Back when the Matrix hit the screens, it was an instant hit. It had cool clothes (for an edgy 90s kid), guns, slow-mo, kung-fu, a greenish hue, an awesome soundtrack, and a whole bunch of legendary actors we didn’t really care about because we were kids. Also, because I basically lived in the glorified village XXL, I saw both Matrix and Blade at the same time. Perhaps even in the same evening. And for some time, I genuinely believed those two movies to be some sort of happening in the same universe. Which… is… actually a damn rad idea. Anyway, since Matrix was an instant hit, and its sequel was even bigger (basically a live-action of anime power fantasy, but we swallowed it, we didn’t know any better… and we didn’t see any anime besides Pokemon and Sailor Moon…), it was a rather natural thing that games followed.
Now, I’m shitting you not, but when Enter the Matrix hit the shelves, it was a fucking explosion. And I’m dropping around lots and lots of f-bombs because the game was big. The Matrix was big. I mean, imagine you’re a kid in the 00s, and after watching Matrix Reloaded (sequel, I suppose) you find out you can play as one of the Matrix heroes. Kick everyone’s ass with kung-fu straight into the balls, walk around in mirrored shades no matter whether it was day or night, run on the walls, shoot in slow-mo, and that’s pretty much it. Everything else was completely irrelevant.
So, I won’t bother you with unnecessary details, but I got the game. I think I got it sometime after GTA Vice City. But it doesn’t really matter. What matters, I installed it. Ran it. And my first reaction was – who the fuck those two guys are? Where’s fucking Neo or Trinity? Ghost and Naomi (I suppose that’s how she was called, I don’t remember her name and won’t google it, Naomi she is)? Are they even from Matrix? Short response – yes, they are. Apparently, they are some sort of tertiary characters, and they were in the movie. Only we didn’t notice them because we never gave a fuck about anyone as long as he/she wasn’t Neo. And since 99% of the characters weren’t Neo, you can imagine how we watched those movies (spoiler: the third movie was the most boring one because Neo didn’t kick ass and was all about running around being a confused little bitch… we knew shit about growth, and also that overpowered superhero-like dude is basically a bad writing, but what do you want from stupid fucking kids?).
Anyway, I played as Ghost because he was the closest we got to Neo. And also because Naomi looked like the female Morpheus (apparently lore-wise she was his sister… which would explain a lot), and I really didn’t want to play as a drug pusher (seriously, what’s the deal with crocodile coats and pills?).
What can I say? The game for little me was good. It was perfect. After initial frustration and a certain amount of childish hate, I actually started digging the game. It was simple, the graphics were far from the best, everyone except the main heroes looked as if they tried to give them as little polygons as possible, the wheels on the cars were square, and also shooting mechanics actually sucked balls even on PC (or I would dare to say, especially on PC), but it wasn’t the most important thing. The important thing was that kung-fu was basically flawless. You had one button for punching, one button for kicking, and, if I’m not mistaken, one for blocking. That’s it. As simple as it gets. And just using those three buttons, you were kicking some serious ass. Any confrontation with any opponent (poor security guards) turned into an epic kung-fu duel where you kicked their ass Mortal Kombat style. Only no blood and no gore. But lots and lots of high kicks and cool movements.
And your character was a certified badass because, throughout the game, there were no enemies who could match your kung-fu. Alright, I mean, there are agents, but they are so rare they are almost non-existent except in a few especially tense moments. But about those later. Here it is about how badass your character is. Shooting was easy, but since we played Enter the Matrix, not because it was a good shooter (for that, we had an actually good game and immortal classic, which is Max Payne), we ran toward bullets like crazy monkeys on speed to take the weapon away from enemies and show them that our kung-fu was better than theirs. Which was actually true.
A bit later, I also found out that using slow-mo actually made your kicks and punches stronger, I think also restored your health, but I’m not sure about that one. What I am sure, the game did its best to give you as many opportunities to kick someone’s ass as possible. And location-wise, I think it was a pretty honest Matrix representation, even though I remember mainly two levels. One in the high-rise where you have to run away from agents, and the second one in the palace where all your enemies all of a sudden turn into vampires, and your character starts executing cool Blade-like finishing moves with stakes. Probably that’s where from I got the idea that Blade and Matrix happened in the same universe. Kung-fu vampires.
But about agents. The most dangerous, the toughest enemy you’re going to meet. At least, that’s what we thought. Throughout the game, I think you shouldn’t fight them. Which is fair. Since you’re not playing as Neo, but as some dude who doesn’t even have a proper name, agents should be, for you, the ultimate danger. I mean, in the movies, they fucked everyone up like total badasses because if you’re not the main hero, aka you didn’t believe in yourself (anime… that’s straight from the anime, you got shot in the stomach, you started to believe in yourself and all of a sudden you’re not dead any longer, but a living god of the digital world), you’re pretty much fucking dead. Since it was a game where the character is controlled by a particularly angry kid who still believes that he is chosen one here, it looked different.
Agents were immortal. Fucking cheaters, but that’s how they should be in the Matrix – fucking cheaters. No matter how many times you punched them in the face, they didn’t care much for it. If something, their kung-fu was always better than your kung-fu. The only thing – we played Matrix so much that we got such a skill of kicking asses that agents’ kung-fu wasn’t good at all. I mean, if they weren’t immortal, we would’ve fucked them up heads on, no sweat. I remember how I was beating up two of them at once. That’s what the power of believe in yourself does to you. Neo wasn’t chosen one, he just wasn’t as lazy as others.
In fact, I remember I found out ways to kill them. If I’m not wrong, there were two ways to get rid of the agents. Since they were cheating bastards and in honest confrontation, there was no hope, there was another way. First – gravity. All you had to do is to throw them off some height, and they weren’t your problem anymore. That’s how I actually reduced their population on the construction site. The second option was more radical and happened at the end of the game. You get the hold of a grenade launcher. And those motherfuckers can’t dodge grenades. Saying Dodge this is optional but very welcome.
What else? Not much, to be honest. I can tell about cars that you can drive and shoot from. And actually, for some reason, if you’re playing as Ghost, you get, I think, only one instance of driving a car, and the others are your basic rail shooter, while as Naomi, you drive the majority of the time. The level design is boring and repetitive, and by the end of the game, you just run the maze, trying not to get lost for too long. Especially the one on the power plant in the end. Very anticlimactic, to be honest.
If we’re going to be brutally honest, the game was bad. Hand-to-hand was the only fantastic thing about it, everything else was terrible and wasn’t memorable at all. I mean, there are some terrible games where you remember how terrible they are. Here? Nah, not much. Shitty shooting, so-so-level design, bad graphics even in 2003 or what was the year this game was released. I can’t even remember the voice acting (if there ever was one) and plot… well… it had something to do with… Matrix? I don’t remember the plot at all. But I remember kicking ass with my kung-fu, and that’s what counted.