A Review by someone whos played oodles of MMOs in his day... Does MxO Stack Up To The Competition?
I'll be upfront about it... I'm a Matrix junkie. But that wouldn't stop me from blamming a truely bad game. So, let's get down to it.
The Best: Combat in this game RULES. The action is fast and furious (especially PvP), and looks cool. Nothing feels better than smashing an Exile (the renegade programs headed up by the Merovingian, and a more imminent threat to Zion than the Machines) face first into the floor. Hand to hand combat is not the boring tedium that it is in any other MMO, but rather a series of opposed rolls (in which both players have a second to pick a tactic or special manuver, and whoever has a higher resulting total after modifiers is the one who's tactic works, the other players is discarded). Bullettime is not player controlled, and it is only visible to those directly involved in the combat, and doesn't really do a whole lot of extra damage, but if you have your camera set to "Scripted Cam" mode it's pretty sweet looking.
The Good: The Mega City is portrayed very realistically. Every room of every building is accessable. And the graphics are amazing for an MMO. And there is none of the "character regret" of other MMOs, by which I mean that you can class change via a simple trip to any Hardline in the game, or create your own hybrid class based on the skills "loaded" into your memory. The interactions with important characters in the game is pretty interesting too, but taken down several notches since the merge with Sony. The story is updated quite frequently altered via patches written by the Wachowski Brothers, which is pretty cool.
The Not-So-Good: Pretty glitchy. Probably in part of course due to the fact that the entire city loads at once, and there is far more going on graphically than any other MMO. And my internet connection is not the best for it... stupid college network! /shakefist Also sadly, there aren't very many players, and thus some limited interaction, but there are enough, especially in certain districts, which makes sense. There are certain areas that are more dangerous or where you are more likely to attract an agent, where you avoid, and some areas people like to hang out and find crews. But more players would certainly help. It also takes a very long time to build up your "redpill." For instance, I have been playing for a month and a half and am still only level 15. In most other games you'd be almost double that level in the same amount of time. I like it and find it more realistic, but I can see why some would not, and I believe it to be a turn off to the game for many.
The Terrible: Not much. The game markedly improves with each patch.
So there you have it. A review of the most underappreciated game in years. If you love the Matrix, play it. If you aren't a huge fan, check it out anyway. It's only twenty bucks and the first month is free. You'll get hooked. If you already play any other MMO owned by Sony, check it out because if you like it, you can just get a station pass for only $20 a month and play both. If you have no interest at all, how did you make it this far into the review? Oh well, check it out anyway.