After Enter the Matrix, Shiny Entertainment couldn't really sink any lower. The game was riddeled with endless issues. Buggy gameplay, half par graphics, lack of Matrix themed action. Any game that has a patch released the day after it hit store shelves, like Enter the Matrix, is bound to see the bottom of the bargain bin quicker than Gods & Generals. It was to no suprise that Shiny would try and redem themselves with another Matrix title, this time giving the fans what they wanted .. all out Matrix action with Neo.

It's easy to criticise a game, but i'm finding it hard with Path of Neo. Not because it's a game that deserves GOTY title, the very opposite infact. I'm overwhelmed with the problems with this game. The list seems to never end.

The first problem you'll come across appears on the menu once screen. You're presented with a langauge choice, from which you'll select your chosen language. However, it doesn't save that langauge. Everytime you load the game, you have to set it to the langauge of your choice. Irritating, but you can learn to live with it as you'll rarely laod up the actual game.

If you have an impressive system under your hood, you'll a custom to cranking up the graphical settings. This proves to be pointless in Path of Neo. The game can't successfully change resolution, and will always run at 640*480. I can't even start to descrive how unprofessional that is. From here on in, the game just goes further down hill.

From the get go, the game just plays horrid. Overwhelmingly horrid. The graphics are just plain shocking. It looks like you're playing a game from the Playstation 1 launch lineup, and thats a compliment. The low resolution doesn't help, but that contributes very little to the poor display.

The lack of a regualr save feature really takes any enjoyment the game have hidden away. Checkpoints are few and far between, and you can find yourself playing for upto 45mins without a save, only to die and have to begin the level from the start.

The AI is about as sharp as a golf ball. Enemies will either stand on the spot waiting for you to kill them, or they'll show off the one move they know repetitevly, making it easy for yourself to dodge the attack and pull of a counter attack .. if you can figure out how to.

The controls seem to be none effective. I would like to say button mashing will get you somewhere, but it really doesn't. You'll try and pull of the moves the training scheme taught you, but either something completely different will happen or Neo will stand there gazing straight ahead as if Cameron Diaz is running towards him in a bikini. In actual fact, it's some middle aged security card with a stick looking to club you over the head. The controls are completely unresponsive and uneffective, you really don't feel as though you're playing the game.

I didn't think Shiny could sink any lower after Enter the Matrix, but Path of Neo has proven me wrong. It is clear that Path of Neo was a rushed title, but rushed for what? Who knows what they're going to hash out after this monstrosity, but whatever it is i can happily say it won't be gracing my hard drive with its presence.