The Matrix: The Path of Neo [Archive] - The PokéCommunity Forums

Cybex Mewtwo

September 11th, 2005, 01:23 PM

all righty. I spnt an hour typing this article out. If you want the screen shots, you're gonna have to actually purchase the mag and see for yourselves.

"taken directly from PSM Issue 102" Written by Associate Editor Kaiser Hwang...thanks for your hard work

The Matrix: Path of Neo]

Films that become games have a notorious reputaion for shooting well under par, with the only thing possibly worse being games that become films (or, worse yet, games that become films that become games again...cough, Street Fighter...). It's as much a tired clich� as it is a viable rule of thumb. Enter the Matrix wasn't immune to the expected short-comings of being a film-based title, but it at least trod the path less traveled by technically being a side story and offering new plot and film componants that - to a degree - compensated for the literally broken gameplay.

It's now 2005. All three movies have been released, along with the supplementary Animatrix compilation and two Matrix games (Enter the Matrix, and The Matrix Online). All of these Matrix texts share one thing in common; they each fill an unexpected gap in the Matrix universe, fleshing out details and backstory in a way no singular entity could. For the hardcore Matrix fan, this is a virtual heaven; never before has a franchise been consciously intergrated into so many mediums in a seamless and innovative manner. But for everyone else (and even the 1337 fans), there's a piece of the Matrix pie conspicuosly missing; more specifically, where is the Neo game?

When you first saw The Matrix, the thought of one day being able to play such a game was as thrilling as it was worrisome. Thrilling for the obvious reasons; worrisome because you couldn't begin to contemplate how a game that lets you walk on walls, dodge bullets, and fly like Superman could actully be realized. Indeed, Enter the Matrix took any and all psychological woes we had and shaped them into a crushing reality with its' mediocre gameplay and unfinished state. In defense of the developer, though, a rushed simultaneous release with the film and an understaffed development team was more to blame than any ill-conseived ideas.

Two years later, we finally get our first glimpse of The Matrix: Path of Neo, the second game made by Shiny. While some of the fanfare has inevitably died down from the mega-franchise, those of you still wondering where that piece of pie is, wonder no longer; Path of Neo is the one game you wished you had bought almost three years ago.

Follow the Rabbit?

For the record, Path of Neo takes place during all thre movies, but is heavily weighted in the first one. You always play as Neo, and therefore will never see any scenes he was not directly involved in. While that means a number of memorable sequences will be absent from the game - like the showdown with the albino-like twins - you still get every major battle from the trilogy, from the now-legendary lobby scene to the truly epic climax with Agent Smith. Also, exactly zero driving sequences will appear in Path of Neo, as Neo never did such a thing as drive cars in the films.

The Game's narritive more or less follows that of the movies, though there will be times where you'll be able to make a number of significant desicions that differ from the events of the movie. For instance, remember the scene where Neo first gets the phone call from Morpheous and climbs out the window ledge of his office building? What if rather becoming frightened and being captured by the agents, he succsessfully escapes and rides off with Trinity on her motorcycle? The game will allow for these types of player choices, and will adjust the story accordingly. You will be forced into key story points along the way, but how you get there is up, to you; hence the "Path of Neo".

I know Kung-fu

If there's one thing that could make or break a Matrix game, it would be the combat system. Thankfully, the one intergrated into Path of Neo has been completely reworked from the Enter the Matrix days, giving players a narrow-but-deep system to work with. With it, you're able to pull off virtually every iconic move from the films, including cartwheels, fatal disarms, and flying. However, not every move is avaliable from the get-go. For instance, flying is only an option after you become "The One".

Additionally, you can upgrade your moves up to three different levels. Te upgrades will not only change the animations associated with the moves, but they will also increase the effectiveness of them. Say a level one disarm has you reaching for an enemy's gun, jumping over him, and shooting him in the back with it. The level two version would have you doing the same thing, only shooting a few other enemies in the process. Level three would take this evolution one step further, and would be played out by first punching the guy, then grab his gun, jump over his head, spray hot lead around the entire room, shoot him in the back, and then maybe kick him in the face on his way down. The player gets to choose which moves to upgrade, giving them the ability to shape Neo as they see fit.

Before you can even begin upgrading your move set, though, you need to learn one. This is done through training programs, i.e the dojo scene in the first movie. Each training program in the game has a unique look, going beyond what's been shown in the films. One such program, internally called Japanese Winter, has Neo running around a traitional Japanese building dressed in a samurai outfit. Here he learns things such as wall-running and wall-breaking, as well as how to use a katana. As Neo finally escapes the building, he reaches a snow-covered courtyard where countless numbers of enemies surround him. While you could maybe button mash your way out of the situation eventually, the catch is that melee attacks do trivial damage to your foes, forcing you to learn to the training programs' specific skills - in this case, swordplay.

Breaking the Rules

Bringing the world of The Matrix to life requires some flexable and powerful technology, and Path of Neo has it in virtual spades. Take the number of characters on-screen as an example. The graphics engine in Enter the Matrix could handle about five or six models at once. For Path of Neo, we were witness to the Burly Brawl scene with Neo fighting over sixty Agent Smiths at once. Better yet, we were shown a real time tech demo showcasing 1500 Smiths dancing around. The game also features Havok physics, impressive light blooms, and fantastic distortion ripples, and also the first PS2 game to include normal mapping. Tech jargon aside, PON feeds enough candy to your visual senses to give them a severe aching.

Along with the lobby scene, we were also shown the unforgetable battle in Reloaded that takes place at the two massive curved staircases. As in the movie, Neo is first confronted by a menacing kineup fi opponents as ordered by the Merovinigan. As soon as they start shooting their guns, you can stop their bullets midair (leveling up this power lets you actually shoot the bullets back at them). Because the enviornments are completely interactive and destructable, you can then run along the walls, grab any weapon mounted on them, and cause enough destruction to the enviornment that you wouldn't recognize it in a lineup. It's all very accurate to the film, and will have you crying sweet tears of nostalgia every minute of the way.

As for what more is in the game, we've only seen glimpses and been teased as to what's to come. We know there's the momentous final battle with Agent Smith; we know the the original dojo is in, as well as Morpheous (actually, Lawrance Fishbourne is the only actor who recorded new lines of diolouge); we know you can see in "Code Vision" though besides seeing through walls, it's purpose is unknown; we know there are secret "fortune cookies" that can open up entertining Easter Egg, like giving Neo sunglasses to wear; and we know the game is actually non-linear, though specifically how is beyond us.

Path of Neo is as much the game we wanted to play the first time around, as it is the game that developer Shiny wanted to make the first time around. With no rushed deadine to meet, a staff almost three times as large, and simply the experience of already having made a Matrix game, this could be the game that makes following the white rabbit worthwhile.

-Kaiser Hwang
associate Editor for PSM