The Matrix Online

The Matrix series has brought to the masses one of those rare moments in Pop Culture that just about every walk of life can relate to these days. What the Wachowski Brothers have achieved is one of the most recognized sci-fi franchises in the planet; right up there with Star War and Star Trek, taking a various loose interpretation of this thing we call the Internet, which now in a “connected” society we would shudder to think about life without it, and weaving a conspiracy theory so vast and brilliant you did actually have to ask yourself the question “What if..?” Are humans the captains of their own destiny, or are we pawns of some higher power or intelligence with our destinies predetermined down to our each and every action. Is the reality that each of us faces every day truly what we perceive, or has the human species already achieved the The Singularity and we’re just puppets of Skynet? Or perhaps Flying Spaghetti Monster has blessed us with his Noodly Appendage?

[Wow!  Those are pretty deep thoughts - how about we get back to the actual review now? ed.]

Right! Sorry about that!

When it comes right down to it, the Matrix Online is another continuation of the sci-fi franchise and takes place after the events of The Matrix Revolutions. For the vast majority of folks that didn’t see the film, Neo, through sacrificing himself, achieved a truce between the Humans and the Machines (yes, Neo is dead…or is he?). The story line take over with a familiar cast such as Morpheus, Niobe, The Oracle, Seraph, and The Merovingian. I won’t give away any of the plots, as it’s intended by the game publishers to have an evolving story line.

You are one of The Awakened, or more commonly known as a Redpill. Humans now are allowed to be given the choice of living in the true reality of the game. However, too many humans leaving The Matrix will cause it to collapse, and The Machines will not allow that to happen.

As with all other MMOGs, you start out creating your character. And as with every other MMOG, you have a number of attributes that are best suited for the class of character you want to develop during your time in The Matrix. However, instead of your traditional RPG type of attributes such as Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, etc., you have Perception, Focus, Reason, Belief, and Vitality. On top of that, you can select from 10 different “personality profiles” that have preset the attributes for you. A Detached Spectator will have a high level of perception but a lower level of focus, whereas a True Believer will have a high level of belief but a low level or perception. As you progress through each level in the game, you are awarded a point that you can use to raise your attributes. You also get to name your character during the character creation and give a brief history about your character if you choose. Finally, you get to customize the look of your character, such as hairstyle and clothing.

The profiles you select during character creation are better suited for the classes you can become, such as an Operative, Coder, or Hacker. What is also nice is that during the course of your time in The Matrix, you can “upload” code bits at hardlines (the phone booths throughout the game) and then you can reconfigure yourself to be any type of class when you are not jacked-in The Matrix. As you improve in the game, you gain memory slots that give you access to programs that can make your character more lethal.

You start the game off by going through a tutorial with Link as your Operator. He’ll go through the basics of movement, character interaction, and combat, which is in the familiar dojo from the first movie. Once you’ve completed the tutorial, it’s time to jack in.

The construct you enter is now called Metro World. The maps are enormous and the details are rich. Graphically, this game has done an excellent job of capturing the environments the movies brought to us; large urban landscapes where you can see the wear and tear of a modern day metropolis. It really feels like you’re in The Matrix. Virtually every building in The Matrix can be entered. There are ladders that can be climbed to the tops of some of the tall buildings and if you have the ability, you can do a Hyper-Jump across buildings.

You begin the game one of The Awakened. This lower level rank allows you to become familiar with the game and starts you off with the basic “disciplines,” such as Hyper-Sprint, Adrenaline Booster, and Ignore Pain. These abilities are available to all characters and you can also purchase code (to upload) that will get you other disciplines.

The in-game currency is called $information (or $i). You can gain $i by defeating enemies and searching their bodies for loot as is the typical concept of MMOGs. As you advance in levels, you’ll be able to purchase more lethal disciplines, which lead you down the path of the classes that are available, such as a Coder, Hacker, or Operative. Coders are the equivalent of a Mage or Warlock. Hackers could be considered priests or druids, and Operatives are your warrior class. Within those classes, you have subclasses. For instance, you can be a Hacker that is a Patcher, which is someone that “patches” other programs, or a virologist, who launches lethal viruses on others that do damage to a system. And even within those subclasses, you can have specializations, such as a Sniper in the Operative class that specializes in long-ranged combat, or an Aikido Master for getting up close and personal with your enemies. And the wonderful thing about the MxO is that as long as you can purchase the code and have the memory slots available to your character, you can reconfigure your character at any time, going from a Coder to an Operative for example. I find this a good idea as it eliminates the need for a person to create multiple characters to experience the different classes in the game. The game packaging has some fold-outs that illustrate the various paths each of the disciplines take you. The only downside to this part of the game is the interface to change your abilities around is a bit clunky and non-intuitive. They could have done a better job with it.

Again, like most other MMOGs, you can start off on your own and explore MxO without getting started on the plot line. The worlds are enormous and there are enough bad guys around to keep you busy. Make sure that you understand the color coding when you identify one. By simple right-clicking an enemy, it will tell you who the person is and what level they are. The color of the name will also indicate how tough that NPC will be. If he’s purple, don’t bother; he’s probably an Agent and will crush you. Gray means if you stare at him hard enough you can kill him. Also, you can call in for missions from Zion. In the beginning they are pretty basic, such as escorting people to a destination, or delivering an object to an NPC. As you progress in levels, they obviously become more and more difficult, from infiltrating a building to stealing some code to escorting an NPC through a dangerous area and fighting off multiple enemies. After you’ve accomplished each mission, you’re instructed to leave the mission area as quickly as possible. I’m guessing that an Agent will show up and will try to finish you off, but I’ve stood around for 10 minutes at some places and never seen anyone show up remotely dangerous. Hmm … I’m guessing this will happen at some point, but my character is just a level 6 Awakened right now. I’m sure if an Agent does show up, I’ll do what everyone else does … run!

