These days it seems like everyone wants to get in on the MMORPG concept. With companies like NCSoft throwing out three new games in this genre in just the past year, sequels like EverQuest II making a big impact, and newcomers like Blizzard's beautiful World of Warcraft, this genre is quickly becoming overcrowded. As the competition becomes more fierce it is hard to distinguish each title from each other. Each game may have some unique attributes, but the core gameplay is usually the same. So, it becomes quite difficult to find the right one since you have to keep in mind that you will have to dish out a monthly fee just to keep on playing.
The newest entry into this genre probably holds one of the best concepts for a MMORPG. Based upon the Matrix trilogy films, and with the collaboration of the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix Online finally gives you the unique opportunity to traverse the world of the Matrix in an online environment. In theory, it sounds quite good but only if it can be done correctly. So obviously developer Monolith Productions has had a large task to overcome. You may remember Monolith for their awesome action shooters that they've made in recent years such as the No One Lives Forever series and TRON 2.0. With such an action-packed track record is a little odd seeing them develop a MMORPG. But is it really something that both Matrix fans and hardcore MMO players can enjoy?
The Story
The story of The Matrix Online takes place right after the third movie in the trilogy. There is still an uneasy truce between the humans and machines, but now a new faction comes into the mix known as the exiles. The exiles are programs that have become self-aware and no longer want to be restricted to the life of machines and now want to inhabit the Matrix itself. You start the game as a newly awakened human freed from the constraints of the Matrix world. From the start, you are given the choice of taking either the red pill or the blue pill. Obviously if you want to continue with the game you take the red pill. Upon doing so you are then set up to take on your first missions and eventually awaken someone else from the Matrix. When you first start, you are in the service of Zion. Later on in the game you will be able to do some work for the other two factions: the machines and exiles. You will then be able to choose which faction you would rather serve. The machines don't actually seem as bad as you might think, but the exiles are the more villainous faction.
One of the most interesting things about this title, and probably the strongest point in the whole game, lies with the ever evolving storyline. The game accomplishes this with new live events, which really involve the player in the storyline. The story also advances through some small cutscenes which become unlocked later on. Unfortunately the game relies on too much text when speaking with the inhabitants of the Matrix world. The only people that have voiceovers are the main contacts and occasional people that you will recognize from the movie who make random appearances. Other than that everyone else just responds with text situated at the bottom of your screen, and this really makes the game seem too quiet. It almost feels like everyone is mute, and in a way it ruins certain portions of the game.
The Game
Before deciding between the red pill or blue pill, you will first need to customize your character. Just like in any other MMORPG you can choose different styles for the face, hair, tattoos, clothing and your body size amongst other features. Whilst you can choose the first and last name for your character, you can also decide on a "handle" name. This is your character's hacker identity that they will be recognized by in the game world.
When customizing your character you also have the ability to choose their personality. Each personality has five different attributes, which are Perception, Focus, Reason, Belief and Vitality. When choosing a personality, each includes a certain amount of points in each attribute category. Having high Perception is good for activities such as martial arts, and having high Focus is good for those who prefer to be better at sneaking. High Reason give your character the ability to be better at writing code, and high Belief points give you more combat toughness and more self-confidence. Finally, high Vitality points allow your character to absorb damage much better with higher health points. You need to choose your characters personality wisely as it's just like choosing a profession in other MMORPGs. For example, having high Perception points means that your character will be a warrior or an 'operative' as it's known here. On the other hand, having high Reason points means that your character will be more like a wizard or a 'coder/hacker' as it's now called. Also having high Focus points makes your character more like a rogue or 'spy'. Essentially it's the same principles as a traditional MMORPG, but it seems to offer a few more choices and is obviously named differently to go along with the Matrix world.
Once you are in the game, however, you can change and upgrade a number of different abilites. Just like the characters in the movie could download programs into their minds, you can do the same here to gain new abilites. Abilities can easily be swapped in and out as they are loaded into your available memory slots. Abilities can be earned giving you the upperhand in personality traits such as operative, coder and hacker. Later on new upgrades can also be purchased.
Of course the overall environment in The Matrix Online is inevitably large. The large city may remind you of City of Heroes, but it has a much more dark and gritty theme to it. The layout of the city is done by sections which serve as different districts. Entering one district may not be permitted until you reach a certain level, as the enemies in a specific area can make some quick work of you. There are also some hotspots like night clubs where you can go to hang out and pointlessly dance to show off your moves. The city seems to be teeming with life as cars and pedestrians constantly go their own way. However pedestrians don't respond much to your presence and will repeat themselves over and over again if they do say something in their speech balloons.
