he Matrix sequels suffered a critical death spiral after the original was released in 1999 and hailed by eminent writers like Paul Di Filippo as "a quantum leap upward from the ground state of its ancestors" (meaning Star Wars and its ilk). Two years following the box-office debut of the final movie in the trilogy, the Wachowski brothers (the trilogy's writers and directors) have returned with developer Shiny Entertainment to unleash an action game that finally allows players to become Neo—The One—in a martial-arts extravaganza that recapitulates the major events of all three films and teases an alternate Wachowski-forged ending.
The last Matrix game from Shiny (Enter the Matrix) was designed to complement the second film, giving players control of subsidiary resistance fighters like Niobe and Ghost on a strike mission to disable a power grid and offer Neo fleeting access to the enigmatic mainframe. In Path of Neo, all three Matrix movies are reconsidered, with key sequences extended or changed altogether and thematic clarifications offered to potentially address some of the films' lingering mysteries.
Path of Neo is divided into several dozen levels, beginning with the infamous "Wake up Neo" computer scene and kung-fu fighting to the thunderous "This world is mine!" finale. Aping the films' major events, players make subtle or incisive changes to Neo's voyage of self-discovery by succeeding not only where Neo triumphed, but as often where he failed. Consider the cubicle sequence from the first film, in which Neo ventures gingerly onto his workplace building's ledge, chickens out and is captured by Agent Smith. In Path of Neo, players can actually brave Morpheus' vertiginous escape route and battle to ground, enjoying rescue by Trinity-on-motorcycle instead of interrogation and bugging by Agent Smith and pals.
Neo is capable of multiple combos as he battles soldiers, Agents and Exiles, completes objectives and gains focus power. Focus is the game's term for "bullet time," allowing Neo to increase the speed and effectiveness of his actions. Nearly all of the moves from the films are replicated, including combo punches, throws, power jumps, wall walks, leap-flips and bullet dodging. A helpful combo advisor materializes during combat to inform when certain moves are on tap, displaying the button to hit or whether to thumb it repeatedly. Between missions, Neo will unlock special powers like "code vision" (see through walls) or abilities like "flight" and "off-wall super" that enhance his combat prowess. Unlike its predecessor (which included unlockable one-on-one multiplayer), The Path of Neo is solo play only.
As uneven as the film sequels
If nothing else, the Matrix films were striking CGI threshold transgressors, painting fantastic (if color-leeched) Herzogian vistas with fresh, severe ideas about what could be accomplished through creative cinema. Path of Neo, on the other hand, ensues as an outrageously ugly and bounded vision. While it does manage a faithful translation of Neo's hyperbolic moves and achieves moments of kung-fu frisson, it offers nothing more than its betters like the Prince of Persia or Ninja Gaiden series (and, in many cases, much less), bringing Path of Neo off as a second-class karate gauntlet. This is clearly not the innovative Shiny we used to love.
Remember the "I know kung-fu" line from the first film? Path of Neo gives players the skinny on what those REM-inducing training simulations looked like, pitting Neo against waves of artificial constructs on his journey to become The One (and beyond). Unfortunately, they're all as boring to look at as to play through. Environments—even those lifted from the film—are small and boxy, with textures that "sparkle" when they ought to be standing still. Neo and pals are recognizable by outfit, but not much else, with pinched low-poly faces and disproportionately angular bodies. Missions are simply "run and fight a lot," intercut with patchwork scenes from the film. As neat as some of Neo's moves are, battles—even against Agents—can be won using the two or three most elementary focus/grab/punch combinations, making techniques like wall-running little more than vanity filler. On normal settings, the game takes just 12 hours to clear.
Technical issues abound. While the PS2 gets widescreen treatment, the more powerful Xbox is inexplicably limited to 4:3 and further suffers miserable frame rates. Camera control—never more important than in a game premised on Matrix-style combat—is like wrestling with a drunk, and doesn't dynamically adjust. You are thus forced to manage complex combos and track dozens of opponents (remember the Burly Brawl?) while eternally flicking the camera. It's simply too much to throw at even the exceptionally dexterous among us.
Maybe it's just part of the big joke the Wachowskis appear to be having at the public's expense (exemplified in the, ahem, new "meta-fictive" ending). Perhaps it's a reaction to the hate mail or all the obsessive postmodern fandom overanalysis. Whatever the case, the films ended on a sour note, and so does this game. If you absolutely loved the movies and lean toward style (however uncomely) over substance in your video games, you could do worse than Path of Neo. Everyone else, nothing to see here, move along.
To think the Wachowski brothers are self-proclaimed video-game junkies—shame on them for letting still valuable intellectual property take a further turn south.
—Matt
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