guns being very awkward, as guns are very inaccurate. Stage transitions can be weird, some stages may even last a few seconds and consist from going from a door to another.... This is not a well made game, but the publisher is to blame as they rush development. Not to worry, as Shiny would redeem themselves a few years later with Path of Neo.

 As far as melee combat goes, looking so hilariously bad actually makes it pretty entertaining. You have punches, kicks, disarms, throws, counters and a few other neat manouvers. The animations for the attacks are almost good, you can tell that with a few polishing it could've been great, and removing some of the jankiness, like kicking a fallen enemy making him fly backwards a ridiculously long distance, or how hitting dying enemies makes them get back on their feet. It's a mess, but it's a fun mess. You can take out your guns at any time, but they lack oomph and their accuracy is suspect, so I didn't use them too much, and when I did, I wasn't having as much fun as I was with the flailing limbs. It's probably one of the first games to feature regenerating health.... and it also has medkits, which makes dying very hard. You also have a recharging focus gauge to use bullet time, which makes dodging stuff and delivering pain very simple.

Focus makes dodging bullets and shooting enemies all too easy.

 There're a few dumb racing segments, in which you'll drive as Niobe or shoot as Ghost. It's more fun shooting as Ghost, but Niobe is such a poor driver that she may cost you the stage, since some enemies are indestructible and shooting at them does nothing, so you depend on Niobe pulling through. A few other stages consist on running away from agents, since they are too tough to take down, and this can range from fun to dumb. If Agent Smith catches you it's possible to get stuck in a loop in which you can't get away from his grabs until he kills you. A few other stages even have infinitely spawning enemies, so you might as well just run anyways.

 And the level design isn't very good. Some stages go on and on, and they reuse assets within themselves oh so much that it feels like you are going in circles or through identical passages. The camera can be a big pain in the butt, a few times you are expected to go down a few levels, but unless you enter the awkward first person camera mode, there's no way to check below if there's a platform. A lot of times the camera will zoom in on awkward angles for no reason what so ever. Don't even let me get started on overhead cables, twice your character will need to grab from cables above in order to cross chasms, but it always feels unsafe since you can't jump in place, but rather, do a forward jump and if you don't angle it right, you will fall to your doom.

Or you can use your focus on 1-on-1 fights, your choice.

 There's also the then-praised hacking mini-game, through which you can use cheats or unlock halfway finished stuff, like a fighting minigame or art and extras. Honestly? Too much of a drag, and you must go through it every time you want to use these 'rewards' again. I didn't care for it.

 There's a certain 'The Room'-like quality to it that makes the game enjoyable in all the wrong ways. It's poorly designed, looks awful, is glitchy and, clearly, is unfinished but there's a little bit of fun to be had when flailing your limbs against other flailing limbs. I can also appreciate how they went with side characters instead of Neo, which helped make the side cast more endearing, and the fact that they filmed stuff just for this game is something to be commended. It IS a bad game, but if you like so-bad-it's-good games, you might get a kick out of it.
 3.5 out of 10