Fortunately you don't have to walk everywhere around this huge city. There are actually other means of transportation. One great way of getting around is by taking the subway system. Simply walk into a subway station, wait for the train to arrive and then choose your destination. Another way of getting around is by using the hardlines located at telephone booths throughout the city. This way you can jack in and out of the Matrix and choose your next destination from there. Later on you can also gain abilities such as hyper-jump (which allows you to jump extraordinarily far). By using this special move, you can leap from rooftop to rooftop, or from the ground all the way up to a higher bridge. Apparently the pedestrians take no thought in you leaping around the city like Superman.
Whether the city is interesting or not, what really matters here are the missions. The missions or quests are usually what drives the core gameplay in a MMORPG, but unfortunately The Matrix Online seems to be lacking in this area. In order to start a new mission, you must first call one of your contacts by using your cell phone. Your contact will then give you the lowdown on what's going on and supply you with the mission objectives to be completed. If you choose to accept the mission a small waypoint system will appear on your map and a view of the world showing you where it is that you need to go. It even shows you exactly which doors to go in. It's a helpful device, but occasionally we noticed that it would go wrong: a large number of waypoints would show up all over the screen that had nothing to do with the mission that we were on. It is also somewhat hard to distinguish which floor of a building you need to be on in a mission.
A basic mission in The Matrix Online goes much like this: Receive mission objectives, run across the city to the building where your mission is, enter building, take elevator up a few floors, walk through another few doors, destroy enemies and/or rescue hostages and talk to other operatives, leave the building as quickly as possible after mission success, rinse and repeat. That is basically how every mission goes down. It's nice to see that there are absolutely no load times when you walk into a building, but that in no way makes the missions anymore enjoyable. It just means you won't have to wait too long when going on one of these joyless escapades.
If you haven't caught onto our message yet, what we are trying to say is that the mission structure is terribly boring. When something as important as the missions in a MMORPG are boring that brings down the overall quality of the game and really leaves you with nothing. After only a few missions the game seemed more like a chore rather than an enjoyable gaming experience. The evolving storyline and live events may make it slightly more appealing, but both of those qualities aren't really enough to compensate for the poor mission design.
One of the better qualities of The Matrix Online is the combat system. When entering in to combat with another character, the camera view becomes more focused in on the action. Your different moves are controlled from a hotbar at the top of the screen where moves can be swapped in and out, and they consist of both hand-to-hand combat and gun-slinging. You can also learn more powerful moves as you advance through the game. The combat system is a little unique when compared to other games of this genre. When you select a move, it is essentially queued and a "dice roll" is thrown between both players. If your roll is done before the other guys, then your combat move will overpower his and you will strike him down. The same thing goes for the other way around. The combat is actually pretty fast and is cool to watch as it greatly displays the moves from the movies. You can block, use quick and overpowering attacks, grab weapons from peoples hands and use special attacks that trigger a short bullet time instance. It is all shown well, but it can become sloppy at some points, especially if you have some other players in your group. With so many people attacking the same enemy, the animations become displaced and the lag is very pronounced.
The Matrix Online does feature a PvP system for you to duel with other players. You can simply request a duel with one player, and if they accept you enter combat mode where you can test your skills against one another. The other player is not forced to fight, though, so PvP combat isn't always a guarantee.
Performance
If you thought some sloppy combat animations and a boring mission structure was enough problems, well, we are not done yet. The Matrix Online suffers from many problems that are usually visible in brand new games of this genre. One of the major issues is the heavy lag. The lag is a huge problem here as it can even stop you from jumping a simple fence. Other issues include certain missions not starting correctly and some mission objectives not being where they are supposed to be. On one such mission we looked throughout the entire building that we were told a certain operative was, but we still couldn't find him. It wasn't until later that we restarted the mission that he was finally there. Another noticeable annoyance is the slow load time when first coming into the game. The loading bar is actually you walking in the game, but all the textures haven't loaded yet so they all look like the green Matrix text. It's a nice effect, but the waiting time is really annoying.
Another strange problem is the death system. Normally when you die in a MMORPG you simply come back to life in a nearby spot. However, that is not the case here. When you die in The Matrix Online, you are actually brought to an external menu system from which point you have to jack back into the Matrix and wait for that long loading time once again. It is a cumbersome design and really takes you out of the experience of the game world.
The Matrix Online does look nice and features some great visuals. It is nothing that will really jump out at you, but the graphics are good enough for what the game attempts to accomplish. Although it may look nice, the graphics also have their own set of problems. Occasionally some textures will either flicker or simply go white. This could be due to the fact that they aren't loading properly due to the heavy lag, but it is still a noticeable problem nonetheless.
Conclusion
As far as MMORPGs go, there are much better fish in the sea than The Matrix Online. It does offer a unique combat system and a few nice features within its personality and attributes system. It is especially nice how you can later mix and match your character's attributes. However, what unique and enjoyable features it may have do not make up for its many faults. The missions are uninspired and bland, and the game is filled with glitches. Since the games release there have been a number of new updates, but none of which have fixed any of these major issues. The Matrix Online may slightly appeal to hardcore MMORPG fans, but with its confusing interface and teidous gameplay, they may not tolerate it for long. As for the rest of us, we'll take the blue pill please.
