User Rating: 9 | Enter the Matrix XBOX
It isn't very hard to explain the story behind the Matrix, because most people know, so I won't. But the game is a different story. There is no Neo, Trinity, or Morpheus, nope, the two stars of this game are Niobe and Ghost. Anyway, the game is a blast to play. If you want to know what it is like, just picture yourself as controlling any hero from the Matrix and you get the idea. A button is mapped that you can use for your focus, and that slows the game down so you can carefully plot out different hand to hand and weapon combos on your foes. Along with slowing the game down, it also allows you to do various acrobatic feats such as cartwheeling while firing your weapon, and running on walls and flipping off...all while firing. If you don't think that it sounds impressive, then you must be out of your mind. Just watching someone play this game is exciting. You'll pee your pants the first time you empty the clips in your barettas at an agent and watch him dodge the crap out of your bullets. And then go up to fight him only to get kicked off of a ledge, again, and again, and again, and again (just run from him stupid!). The graphics are very hard to explain. I own the Xbox version, and the graphics look like they belong on a PS2, which isn't too bad, but it will leave you thinking that they could look better. Especially the driving levels. These tend to be very bland, and the cars all look chunky and fake. The character models are good, Niobe in particular. But Ghost on the other hand got the short end of the stick when the developers made him. You can tell that he lacks as much motion capturing as Niobe, as he lumbers down the hall like a big goofy f***er. He definately looks fakey sometimes. Other than that both characters look good as they are flipping and flying about. I don't care about sound in games a lot of the time. But I like the fact that both actors from the movie also did the game. In fact, there are lots of movies with the actors in them, so it's just like watching a side story from the new movie (Which happens to be very good by the way). I like the Dolby Digital sound also, it adds some nice effects when you are slugging and shooting it out with an agent. I have not beat the game yet...I mean geeze it just came out today! But I have played it quite a bit and have just about mastered the controls. Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you is that I don't know how long it is, but having two characters to play through with, each with some different missions, should keep you occupied for a while. Certainly you can't get bored of flipping off of walls and blasting cops (excuse me, possible agents), I mean come on! All in all I really like this game and I think that anybody that enjoyed Reloaded will find that Niobe is actually really cool, not just another cameo of a famous person to attract attention. Ghost is cool also, but you can tell that he isn't the star by playing the game and watching the movie. Anyway, I recommend this game to anyone, I hope everyone buys it so they make a new one. Maybe next time they won't just give it PS2 graphics and port it to the other systems...I'm not dissin' the PS2, I have all three consoles. But seriously, can't there be any way to make at least a few things better for my beloved Xbox? Andrew 
