It looks like it took a huge disappointment to get me out of my writing stupor lately. Thankfully, Shiny's steaming pile of code has provided me a muse which made my fingers start tapping away at my keyboard. If anyone actually read my reviews... I am sure this one would generate some hate mail since my opinions on this game are in the vast minority, however, hear me out, because I have some really valid points in here. Not like it matters though, the game is already a million plus seller and gaming companies prove, once again, that slapping a little foil on a cover and licensing a hit movie is enough to sell a million games. Who needs quality design anymore? Yay!

It isn't all gloom and doom, however, and I want to tell you about what I liked first. First of all, the fighting in the game isn't bad at all. It's fun, they mapped out the controls well and it tends to recreate the feel of the movies quite nicely. The 'focus' gameplay is easy to use and allows you to do many different Matrix-like acts such as super long jumps, wall running, killer combos and even helps you with your aim while using guns. It is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, however, I'd be just as satisfied with a demo of this game in lieu of the $50 asking price.

Enter the Matrix really had a lot of potential. The movies are made for video games, that is obvious. It also makes it even more frustrating that they didn't take the time to deliver what could have been the best movie conversion of all time. The fact that it isn't is a slap in the face to gamers everywhere. People seem to think this title was only in development for six months. (It certainly looks like it was.) In reality, I remember hearing how Shiny secured the rights to the Matrix series way back when the first film was still in the theaters. That's a long time to make a decent game. The end result does not seems like a product that was in development for that long. It may be passable for a game that was made in less than a year, but Shiny has no excuse for how the final version of Enter the Matrix ended up.

Shiny did pay a lot of attention to character models and motion capture for the cast of the game. The main characters certainly do look good and move really well for the most part. Some people complained about the running animations but I thought they were fine. It was basically how they ran in the movies, very crisp movements. I'm not sure what the complaint was about there. Fighting motions tend to look nice as well, however, you do tend to see some choppiness since some of the longer duration moves need to finish before continuing to the next move.

The level graphics and design is where Enter the Matrix really starts to fall apart. Considering the amount of time they had to work on this game, coupled with what the competition is doing, there is simply no excuse for the horribly bland, flat and downright putrid levels. Sometimes the backgrounds seem so flat that you don't even realize there is a life or death jump directly in front of you until it's too late. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has much better backdrops in addition to a gigantic city which you can run amok in. What is Shiny's excuse for such lackluster levels? They're not huge, they barely feature any complicated geometry and they tend to be filled with inconsistencies. For instance, there is a level which seeks to re-create the famous lobby fight of the first Matrix film. It actually does a decent job, featuring a lot of pillars which can be mutilated by gunfire and such. However, even that level still just ends up looking flat and lifeless overall. In one level you can make a one drop and in another you die if you jump ten feet. Make up your mind!

How about the graphical glitching? There is a ton of clipping, bad camera movements, poor collision detection and everything else you would expect in a game that had a total development time of three months. Again, Shiny has had this one in the oven for a long time now... no excuse this. You can clip into a lot of the levels that actually have a little bit of complexity to them. The camera, while not the worst one I have ever seen, certainly could have used a lot more work. If a game requires you to make some precise, tight quarters movements, the camera better damn well keep that in mind. Things like this are a little more tolerable in ambitious games like GTAIII, but, as I keep saying, there is just no excuse for this here.

The PS2 version I played also had a hell of a lot of sound glitching, especially in the cut scenes. There was an annoying 'echo' effect that went off way too much during the cinema scenes, which would basically start repeating all of the sound over again after a couple seconds of the scene started playing. I can't really begin to describe how annoying that gets after the 15th time. The overall sound effects in the game were actually great too, which made that even more annoying that I had to deal with the glitching. The fight sounds were ripped straight from the films and really helped to add to the atmosphere. Then there were things that just seemed unfinished. For instance, in a wonderfully annoying product placement attempt, there are numerous vending machines featuring an energy drink which I won't even name due to those incredibly lame and annoying television ads. If you punch the machines once, it dispensed a bottle. There is no sound, just a bottle that drops out onto the floor. You can't seem to do anything with it either. If you punch the machine a couple more times, you can break the logo and disable the light... also with absolutely zero sound effects or anything else. Dull... boring... uninspired. Sickening in this day and age of gaming.

Then we have the crappy driving and shooting levels which are intended to break up the action a bit. I just really hate it when developers feel the need to break up action (which is unpolished enough as it is) with mini sections of game which seem to be a complete afterthought. Before the game even came out I read warnings about the driving levels, so I suppose they ended up being a little better then I thought since my expectations were set so low. Then end result is still abysmal though, and really would have been better off not being included. Same with the shooter on rails levels... leave that sort of thing to the pros like the Panzer Dragoon series. Don't force me to play your crap that you spent 2 weeks coding just to fill up game time.

How about we talk about those wonderful loading times? What the hell did Shiny do that makes this game load as much as it does? I don't get it? There are games which feature vastly more complicated characters and levels that feature almost zero loading time. There were some times were you would load a section of the level for 15 or more seconds just to pass it in less than the time it took to load. What the hell is that about!? Apparently, Shiny is still stuck in the first generation of PS2 development. Can someone lend them a hand?

There was a neat little concept in the game called "Hacking" which allowed you to browse around a computer via a DOS prompt. I suppose bringing up directories in DOS is considered hacking these days, but it was a little dull since I know that computers existed before Windows 95. The commands did allow you to get access to a couple neat features like viewing characters and equipment in the game, as well as viewing cut scenes, but the main purpose behind the mode seems to cause more problems than it's worth. The hacking mode also allowed you to enter cheats and allow you to make little changes to the levels such as dropping weapons and powerups in certain locations. Some of the cheats made the game even more glitchy and would crash the game. I don't know... if you're going to include it as a feature, at least play test the shit, can we?

The nice idea behind the game was that it followed a side story of the Reloaded film and was supposed to fill in some blanks for the Reloaded film. There was a bunch of additional footage filmed just for the game, but much of it is not going to really impress many people out there. It's nice to see the real actors in Enter the Matrix, voicing their characters outside of the FMV, but overall it's just not anything worth dropping 50 bones on.

In the end, I had to return Enter the Matrix. The glitches were too much for me and the gameplay wasn't enough to keep me entertained for long. If the Official Playstation Magazine has a demo for this game next month, that would be a perfect fix for anyone interested in this title. I have been told over and over again that the other version of the game for the Gamecube and Xbox are far less glitchy, but those versions won't have magically enhanced level design and gameplay tweaks to make the game all of the sudden incredible. It doesn't matter though, people will insist this game is wonderful and Shiny has already made tons of money and sold over a million units already. It's a very average game that shouldn't have been. Shiny had plenty of time to elevate this game to greatness, and apparently decided to shit on the gamers and release tripe, which was obviously the right choice for them, since it's selling like crazy. Even though it was an overall meaningless gesture, I'm glad I returned your piece of shit game. You shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. I'm horribly disappointed in Shiny and Enter the Matrix, but I'm sure everyone else will love it.