The Matrix video games (waiting for Resurrections and the return of Keanu Reeves)
If you are unaware of it, we advise against reading the last paragraph as it contains spoilers.
Written and directed by the then Wachowski brothers (they had not yet completed the transition at the time) , the Matrix saga sees the light in 1999 with the first episode, awarded with four Oscars and entered the ranks of the most important science fiction films of the last decades. Curiously, there was no publisher ready to bet on the success of Neo, despite the protagonist, settings and plot fit perfectly with the recurring themes in that period made up of Millenium Bug and nonsense of this type. The influence of this film, however, will soon be seen also in the world of video games. It is no coincidence, in fact, that a couple of years later Max Payne of Remedy made the bullet time to write an essential page of the videogame encyclopedia.
Waiting for Matrix Resurrections and the return of 'beloved Keanu Reeves, let's go rediscover the Matrix video games.
Enter the Matrix (2003)
Niobe and Ghost, the two protagonists of Enter the Matrix To get into action within the Matrix you have to wait for 2003 and the highly anticipated first tie- in, Enter the Matrix. Expectations were sky-high especially for the first-person involvement of the female directors, inveterate gamers. The title was part of a series of media, including Animatrix, created to support the second film in the trilogy, Matrix Reloaded and to expand its universe. Both Kojima and Bungie were evaluated for the videogame adaptation, but in the end the sisters let themselves be guided by the emotions aroused in them by Messiah, and consequently commissioned the work to Shiny Interactive.Enter the Matrix is an action in third person developed for all the platforms of the time: GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows systems. The player can control one of the agents Niobe and Ghost, secondary characters who here play the role of the protagonists, whose initial task is to deliver a mysterious package to Neo. The salient phases of the plot are told through unpublished films with the actors in the flesh (Anthony Wong and Jada Pinkett Smith), directed by the Wachowski themselves.
The criticism turned out to be uniformly severe: among the major defects there is they were spartan graphics, flat gameplay and an inaccurate control system, especially on consoles. Also negative is the longevity factor, less than six hours, and an interlocutory ending. Despite all this, the sales proved the publisher Atari right: two years after the launch Enter the Matrix exceeded five million copies sold, considering all versions.
The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005)
In Matrix: Path of Neo you could finally control the character played by Keanu Reeves One of the biggest disappointments that accompanied Enter the Matrix was the inability to control Neo, the protagonist of the series; problem solved (omen nomen) with Matrix: Path of Neo, the second title taken from the film saga. Behind this tie-in we find the Wachowskis personally involved once again and consequently the boys led by Dave Perry, in the penultimate major production of his career.While using the same engine as Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo is completely unrelated to it: the plot traces the deeds of programmer Thomas Anderson from the moment of taking the red pill to the grand finale of Matrix Revolutions. Unlike the previous game, it does not boast of videos made ad hoc: the various levels are connected to each other through video clips taken from the films of the trilogy.
Let's talk once again about a third-person action game; the clear improvement of the technical sector and the greater longevity will not, however, manage to warm the enthusiasm of the critics who will reserve Path of Neo a slightly better reception than Enter the Matrix. The repetitiveness and lack of originality of the gameplay and frame rate drops in the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions ended up in the dock. In this case there was no port for Nintendo systems.
The Matrix Online (2005)
Some characters from The Matrix Online Released in the same year as Path of Neo, The Matrix Online projects the Matrix franchise into the world of MMORPGs. The development of this game was particularly troubled: produced by Monolith, it should have been distributed by Warner Bros and Ubisoft. The latter pulled out at the last minute, worried about the negative reviews obtained by Matrix Revolutions and the overcrowding of the online RPG market. Its place was then taken by SEGA, but just four months after its launch the package was sold to Sony which closed its doors permanently on June 30, 2009.Unlike the other two tie-ins, we could defining in a state of hiatus, having not yet found distribution on digital platforms, there is therefore no hope of being able to see what is to be considered in all respects Matrix 4 come back to life. Does this seem exaggerated? It shouldn't, especially after watching the Matrix Resurrections trailer featuring Laurence Fishburne's absence. Have you wondered why? Although it has not yet been clarified, it seems to be attributable to the continuity of the fourth film with the narrative arc conceived by Paul Chadwick and Ben Chamberlain, chief designer. Of course not without the support of the Wachowskis, who also supervised the events of Monolith's game.
Among these the most important is precisely the murder of Morpheus by a mysterious killer; moreover, other quests would explain why Neo and Trinity, both dead in Revelations, return to being protagonists in Resurrections.
These are the reasons why Matrix Online is positively remembered; the repetitiveness of the missions combined with an unintuitive interface prevented him from bothering what at the time was the reference of the MMORPG genre, World of WarCraft. The monthly fee required to play was yet another wrong choice that decreed the failure of the title.
A scene from Matrix Resurrections What do you think? Have you had the (un) luck of playing one of these products? What is left in your heart? Tell us in the comments!
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