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View Full Version : In depth Matrix Review. Post em here



Dream Theater
05-16-2003, 08:28 AM
General/Summary: One of the most hyped and most disappointing games I have ever played. The gameplay goes from being simple to clunky within the time it takes for the unpredictable camera to swing 180 degrees at the most inopportune times. Levels are uninspired and boring and barren. Character models are mostly unpolished and unnatural looking. AI can't emulate intelligence half as well as scripted games from 5 years ago can. A big let down. I'm getting my money back and am going to spend a couple of hours having fun playing the far superior and FREE kung-fu mod of Max Payne.


Gameplay: Simple controls which seem to work but, due to quirky and unpredictable camera angles even the simplest controls feel clunky/clumsy. Shooting in third person view works fairly well though it is difficult to tell which enemy you are locked on to due to a weird little targetting effect. First person shooting is very clumsy and frustrating. The first person targetting reticle is very jumpy and no matter what settings I use it is too sensitive. In first person, strafing is allowed but, moving forward and back are restricted. Why? Who knows but, it makes for a very quick way to become even more fed up with this game. Playing as ghost I was able to witness (notice witness, not participate) in the wonkiest rail shooter level in history. Niobe was driving and I was supposed to shoot chasing police cars. Niobe couldn't keep the car on the road and I didn't need to shoot the cops because the couldn't either. Ambient civilian vehicles bounced around the streets like Mexican jumping beans on steroids and were more of a danger than the police. This level didn't require me to make a single shot and Niobe even managed to flip our car straight through the wall of a building which we ended up beind stuck in.

Graphics: Overall sub-par. Character heads and faces are relatively well done however, Shiny wasted it's money motion capturing the actors faces considering everyone is dead serious about this fiasco. Textures on a single character run the gambit from well done to absolutely horrid. Seeing Niobe's alligator skin jacket stretched beyond recognition over her shoulders is kind freaky but still not as weird as how the characters run like a poorly done, low budget, Chinese Kung-Fu movie stunt man on a wire. Environmental textures are muddy and very repetative. The geometry of the world is okay but, still a little boring and repetative. Overall, considering how much money was put into this game, it looks really really bad.

Sound: Sound was pretty good. The soundtrack was fitting, nothing more, nothing less. I did however, encounter a weird bug in the very first level that sounded like a typewriter gone haywire. The sound mastering during some of the movies was poor, considering I had to keep fiddling with my volume in order to a)keep from getting my eardrums blown out or b)hear what the heck some of the actors were mumbling.

That about sums it up (courtesy of videogamereview) . Another UC. I guess alot of people didn't notice the crappy framerate in UC. To each his own but I'm returning mine and taking my wife out to see the new movie. Now that will be $50.00 well spent.
:cheers:

MerimacHamwich
05-16-2003, 12:52 PM
Enter The Matrix First Impressions: Hamwich (http://www.xboxaddict.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36015)
Seems alot of people disagree with that review. Personally I think that review is just another case of impossible hopes. Some departments could have been better, yes, but overall I think he was just expecting too much in the first place.