"Merciless Agents stalk your every move. You'll dodge their bullets. Defy gravity. Break all the rules. Explore the hidden depths of the massive dreamworld that has enslaved the human race. How far down does the rabbit hole go? Are you ready to find out? Are you ready to Enter the Matrix?"

Enter The Matrix is 3rd-person kung-fu action game which is based on the movie of the same name, however Enter The Matrix isn't just set in the Matrix universe - it's an integral part of the entire Matrix experience, with a story that weaves in and out of The Matrix: Reloaded movie. I should mention that the game was developed by Shiny Entertainment, the team behind Sacrifice (ed. note - I loved this game) and the innovative yet inconsistent action game, Messiah. Alike Messiah, Enter The Matrix has a lot of flaws, but yet in between there are some nice moments of entertaining action.

The game is very much a Matrix movie experience. You can break all the rules, like running on walls and making impossible leaps, and tearing up the room with tons of bullets. There are also big, crazy car chases and flying the hovercraft with hundreds of Sentinels after you - just pure action. Also the driving sequences aren't about driving so much as they are about action - the goal is to get to a hard line as fast as possible, or rescue someone and escape from the Matrix.

You start Enter The Matrix by selecting either Ghost or Niobe. Niobe (played in the game as in the movie by Jada Pinkett-Smith) is the captain of a ship called the Logos, with her crew rounded out by Ghost (Anthony Wong), the ship's first mate, and Sparks, their operator. Niobe and Ghost follow somewhat different paths through the game; each is an expert at different things and you'll have to play Enter the Matrix twice to enjoy everything. Well, I did it. Unfortunately playing the second one was a waste of time. Well not a total waste, since I can at least warn you :P

In the game, you kick, punch and shoot your way through countless levels, trying to gather information, come to the aid of other rebels in the Matrix, and, most often, race for the exit. Once you have a gun there is really no reason you'll need to fight anyone hand to hand, other than just trying to spice things up. Of course, you can use "focus" power (bullet-time) to slow down the world around you ala Max Payne to gain tactical advantages against the hordes of AI enemies that the game throws at you.

Hacking is an important part of the Matrix story, as they probably wanted to recreate one of the cool little moments in the first film, where Trinity writes "Knock, knock" on Neo's computer and tells him to "follow the white rabbit." In hacking mode that can be accessed the moment you've saved a game is definitely one of the most innovative ideas to feature in a video game. At least a basic knowledge of DOS is assumed since "hackings" will require you to enter commands at what resembles a DOS prompt. The game's hacking system allows you to unlock all kinds of secrets and codes (including cheats).

When I installed Enter the Matrix, I was simply shocked at first. I really expected that a company like Shiny will create something better, especially with so much time and money, along with this promising license. Especially the special effects related directly to the Matrix slightly disappointed me. I'm pretty sure that Max Payne did it better, both in terms of gameplay and graphics. However, after I've passed through the first four chapters it really started to be some fun :) Yeah, Enter The Matrix is not a bad game, but it´s not that killer-game everyone was waiting for.

System Requirements
Minimum: Intel Pentium III 800MHz or AMD Athlon Duron 800 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 32MB NVIDIA GeForce 256 / ATI Radeon 8500, 4.3GB HDD space
Recommended: Pentium III 1.2GHz or AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz (or higher). 256MB RAM, 64MB NVIDIA GeForce3 or ATI Radeon 8500 (or better), 4.3GB HDD space.