You’ll start off working for the forces of Zion. But eventually, you’ll have to choose if you want to continue with them, work with the Agents and The Machines, or work with the Exiles, rouge programs that have become independent and self aware.  Like in the movies, working for Zion will be a struggle to maintain a balance of coexistence with the Machines. The Machines are there to enforce their will and to make sure that the Matrix stays up. Bringing out too many Redpills will only gain you their wrath. With the Exiles, you will be working in a shadowy underground serving their selfish purposes.

The combat system in MxO is really no different than any other system. For ranged combat you just fire away at each other. On your screen you will see a status console that shows up and shows what each character has randomly “rolled”, with the high number the victor for that turn. You can select from a number of ranged or free fire attacks, or you can close in on your opponent for hand-to-hand combat. You then have a number of other attacks, such as Power or Speed attacks, as well as throws and defense. If you’ve got them, you can setup your Hot Bar at the top your screen for special attack disciplines, such as the Cheap Shot or Head Butt, or launch code, either to heal yourself or deliver a deadly virus. Launching some of your special disciplines are dependant on your Inner Strength, which I would equate to Rage or Mana in World of Warcraft. Using some of the special attack can sometimes earn you a fancy Bullet Time animation of you delivering your blow. In all, the melee combat sequences are pretty fun to watch, if a bit repetitive.

The UI in the game is pretty simple. The default hot key settings are pretty intuitive (I for Inventory, M or Map, etc). Everything is also available with the click of the mouse on you heads-up display and compass. During missions, your HUD will display which direction you need to go for your objectives and clearly marks it on your screen.

One important element in the game is the need to recruit other players for missions, especially when there are multiple enemies in the area. You also have the ability to create a “crew” of up to 12 people. You can then also join up or form other crews to create a “faction”, much like a clan or guild.

To add a little ambience to the game, there are various areas one can go for the more social aspects of the game. There are night clubs you can go to and interact with other online players in the game and dance the night away with the large number of dance emotes available to you. There also two-player emotes, such as hugging, snogging, or holding hands. In fact, for those that enjoy true Role-Playing MMOGs, MxO will be a dreamland. You can do things like crack you knuckles, tap your feet, point at different directions, or do many different martial art poses.

There are also Exile Hideouts that are like instances or dungeons. They have plenty of enemies to fight and item drops to use or sell. Then there are The Archives, which is generally for higher-level characters and is more for Player-vs-Player combat. Scattered throughout are Collectors. These NPCs usually present you with a trade, like eliminating a number of gang members and bringing the proof your work. In return you usually get an upgrade item. There are also vendors of varying sorts for weapons, clothing, and code for abilities.

Death is not something that is terribly bad in MxO. Unlike the movie, where if you die in the Matrix your real body dies, you just go back to the configuration screen to reset and reconfigure your character. When you jack back in you are sent to the last hardline you logged in to. The only thing you can lose is the inventory you had before you die. A rule of thumb, hit the hardlines often and upload items and code for storage. You also take an ability penalty for a short period of time. But, if you are lucky enough, a high-level patcher can bring you back to life.

Getting around is easy enough in the game. You can choose to hoof it, which isn’t a half bad way of getting place to place. You can also use the various hardlines scattered throughout. Whenever you see a hardline, it gets added to a list of destinations that you can use to get around quickly. In addition, you also have the subway stations that can take you to different sectors in the game.

So, what’s not to like about the game? A few things. First, you see vehicles driving everywhere, but you can’t use them. And if you happen to get “hit” by one of them in the middle of the street, you generally do some sort of acrobatic leap to avoid the collision. My hope is that there may be a future expansion to incorporate vehicles. It would be fun to do some car chases and drive-by’s of rival factions ala GTA: San Andreas. Another thing that bothers me is some glitches in the melee combat sequences. The one I run into the most is after eliminating an enemy but he’s just standing there instead of being on the ground dead. I’m also disappointed that the AOL Instant Messenger has gone away with the transfer of MxO from Warner Bros. Interactive to Sony Online. I hope that this feature will return. I haven’t had an issue with lag or poor performance even though my system is modestly powered by today’s standards (3.0 GHz 1MB Cache P4, 1 GB PC3200 RAM, 256MB 6800 GT, and 300 GB RAID-0 SATA array). I think a lot of the bad rap MxO had involving bugs, glitches, and latency has all gone away.

I purchased the Sony Online Station Access Pass that lets me play all of SOEs other games for $21.95 a month. This is an incredible value, considering you’d get to play Everquest II, PlanetSide, and Star Wars Galaxies. I’ve actually been thinking about starting up PlanetSide again because of this.

MxO is a good solid MMOG that can provide for an interesting game experience for those that prefer the cyberpunk genre over the fantasy role-playing world. However, there’s nothing really spectacular that would make it shine above the likes of World of Warcraft and would draw me away from it. I think, most unfortunately, that the game didn’t take off as it was expected due to the fact that second and third Matrix movies didn’t do as well in the box office, which in turn placed a stigma on MxO immediately because of the high expectations of the films. The other Matrix game, Enter the Matrix, also didn’t do as well as it should have (and for good reason, it wasn’t a great game). Only time will tell if the upcoming Matrix: The Path of Neo will help boost the franchise again. If the game is anything like the E3 trailers I’ve seen, it appears to be very promising. In the meantime, Matrix and sci-fi fans and experienced MMOG gamers will enjoy this game.

I’m going to jack back into The Matrix; I wanna learn kung-fu.