Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 22, 2007 11:00:24 GMT -5
[glow=green,2,300]Quickly:[/glow] very cool, very fun, very broken
[shadow=green,left,300]Summary:[/shadow] A hugely over hyped, over produced, movie tie in game. There have been a few Matrix games that have been released, one that I loved, but none have let you play The One, until now. You take on the role of Neo and pretty much play through the entire Matrix Series. You play through a lot of behind the scenes stuff, that you didn't get to see in the Movies, like what actually happens with Neo gets the Kung Fu download. The story was actually written by the W brothers (no clue how to spell it sorry), so it follows the storyline very well. They even make an appearance at the end to explain how the movie ending doesn't work in video games and toss you into a mega boss battle that you only get to see in this game. The gameplay is a mix of shooter and beat 'em up, with some platforming elements. The interesting part is that you pretty much get the choice as a player of playing it as a shooter or beat'em up. Most levels are linear as far as level design (aka only one way to go) but the way you get there is up to the player. You are given a setting, then an objective, then it's up to you to do the objective. You can play stealthy, you can run right in, you can do tricky things like shooting out the lights, or blowing up fire extinguishers, or you can just run in and beat everyone down with Fu. As you play through the levels you unlock new and better abilities. You start off pretty 'human' only having a few simple punches and kicks and short focus meeter (to enter bullet time). By the end you can fly, do 60 hit combos, stop bullets, use telekinesis, and more.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow] just plain fun. The sheer number of ways you can take a mob out in this game is amazing. It's all motion capped too so it looks damn good when you do it. Even more impressive are the combo moves that take down 2 or 3 guys at once. This is one of those games where you pull off the most amazing stuff with only a few relatively simple button clicks. Some of the levels were brilliant. The learning Kung Fu series at the beginning being my favorite. You run through a bunch of classic style Fu movies, including a Black and White Kurosawa inspired Samurai battle using Katanas, and the ever popular, guy in the bar as waves of enemies stream in through the windows. Battling thousands of Smiths in the park was also a gaming moment matched by few. The way the game mixed in real video from the movies in with the game was done excellently, and really reminded you of what is going on (actually somewhat better then the movies themselves did). The voice acting was pretty much bang one, and the added ending in full video was very impressive, even if you could tell it wasn't Keanu. The on screen combo reminders were a life saver. As you are doing moves it would pop up with the next button in the combo at the bottom of the screen. This made remembering even the most complex combos a snap as you just had to remember how to start them off.
[glow=green,2,300]The Bad: [/glow]so many control issues. Even more graphic issues. The game just felt unpolished. Like someone made if for maybe the P2S and I was playing the Xbox Port. There were times you would fall through the ground and die, times when an enemy would walk through you, then through a wall and then you would be tossed through the air because he then hit you. Graphics issues were constant, even during cut scenes. I couldn't count how many times Neos trench coat defied physics and passed through all manner of objects, the most common being Neo himself. This made the game frustrating and near unplayable at certain times.
[glow=green,2,300]The Ugly: [/glow]on top of all the graphics and control issues, three times while playing the game just hung up. Total freeze on a load screen. Have to reboot the system and loose all progress on that level so far. Less fatal but almost as annoying, the game is supposed to load as you play so you never see a load screen, most of the time this is true, but sometimes, in the middle of the game a load screen will pop up. This always happened in the middle of a fight, often with an agent, and usually ended up with me dead, as I would loose my rhythm. In a Game where I have to remember to hit "Left+B, Y, Y, Y, Y, B, Left+B, Y, Y, Y, Y, left analog 360o" to pull of an amazing combo, having the game load right after the second Y throws you totally off.
[glow=green,2,300]Overall:[/glow] what a great but frustrating game. I played this one from start to finish. This in itself isn't an amazing thing, but the fact I played a game with so many flaws in it to the finish is. This game really is broken, there are so many flaws, some of which crash your system. But it so much fun! It was worth putting up with all the issues just so I could beat down 100 smiths with a large lead pipe, and just so I could fly and uppercut smith into a skyscraper, and just so I could go Bushido on some ancient Japanese Warlord. This game would have been amazing if all the technical issues were fixed. Will you like it? I couldn't tell you, the broken bits are highly annoying, if you can overlook them, there is a ton of fun waiting to be had. I suggest a rental, or pick it up dirt cheap used as I did.
