growing Matrix tree is The Matrix: Path of Neo, an action shooter following
Neo through the movie trilogy. Many of the scenes will depict the most
memorable and story driven moments from the three movies, but Shiny and Atari
are creating new levels that went on behind the scenes during the movie.
One example given to me was
the Chateau level. During the movie, while Neo was still at the Chateau, the
movie followed the rest of the gang during their car chase to the freeway.
Well, the game will follow Neo as he escapes the Chateau, fighting enemies we
didn’t see in the movie.
All events in-game are
either taken from the movie directly, or written and scripted by the
Wachowski brothers themselves, so you know it will
be faithful to fans and stay consistent to the world of The Matrix.
I was given a chance to
play the lobby scene from the first movie, and as the title states I was in
control of Neo. Trinity was there as support, and as soon as the level loaded
the firing began. I was a little overwhelmed since I had no time to learn the
controls prior to beginning. I quickly learned how to shoot and began taking
out enemies. I was thrown off a little, though, since there was no lock-on
before I started shooting the enemy – it locked on after. After that I could
switch targets using the right analog stick.
The rest of the firefight
was pretty straight forward, which unfortunately was fairly dull. When I tried
doing something fancy like run along a wall while shooting an enemy, my
targeting would disengage so I’d have nothing to shoot at. Other than that
there are lots of disarm and throw moves and the animations all look great. I
saw no issues with clipping or choppy animations throughout the whole demo.
The Matrix: Path of Neo
should be arriving this holiday season for the PC,
Playstation 2, and Xbox.
