Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Not like this<\/h2> That\u2019s not to say there\u2019s nothing of value in Enter the Matrix<\/i> beyond the high-quality cutscenes. A lot of its idea would have been neat if they were executed with a greater degree of polish. The interplay between hand-to-hand combat and gunslinging is, uh, present. You can point to Max Payne <\/i>as being a better Matrix <\/i>series, but they games are more about shootouts and omit the martial arts that contribute to a lot of fight scenes.<\/p>
However, actually getting in a shootout is as basic and boring as it could possibly be. Drawing your weapon and firing is the same button on the Gamecube controller, and you merely need to vaguely point your character in the direction of what you want to die and they\u2019ll handle the rest as best they can. If you\u2019re feeling sassy, you can lock on with R, but remember to let go when you want to target someone else because your character doesn\u2019t take death as a good reason to change targets. You can zoom in and aim manually, but only if you don\u2019t trust your character, which is understandable. Sometimes they\u2019re willing to aim at the person across the room, but more often, they won\u2019t acknowledge them until they\u2019re being given a lapdance.<\/p>
You can activate focus, which is usually more affectionately known as \u201cbullet time.\u201d Using this not only gives you more opportunity to react, but also makes your character hit harder and aim better. You can also dodge bullets and leap around like a gibbon on a hot plate, which gives you basically everything you need for a complete Matrix <\/i>experience, so long as it can stop squirreling out for a few minutes.<\/p> Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Denial is the most predictable of all human responses<\/h2> Again, to the credit of Enter the Matrix<\/i>, there\u2019s a lot of contextualized movement in the game. You can run up walls, dive backward, dive forward, run up a wall and kick someone in the face. If all of this was combined in a way that was well polished, it would open up for some pretty grand gun-fu. Instead, it\u2019s more often just slow-motion slap-fighting.<\/p>
The A.I. is cataclysmically daft. Mashing buttons never really fails to work; it\u2019s mostly just up to you whether you kick or punch them to death. There are throws and disarming techniques, but when slow-motion fists work so well, I rarely found a need for it. If anything, throwing someone to the ground was detrimental to your progress, as trying to hit someone when they\u2019re down is so dishonorable, that your character will rarely cooperate and do it. Shooting<\/i> them when they\u2019re down is much more reliable, but it takes a decade to pull a shotgun out of your pants.<\/p>
All the action is apparently motion-captured by the actor\u2019s stunt doubles, and a lot of effort has gone into replicating the choreography of the movie, but it all goes together in such a jittery, incohesive mess. On medium difficulty, learning how to pull off all the maneuvers isn\u2019t even as important as managing your focus and health as resources.<\/p> Screenshot by Destructoid<\/figcaption><\/figure> Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony<\/h2> That\u2019s to say nothing of the horrendous level design that left me lost in areas where I had already been. Or the in-game cutscenes that sometimes feel like they were edited together at the very last minute. Much of the non-combat animation is horrendous and the graphics for a 2003 game are terrible. Once again, all things that point to a rushed development.<\/p>
Playing as Ghost and Niobe allow for some divergence. Levels play out differently, and while sometimes the objectives are the same, in some situations, you actually complete complimenting goals. Niobe always drives the vehicles, for example, while Ghost rides shotgun. With Niobe, you actually get behind the wheel in some poorly designed driving sections, whereas Ghost has more of an on-rails shooter.<\/p>
When it all comes together, \u201cjank\u201d isn\u2019t a sufficient word to describe the sheer depth of the problems Enter the Matrix<\/i> has. I play a lot of bad games, as that\u2019s the point of this column, but rarely have I been as awestruck as I\u2019ve been with Enter the Matrix<\/i>. It\u2019s obvious there was a lot of passion behind the project, but what we got was the interactive equivalent of emptying a toaster\u2019s crumb trap. I\u2019d say it would be worth playing merely as a companion to Matrix Reloaded<\/i>, but the possibility that I\u2019d be interested in another watch of that movie seems rather remote.<\/p>
This is a long shot, but what I would love is if someone made another attempt at Enter the Matrix<\/i>. Like, take the cutscenes and build an entirely new game around them. With new talent, modern technology, and no looming deadline, just try the concept again. That\u2019s a situation where I\u2019d actually watch Matrix Reloaded<\/i> again; if the video game companion to it was actually worth playing.<\/p>
For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":357371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"article_type":"","gamurs_wordpress_blocks_hide_tags":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[91],"tags":[1025,1312,705,20839,19112,19354,20287,19289,19124],"internal-label":[],"invoiceable_action":[],"article_type":[],"coauthors":[{"id":17,"display_name":"Zoey Handley","user_login":"Adzuken","user_nicename":"adzuken"}],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnter the Matrix will have you taking pills – Destructoid<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n