The Matrix was one messed up, confusing, and interesting movie, all at once. The Matrix Reloaded was much of the same. But Enter the Matrix explains some of this confusion, and offers a great action romp with some of the coolest tricks in video games. It does well in most spots, but like a lot of licensed games, it still falls far from perfection with a few flaws.

Breakdown

Shiny has done amazingly well to port the feeling of the movie over to the games. In Enter the Matrix, you play as members of the Logos starship named Niobe and Ghost. You'll recognize them instantly, since they both had parts in The Matrix Reloaded. Niobe has a much bigger part and plays more of the lead character than Ghost does. Back to the point, you'll really feel like you're getting into the moderate story, especially when you'll be able to play as either Niobe or Ghost from the start. Unfortunately (and this took off points from the score), you can't switch between the two at will and the levels are sometimes the exact same for both characters.

Graphically, there is not much to complain about in Enter the Matrix, but a whole lot to praise. First of all, the real-life cinemas made specifically for ETM are great. The "Focus" slow-motion mode in is far better looking than in both Max Payne and Dead to Rights especially the bullet trails. The animation for each fighting move is also stunning. Your character can run up the side of the wall, do a horizontal kick and send a group of enemies flying like bowling pins.

There are loads of punches, kicks, throws and parry moves that you can utilize to knock all of the Police and Agents out of your way. However, some of the moves get repetitious after playing through most of the game. Fortunately, you can also find a lot of different kinds of guns, and interestingly, about six kinds of pistols. Unfortunately, there aren't very many different kinds of enemies to use the cool moves on. You have a few kinds of police, security guards and agents but there isn't much variety in the game's enemies. The A.I. isn't bad but you'll notice a few enemies running into walls every once in a while.

The action scenes of the game reflect both movies very well. The seedy feeling of the Matrix as well as the strange appearance of the Real World will draw you in, and the different environments are pretty cool. You'll fight on rooftops, sewers, loads of thin corridors, and a lot of other indoor environments that all have environmental threats and helpful qualities. In one instance, you can't actually kill an Agent (which any Matrix fan knows). In another scenario, an Agent attacks Niobe as she tries to free her partner, Axel. They are in a cargo airplane, and the only people left are the Agent and Niobe, meaning there is no pilot. Needless to say, you have to find a way to get out of there. In the end, you'll find parachutes and have to fight the Agent so he falls out of the bay area. It's a very fast-paced scene, since one slip-up will send you falling to your death.

As far as the music goes, it fits the movies well. There is a mix of fast and slow paced orchestral music. There's not much between the two. This takes away a little from the score, because as far as I'm concerned, the action scenes don’t benefited much from symphonic music. There is a little bit of techno/rock when you get into bigger scenes with more action, but usually you'll just walk along a few basic enemies with ho-hum symphony music. Also, the sound effects are a little bland, but the action genre doesn't vary much in those terms. Lastly, the voices are great, which is obvious because all voices were done by the actual actors/actresses from the movies, so there isn't much they could do wrong there.

In the end, Enter the Matrix is a great action game that will have action and Matrix fans glued to the screen. As for everyone else, it isn't much more than another action game with the slow-motion "Bullet Time" effect. Still, it's worth a rental and there's no better way to enjoy the new movie than to play the new game.