[shadow=green,left,300]Summary:[/shadow] A hugely over hyped, over produced, movie tie in game. There have been a few Matrix games that have been released, one that I loved, but none have let you play The One, until now. You take on the role of Neo and pretty much play through the entire Matrix Series. You play through a lot of behind the scenes stuff, that you didn't get to see in the Movies, like what actually happens with Neo gets the Kung Fu download. The story was actually written by the W brothers (no clue how to spell it sorry), so it follows the storyline very well. They even make an appearance at the end to explain how the movie ending doesn't work in video games and toss you into a mega boss battle that you only get to see in this game. The gameplay is a mix of shooter and beat 'em up, with some platforming elements. The interesting part is that you pretty much get the choice as a player of playing it as a shooter or beat'em up. Most levels are linear as far as level design (aka only one way to go) but the way you get there is up to the player. You are given a setting, then an objective, then it's up to you to do the objective. You can play stealthy, you can run right in, you can do tricky things like shooting out the lights, or blowing up fire extinguishers, or you can just run in and beat everyone down with Fu. As you play through the levels you unlock new and better abilities. You start off pretty 'human' only having a few simple punches and kicks and short focus meeter (to enter bullet time). By the end you can fly, do 60 hit combos, stop bullets, use telekinesis, and more.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow] just plain fun. The sheer number of ways you can take a mob out in this game is amazing. It's all motion capped too so it looks damn good when you do it. Even more impressive are the combo moves that take down 2 or 3 guys at once. This is one of those games where you pull off the most amazing stuff with only a few relatively simple button clicks. Some of the levels were brilliant. The learning Kung Fu series at the beginning being my favorite. You run through a bunch of classic style Fu movies, including a Black and White Kurosawa inspired Samurai battle using Katanas, and the ever popular, guy in the bar as waves of enemies stream in through the windows. Battling thousands of Smiths in the park was also a gaming moment matched by few. The way the game mixed in real video from the movies in with the game was done excellently, and really reminded you of what is going on (actually somewhat better then the movies themselves did). The voice acting was pretty much bang one, and the added ending in full video was very impressive, even if you could tell it wasn't Keanu. The on screen combo reminders were a life saver. As you are doing moves it would pop up with the next button in the combo at the bottom of the screen. This made remembering even the most complex combos a snap as you just had to remember how to start them off.
[glow=green,2,300]The Bad: [/glow]so many control issues. Even more graphic issues. The game just felt unpolished. Like someone made if for maybe the P2S and I was playing the Xbox Port. There were times you would fall through the ground and die, times when an enemy would walk through you, then through a wall and then you would be tossed through the air because he then hit you. Graphics issues were constant, even during cut scenes. I couldn't count how many times Neos trench coat defied physics and passed through all manner of objects, the most common being Neo himself. This made the game frustrating and near unplayable at certain times.
[glow=green,2,300]The Ugly: [/glow]on top of all the graphics and control issues, three times while playing the game just hung up. Total freeze on a load screen. Have to reboot the system and loose all progress on that level so far. Less fatal but almost as annoying, the game is supposed to load as you play so you never see a load screen, most of the time this is true, but sometimes, in the middle of the game a load screen will pop up. This always happened in the middle of a fight, often with an agent, and usually ended up with me dead, as I would loose my rhythm. In a Game where I have to remember to hit "Left+B, Y, Y, Y, Y, B, Left+B, Y, Y, Y, Y, left analog 360o" to pull of an amazing combo, having the game load right after the second Y throws you totally off.
[glow=green,2,300]Overall:[/glow] what a great but frustrating game. I played this one from start to finish. This in itself isn't an amazing thing, but the fact I played a game with so many flaws in it to the finish is. This game really is broken, there are so many flaws, some of which crash your system. But it so much fun! It was worth putting up with all the issues just so I could beat down 100 smiths with a large lead pipe, and just so I could fly and uppercut smith into a skyscraper, and just so I could go Bushido on some ancient Japanese Warlord. This game would have been amazing if all the technical issues were fixed. Will you like it? I couldn't tell you, the broken bits are highly annoying, if you can overlook them, there is a ton of fun waiting to be had. I suggest a rental, or pick it up dirt cheap used as I did.