Mini
Review By Vaughn
|
I
read on a forum board in regards to the Path
Of Neo "For the love of God, Choose the
blue pill it will save you hours of hate"
- While I don't necessarily wholeheartedly agree
with Be4st, he makes a good point. Not to mention
he's cheeky and I like that.
There
are some aspects of PoN that are admirable and
downright cool (fleshed out story, fighting,
upgrade abilities), but then you need to shoot
at something and the whole game goes to hell
in a Matrix designed handbasket. I don't remember
the auto-aiming suffering from attention deficit
disorder in Shiny's 2003 Enter The Matrix game,
so why is it impossible to target something
now? Even using Focus (bullet time) and jumping
into a room with just 3 gun-toting thugs becomes
a crapshoot as to whether you'll come out alive
due to the Ritalin starved targetting and hyperactive
camera. Had Shiny directred The Matrix movies
I get the feeling that during the amazing fight
scenes the camera would have been filming the
wall or a fire extinguisher. Hot damn
that's good action!
Devin,
the reviewer next door, spent mucho time game-testing
PoN, so needless to say he's had hours of experience
to compensate for the games shortcomings. You,
Mr. Weekend-Rental won't have the same benefit.
I
paid full price for The Matrix: Path of Neo
and I'm telling you in terms of purchase vs
rental "Do or Do Not....There is no buy."
Sorry, wrong movie. Matrix fans will enjoy various
aspects but PoN definitely feels like it was
rushed to market for the holiday season.
|
Overall
- 3.0 (on a good day)
|
It's
painful to watch a story you love become a victim to
a horrible adaptation. I'm sure just looking at the
title of this game, and given it's origin, "The
Matrix" is enough to frighten you and put you in
a frenzy to hit the X button and close this window.
The
Matrix has had a horrible outing in the videogame
industry. The Matrix franchise has received absolutely
no love ever since its first videogame adaptation
saw the light of day, no love what so ever.
Enter
The Matrix seemed like a great idea, telling the story
from a different point of view, and using the videogame
to bridge the second and third movies. However, ugly
graphics and horrible controls were the ultimate demise
of this title. The Matrix Online, once again, was
a great idea. An MMO set in the Matrix world. Ask
anyone who's played MxO (The Matrix Online) and they
will be able to count off the many, many flaws in
the game.
Needless
to say that any game with "The Matrix" in
its title has earned the reputation to be feared and
avoided at all costs. And why? Due to both videogames
missing what could be argued as the story's main character,
Neo.
Incidentally
enough, Neo's first appearance in the videogame industry
also marks the appearance of the greatest Matrix game,
and dare I say the most entertaining action adventure
game this year.
The
Matrix: Path of Neo is an interesting title in the
way of the Matrix storyline. Along your journey under
the black shades, you'll visit familiar locales and
run into some familiar faces. However, a lot of the
outcomes will ultimately be different. You will also
bare witness to occurrences that happened between
the movies that help mold Neo into who he is.
Or
was.
Following
this title along its journey from adolescence into
adulthood was special in the way of witnessing the
evolution of the graphics that this game offers. PoN
is crisp and clear and provides incredibly detailed
models of its on-screen counterparts. The many, many
animations that occur in game, from jumping off a
wall then firing round after round from your M-16
into the chest of a security guard to grabbing 3 enemies
whom are surrounding you and using their bodies as
weapons to whack each other, are all flawless.
The
most beautiful aspect to this game definitely belongs
to the level design. All the levels feel open and
spacious, giving Neo plenty of room to execute his
many, and devastating, attacks. The way each level
looks is flawless. The bitmaps used to skin every
inch of a level were as crisp as could be. The only
other game that I can think of that could rival the
level design of Path of Neo would be Blizzard's World
of Warcraft.
Next
we take a look at the sound, which received the lowest
score in my ratings. I think it's awesome that Shiny
was able to get some of the Matrix actors to do their
own voice-overs, but also got he Wachowski brothers
themselves (I'll touch upon their cameo later). There
were times though when Neo spoke and I found myself
doubting whether it was Keanu Reeves or not. I believe
that due to some slight alterations to the story line,
that the feeling and expression that the actors portrayed
didn't have the same impact as it did onscreen. Conveying
similar emotions in a videogame has proven to be a
bit more difficult than on the silver screen.
I
couldn't let Neo get away from me without a little
bit of detest.
The
story of the Matrix is a long and winding one, full
of religious blather. Adapting a self-sacrificial
ending (which resembles a certain religious figure)
into a videogame is quite difficult. After all, how
fun is that? So what do you do?
Call
in the Wachowskis.
Just
like Enter the Matrix and The Matrix Online, the Wahckowski
brothers had a large influence on the making of this
game, probably more so than the previous titles. The
Wachowskis were so involved that they designed the
ending level to the Path of Neo.
Prepare
for spoilers
After
you defeat Smith in what would be the game's final
level, old Atari 2600 like characters (ironic?) appear
on screen voiced by the Wachowskis. They go on to
explain how they wanted to create a big bad boss,
so they did. Introduce Mega Smith. This level was
the second most disappointing aspect of the game.
You have a giant Agent Smith made of cars and buildings
and all you have to do is avoid his attacks and hit
the X button when the screen tells you to.
That's
it.
It
does seem easy enough, but unfortunately is all this
level has to offer. Oh, and I forgot to mention that
this level is 15 minutes too long. Even playing this
level on easy, avoiding every attack that is thrown
at you and defeating Smith as fast as you can, you
are looking at 15 to 20 minutes of button mashing.
But hey, the Brothers Matrix forewarned you.
More
Spoiler Alert Regarding The Ending
And
what do you receive as a reward for fighting through
the entire game and struggling through the final and
pointless level? A small, poorly cut montage of the
final Matrix movie with Queen's "We Are The Champions"
playing over it all.
When
I heard that song play I had to restrain from throwing
my controller into the screen. Alas, I'm a professional.
I did however feel cheated that my reward for playing
through what I considered to be a long and grueling
game was a clip of the default sports championship
victory song. I also felt that the addition of the
Queen song slightly cheapened the Matrix storyline.
Spoiler
Alert Over
In
the end, Matrix the Path of Neo is a Matrix game that
FINALLY got it right. You're able to pull off all
the cool moves and abilities that Neo possesses, including
fighting off hundreds of Smiths at once, pole and
all. With great graphics and great controls, this
title will definitely impress with the first and second
play through. A multiplayer mode (which was originally
designed for the game) would have been the cherry
on top of the cake, however you can only fight all
alone. So unless you're a hardcore Matrix fan, you
may only run through this game once or twice.
The
path is now laid down before you. Will you walk it?
Will you prove to be The One?
|