The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005) - MobyGames (original) (raw)

Tetris Forever

Tetris Forever

aka:Heike Diguo: Niao zhi Lu,PON

Moby ID: 20274

Moby Score

6.6

#17,986 of 25.6K

Critics

66%(51)

Players

(44)

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123 players

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Description official descriptions

The Matrix: Path of Neo is the second video game developed by Shiny Entertainment based on the Matrix trilogy. This time you get to play as Neo himself, starting from the day agents came to take him from his office, through the race against the clock with the machines digging towards Zion, to the final battle against Agent Smith.

Like in the movies you'll start out as the untrained Thomas Anderson, and with the training and events of the movie your skills grow, enabling you to do complicated combos and take down upgraded agents.

Although the game follows the events of the trilogy, there are some missions that come as an in-depth look of events only spoken briefly in the films.

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Credits (Windows version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 51 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5(based on 44 ratings with 2 reviews)

Either Pill, You Lose

The Good
The graphics' style is very reminiscent of the movies, from the character models right down to the green hue setting the Matrix visually apart from the "real world". Individually, fight moves and combos are well animated and fun to watch. Jumping into the fray with blazing guns or turning on the game's focus slow-mo mode and dishing out pain left and right actually manages to get something of the dynamics of the movies' choreography across. The in-game cutscenes use the game's graphics, important chapter transitions are told using sequences of rapidly re-cut movie scenes. Between stages Neo's abilities can be levelled up all the way to the superhuman skills of the Chosen One. While the game attempts to retell all three movies, it is possible to slightly alter Neo's progression through certain relevant stages and change the outcome of some events. If, for example, Neo gets caught while trying to sneak out of his office at the very beginning of the game, the movie's plot unfolds unaltered. In case players navigate him successfully through the building, Neo gets picked up by Trinity on a motorcycle. The game's early training levels borrow scenarios connoisseurs of Eastern cinema will recognise.

The Bad
It's hard to say something exclusively positive about the game because it's flawed in almost all respects. The graphics may capture the look of the movie but textures are extremely fuzzy. The in-game character models, although mirroring the real actors, look extremely angular because of their low polygon count. A sort of permanent filter also makes the entire game appear blurry and downright dirty.

Controls are mainly dependent on two things: the players' willingness to perform finger-straining button combinations - and luck. The game comes with a vast(!) array of combos, special moves, focus manoeuvres and insane combinations of all three, not to mention the different moves that can be performed depending on which melee or ranged weapon is wielded. However, exercising precise control over them is almost impossible due to the pace of the action and the game's inaccurate and sluggish response to commands. In a fix, turning on focus mode and hammering away on both mouse buttons will usually lead to victory, not to mention the accidental triggering of some cool special attacks and acrobatics. Standard controls are no real help - moving a character using the WASD keys while holding LShift to enter focus mode and pressing down Ctrl to dodge is, mildly put, a pain.

Gameplay offers some nice scenarios but all in all the stages are straightforward and not very detailed obstacle courses with plenty of hectic brawls thrown in. The Matrix trilogy's story cannot be enjoyed by playing the game alone. Cutscenes, chapter transitions and slight plot alterations require in-depth knowledge of the content of all three movies.

The Bottom Line
After a brilliant first movie that all but revolutionised action cinema the Matrix trilogy seems to cast its curse of mediocrity over game developer Shiny, former provider of hit titles like Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah and Sacrifice. Just like Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo promises to be the Chosen One but turns out to be little more than a false prophet. A run-off-the-mill action title already in its conception, the game is ultimately brought down by sloppy controls, unimaginative design and below average technology.

Still, the movie franchise's glamour shines through on the rarest of occasions, meaning that die-hard fans may grab the title should they find it in some mart's bargain bin. More than ten bucks for this unimaginative adaptation, just like myriads of other movie-inspired games, would be better spent on the series' ground-breaking prelude on DVD.

Windows · by Kit Simmons (249) · 2008

Pure example of how bad a game based on a movie can be...

The Good
Soundtrack, voice acting, combat animations, amount of combos, it's not entirely boring.

The Bad
Pretty much everything else.

The Bottom Line
Isn't it just beautiful, when someone manages to develop a solid game based on a movie? Shiny guys managed to create entertaining, though buggy and technically kind of repellent game, Enter the Matrix, some time ago and although it wasn't completely satisfying as the first interactive contact with this world, it was fun and one didn't even regret spending his/her time with it. Anyway, someone was complaining about the absence of the main trio and so Shiny boys and girls decided to create this sequel, through which they manured they name, unfortunately (they probably didn't make it for this reason, but I like to believe it).

Sure, they gave as Neo, hoping in the complete player's satisfaction. But I definitely didn't feel anything like the chosen one. Why? Because the game Neo is an incredible turd, looks freakishly, controlling him is very uncomfortable and learning some cooler foppery with him requires tons of time and practice, which does make sense, but in this game, motivation to learn anything is nonexistent. The list of dirt goes on though. Most of the missions alone are pure stupid, level design is disgusting, objectives are usually pointless and often very frustrating as well, and the sequences, which are direct recreations of the best moments of the movies, are completely destroyed by lousy elaboration and some incomprehensible changes.

Apart from all that, the whole game also looks extremely ugly. With the highest resolution and the detail level set on 10 (which are the only two ways to adjust the graphics) the game still looks hideous and in addition there's no wide screen support. That's more than acceptable in most of the games, but this is really just a pain for your eyes. It's not that I'd care for visuals too much, this game is just nasty and would be nasty even if released couple years before. From time to time, some textures randomly disappear as well, and the official patch didn't fix that (actually, it didn't fix anything as far as I can tell).

But, to say a nice word or two about the game, the combat animations definitely deserve some applause. Hand in hand it goes with the amount of combos, which is definitely beyond satisfying (that is, you will pull many of them by pure accident and never manage them again). The soundtrack identical to the movie's one is logical, but I still appreciate it (eyes were in pain, at least the ears enjoyed something). The identical voice acting is also nice. And, the game isn't really boring. Sadly, portion of fun is way lower than the portion of frustration and nausea from the game's presentation and looks.

As far as I can remember, I've played only three good games based on a movie, and there sure are many more. But Path of Neo is just too quickly put together, and therefore it simply doesn't work the way it should.

Windows · by Jarek Hanzelka (4) · 2010

Trivia

References

The beginning of the firearms training level is a clear reference to the "dim sum" scene in John Woo's Hard Boiled.

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Information also contributed by PCGamer77.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Solid Flamingo.

Additional contributors: Ola Sverre Bauge, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Stratege, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added December 3, 2005. Last modified November 8, 2024.