The newest entry into this genre probably holds one of the best concepts for a MMORPG. Based upon the Matrix trilogy films, and with the collaboration of the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix Online finally gives you the unique opportunity to traverse the world of the Matrix in an online environment. In theory, it sounds quite good but only if it can be done correctly. So obviously developer Monolith Productions has had a large task to overcome. You may remember Monolith for their awesome action shooters that they've made in recent years such as the No One Lives Forever series and TRON 2.0. With such an action-packed track record is a little odd seeing them develop a MMORPG. But is it really something that both Matrix fans and hardcore MMO players can enjoy?
The Story
The story of The Matrix Online takes place right after the third movie in the trilogy. There is still an uneasy truce between the humans and machines, but now a new faction comes into the mix known as the exiles. The exiles are programs that have become self-aware and no longer want to be restricted to the life of machines and now want to inhabit the Matrix itself. You start the game as a newly awakened human freed from the constraints of the Matrix world. From the start, you are given the choice of taking either the red pill or the blue pill. Obviously if you want to continue with the game you take the red pill. Upon doing so you are then set up to take on your first missions and eventually awaken someone else from the Matrix. When you first start, you are in the service of Zion. Later on in the game you will be able to do some work for the other two factions: the machines and exiles. You will then be able to choose which faction you would rather serve. The machines don't actually seem as bad as you might think, but the exiles are the more villainous faction.
One of the most interesting things about this title, and probably the strongest point in the whole game, lies with the ever evolving storyline. The game accomplishes this with new live events, which really involve the player in the storyline. The story also advances through some small cutscenes which become unlocked later on. Unfortunately the game relies on too much text when speaking with the inhabitants of the Matrix world. The only people that have voiceovers are the main contacts and occasional people that you will recognize from the movie who make random appearances. Other than that everyone else just responds with text situated at the bottom of your screen, and this really makes the game seem too quiet. It almost feels like everyone is mute, and in a way it ruins certain portions of the game.
The Game
Before deciding between the red pill or blue pill, you will first need to customize your character. Just like in any other MMORPG you can choose different styles for the face, hair, tattoos, clothing and your body size amongst other features. Whilst you can choose the first and last name for your character, you can also decide on a "handle" name. This is your character's hacker identity that they will be recognized by in the game world.
When customizing your character you also have the ability to choose their personality. Each personality has five different attributes, which are Perception, Focus, Reason, Belief and Vitality. When choosing a personality, each includes a certain amount of points in each attribute category. Having high Perception is good for activities such as martial arts, and having high Focus is good for those who prefer to be better at sneaking. High Reason give your character the ability to be better at writing code, and high Belief points give you more combat toughness and more self-confidence. Finally, high Vitality points allow your character to absorb damage much better with higher health points. You need to choose your characters personality wisely as it's just like choosing a profession in other MMORPGs. For example, having high Perception points means that your character will be a warrior or an 'operative' as it's known here. On the other hand, having high Reason points means that your character will be more like a wizard or a 'coder/hacker' as it's now called. Also having high Focus points makes your character more like a rogue or 'spy'. Essentially it's the same principles as a traditional MMORPG, but it seems to offer a few more choices and is obviously named differently to go along with the Matrix world.
Once you are in the game, however, you can change and upgrade a number of different abilites. Just like the characters in the movie could download programs into their minds, you can do the same here to gain new abilites. Abilities can easily be swapped in and out as they are loaded into your available memory slots. Abilities can be earned giving you the upperhand in personality traits such as operative, coder and hacker. Later on new upgrades can also be purchased.
Of course the overall environment in The Matrix Online is inevitably large. The large city may remind you of City of Heroes, but it has a much more dark and gritty theme to it. The layout of the city is done by sections which serve as different districts. Entering one district may not be permitted until you reach a certain level, as the enemies in a specific area can make some quick work of you. There are also some hotspots like night clubs where you can go to hang out and pointlessly dance to show off your moves. The city seems to be teeming with life as cars and pedestrians constantly go their own way. However pedestrians don't respond much to your presence and will repeat themselves over and over again if they do say something in their speech balloons.
Fortunately you don't have to walk everywhere around this huge city. There are actually other means of transportation. One great way of getting around is by taking the subway system. Simply walk into a subway station, wait for the train to arrive and then choose your destination. Another way of getting around is by using the hardlines located at telephone booths throughout the city. This way you can jack in and out of the Matrix and choose your next destination from there. Later on you can also gain abilities such as hyper-jump (which allows you to jump extraordinarily far). By using this special move, you can leap from rooftop to rooftop, or from the ground all the way up to a higher bridge. Apparently the pedestrians take no thought in you leaping around the city like Superman.
