About The Matrix Online...

Sega and Warner Brothers Interactive announced the pricing scheme for The Matrix Online today, to about as much fanfare as Sega's announcement at this year's E3 about publishing it. The game is slated to launch in January 2005, but the sales numbers for World of Warcraft and apathy towards the franchise condemn this game to an early death. I'm curious to see how well The Ultimate Matrix Collection has done in its first week, because the two sequels have sufficiently pissed off a once loyal fan base, all but terminating interest in spin off media. Warner would have been smarter to realease this game shortly after Revolutions; maybe it would have made people forget about Enter the Matrix.

Just take look at the screenshots. The game feels about three years old, the environments look barren, and the characters blockier than even Enter the Matrix. From what I've read, the game takes place in one city, and every session is essentially your character "jacking in" to the Matrix. What about Zion and the war against the machines? Are endless battles with Agents or Matrix-controlled NPCs the only things you have to look forward to? If the city the game takes place in is supposed to be a battleground, the only concession I would ask is that humans could take on the role of agents, infiltrating the resistance or foiling the plans of the last hope for the human race. The Matrix Online sounds diasppointing and unmotivated; more like painting a run-of-the mill MMORPG with Matrix colors than a game willing to capitilize on the Matrix storyline and mythos. Aside from learning different styles of martial arts, or donning "designer sunglasses" that provide some aribtrary bonus, where's the compelling gameplay? Proabably the worst offense is the developer's assumption that players will accept an experience grind when it's already been shown to us in the films that things can be learned instantaneously.

you just took your last breath