Whether the city is interesting or not, what really matters here are the missions. The missions or quests are usually what drives the core gameplay in a MMORPG, but unfortunately The Matrix Online seems to be lacking in this area. In order to start a new mission, you must first call one of your contacts by using your cell phone. Your contact will then give you the lowdown on what's going on and supply you with the mission objectives to be completed. If you choose to accept the mission a small waypoint system will appear on your map and a view of the world showing you where it is that you need to go. It even shows you exactly which doors to go in. It's a helpful device, but occasionally we noticed that it would go wrong: a large number of waypoints would show up all over the screen that had nothing to do with the mission that we were on. It is also somewhat hard to distinguish which floor of a building you need to be on in a mission.
A basic mission in The Matrix Online goes much like this: Receive mission objectives, run across the city to the building where your mission is, enter building, take elevator up a few floors, walk through another few doors, destroy enemies and/or rescue hostages and talk to other operatives, leave the building as quickly as possible after mission success, rinse and repeat. That is basically how every mission goes down. It's nice to see that there are absolutely no load times when you walk into a building, but that in no way makes the missions anymore enjoyable. It just means you won't have to wait too long when going on one of these joyless escapades.
If you haven't caught onto our message yet, what we are trying to say is that the mission structure is terribly boring. When something as important as the missions in a MMORPG are boring that brings down the overall quality of the game and really leaves you with nothing. After only a few missions the game seemed more like a chore rather than an enjoyable gaming experience. The evolving storyline and live events may make it slightly more appealing, but both of those qualities aren't really enough to compensate for the poor mission design.
One of the better qualities of The Matrix Online is the combat system. When entering in to combat with another character, the camera view becomes more focused in on the action. Your different moves are controlled from a hotbar at the top of the screen where moves can be swapped in and out, and they consist of both hand-to-hand combat and gun-slinging. You can also learn more powerful moves as you advance through the game. The combat system is a little unique when compared to other games of this genre. When you select a move, it is essentially queued and a "dice roll" is thrown between both players. If your roll is done before the other guys, then your combat move will overpower his and you will strike him down. The same thing goes for the other way around. The combat is actually pretty fast and is cool to watch as it greatly displays the moves from the movies. You can block, use quick and overpowering attacks, grab weapons from peoples hands and use special attacks that trigger a short bullet time instance. It is all shown well, but it can become sloppy at some points, especially if you have some other players in your group. With so many people attacking the same enemy, the animations become displaced and the lag is very pronounced.
The Matrix Online does feature a PvP system for you to duel with other players. You can simply request a duel with one player, and if they accept you enter combat mode where you can test your skills against one another. The other player is not forced to fight, though, so PvP combat isn't always a guarantee.
Performance
If you thought some sloppy combat animations and a boring mission structure was enough problems, well, we are not done yet. The Matrix Online suffers from many problems that are usually visible in brand new games of this genre. One of the major issues is the heavy lag. The lag is a huge problem here as it can even stop you from jumping a simple fence. Other issues include certain missions not starting correctly and some mission objectives not being where they are supposed to be. On one such mission we looked throughout the entire building that we were told a certain operative was, but we still couldn't find him. It wasn't until later that we restarted the mission that he was finally there. Another noticeable annoyance is the slow load time when first coming into the game. The loading bar is actually you walking in the game, but all the textures haven't loaded yet so they all look like the green Matrix text. It's a nice effect, but the waiting time is really annoying.
Another strange problem is the death system. Normally when you die in a MMORPG you simply come back to life in a nearby spot. However, that is not the case here. When you die in The Matrix Online, you are actually brought to an external menu system from which point you have to jack back into the Matrix and wait for that long loading time once again. It is a cumbersome design and really takes you out of the experience of the game world.
The Matrix Online does look nice and features some great visuals. It is nothing that will really jump out at you, but the graphics are good enough for what the game attempts to accomplish. Although it may look nice, the graphics also have their own set of problems. Occasionally some textures will either flicker or simply go white. This could be due to the fact that they aren't loading properly due to the heavy lag, but it is still a noticeable problem nonetheless.
Conclusion
As far as MMORPGs go, there are much better fish in the sea than The Matrix Online. It does offer a unique combat system and a few nice features within its personality and attributes system. It is especially nice how you can later mix and match your character's attributes. However, what unique and enjoyable features it may have do not make up for its many faults. The missions are uninspired and bland, and the game is filled with glitches. Since the games release there have been a number of new updates, but none of which have fixed any of these major issues. The Matrix Online may slightly appeal to hardcore MMORPG fans, but with its confusing interface and teidous gameplay, they may not tolerate it for long. As for the rest of us, we'll take the blue pill please.
