Matrix Online Review (Image intensive)

[Cobalt Katze]

It's a bit of an underdog in the whole MMOG scene, but needless to say The Matrix is reborn in this upcoming game by Monolith. (Release date: March 22nd, 2005)

The premise? The events of the Matrix trilogy have happened. Like the latter two movies or not, the storyline was one amazing piece of work artistically, as was the cinematography elements that brought all the symbolism and hidden references to life.

As we last left the events, Neo had made an immense sacrifice. Not just for humankind, but the machines as well. A realization was made in that machines and humans needed each other for survival, and with a truce between them he ended the war.

What's next? The Matrix Online.



This is not side story, it's not subplot. This is canon, the continuation of the saga. Events take place in real time, major characters exist within the game and are real people taking on their respective roles as fellow role-players.

Presentation

Like all MMOGs, you begin the game in character creation. MxO is no different, and begins the game very familiar to those with even minimal knowledge of the films. You start with the black screen with green text, typing out the beginning of a trace program. You hear voice-overs about searching for a new potential redpill. The operator hacks into a security camera and the screen is displayed, rotating along a busy road where many people walk along.



You begin your search by inputting a personality quirk that determines your beginning stats. (+2 to one, -2 to another). This "narrows down" your search, and you're able to fully customize your looks. This ranges from hair color/style to skin tone to face type or tattoos.



It's not as huge as CoH's myriad of options, however it is a far stride ahead of more recent creation engines like in FFXI or WoW. While the options aren't as varied as SWG or EQ2, my personal opinion is that the characters end up looking better and more human than the widely-customizable ones. However, you won't find direct clones unless they follow stereotypes such as "Neo." Speaking of which, that's a widely-discussed potential downfall of the game. Let me assure you though, the Neo wannabes will be squashed by the game's challenge factor, which I'll discuss later.



The UI is intuitive, but it takes some getting used to. You have your health bar, what's called and Inner Strength bar and your exp bar/bubbles. Inner Strength is what's called Mana or Power in other games, but it regens much faster and is used for most all abilities. Top-center is your usual hotbar setup with multiple pages. It transforms during close combat, however, but I'll get into that later. In the lower left is a multi-sectioned chat window. The top section is for all non-dialogue text, the middle section is for chat-related text, and the bottom is where you type your messages. There are several other buttons that bring up windows and menus of sorts, which are self-explanatory. A radar is located at the bottom, and a re-sizable map can be brought up with M.

Graphics

Like most MMOGs, MxO is as pretty as your computer can handle. At maximum settings, it is pretty damn impressive. One thing I have to note as spectacular is the sense of environment. The clouds, sky, moon, rain, etc. are done with a very artistic sense. And when creepy events happen like the end-of-beta Armageddon.. they're able to make it REALLY creepy.



One very small touch that I personally find beautiful are the shadows that come down from the clouds. If you look at the ground, you can see the soft and subtle shadows of clouds as they move through the sky. Subtle, yet quite effective.

As good as the graphics are, they can scale quite well. For those with lower settings, you can run the game quite smoothly by toning down some of the more tasking elements (such as realistic shadows, anti-aliasing, overbright[bloom], activeworld [adds cars and pedestrians to the world], high-res textures) However, even on high-end settings, the graphics do well to seamlessly limit themselves in order to present dozens of players on screen at once without a huge dip in frame rate. It's mainly the latency that dips. More on that later.



As it currently stands, the graphics are great but sometimes issues with jerkiness do pop up. This is mainly to do with the game requiring a high amount of RAM in order to function with all its settings on. I like my games to look pretty, so I sometimes become masochistic in what I turn on and live with. Were I less voracious about the shiny, I'm sure it would run a lot smoother. In general the frame rate stays on the low side, but it's not a major problem unless you demand all games should play at 60fps.

Sound

The audio department is in very good hands. On the musical side of the equation, you have Don Davis, the original composer for the trilogy, providing every bit of music for the game. It's not all his typical orchestral stuff, however. He has taken a lot of techno and metal influences from the movies' licensed soundtrack and incorporated his style into it, much like his collaboration with Juno Reactor for the highway scene in Reloaded and the end credits in Revolutions.

Something I found interesting, from a compositional perspective, is that every piece of music in the game is not through-composed. They consist of chunks of music that seem to be mixed on the fly, based on what's going on and where you are. Music will transition between ambient roaming music to battle music upon entering combat on a dime. The series of loops builds as the battle escalates, and when you win the battle, the current section of the piece comes to a conclusion at the end of its loop. The ambient track then kicks in again. Enter a building for a mission? More tense music comes on, MGS style, bringing you into the moment of infiltration into some enemy apartment or offices.

On the audio end, you have some very well-done sound effects. Battle sounds are quite convincing, especially since battle itself is very cinematic now. (Again, more on that later.) There are also some very top-rate voiceovers in various sections of the game, including the cut scenes when the plot moves forward. Nearly all of the main characters not only have their likenesses modeled for the game, but they also lend their voice talent to the characters as well.

Gameplay

There are many layers to the gameplay, but I'll start with the very first which is the combat system.



The first layer of combat is referred to as either "free fire" or "out of combat". This is where things resemble other MMORPGs the most. You can use a ranged weapon, which is on a timer depending on the gun type. Each shot is a dice roll against your opponent based on your Ranged Combat Tactics and level. If you win the roll, you hit, and your damage is indicated by the weapon and your Ranged Damage modifier.

At ranged, you can also use abilities as well as hacker "programs" which are the equivalent to spells. Offensive spells are things like logic bombs, DoT and status ailment spells are viruses, and restorative spells are patches.

The second layer of combat is called "interlock" or "in combat". In this mode, you are locked into a battle against your opponent. Movement is no longer an option unless you escape from interlock much like how a single-player RPG battle works. Of course, while in interlock your characters are moving constantly in a series of wire-fu inspired choreography based on your attacks. Interlock can take place with either bare fists or guns.



Combat in Interlock is based on short combat rounds in a 1-on-1 setting. Each round, your choice of attack can be one of 4 styles: Speed, Power, Throw or Block (each with their own set of animations). Your opponent will be doing the same, but it is not rock-paper-scissors like one might think. Speed attacks are hard-hitting and have a chance to dizzy. Power attacks are slower and medium-damage with a chance to stun. Throw attacks are low damage, but higher success, disarm your opponent and have a chance to cause disorientation. Winning a block will successfully block, remove status ailments, and regen your Inner Strength.



When the combat round takes place, you roll against your opponent based on your Combat Tactics and level. Highest number wins and gets the attack (or block, if you choose that) dealing damage. You also have the choice to replace your next round's attack with a special attack. Special attacks have unique animations, often dealing more damage than a normal attack and looking much more badass. (A particular show-stopped is the Martial Arts Initiate move Guard Breaker, which is your typical SF-style Shoryuken.) Also in place with interlock is the random opportunity for bullet time. It will usually go off when you deal a killing blow or a nice chunk of damage.

There are a few issues to work out regarding interlock, one of which being the camera. Since the game goes for a cinematic style to battles, the camera will come alive and do its own thing to make battles look as cool as they can. This can help or hinder you, depending on the situation. If you're on the lookout for potential adds, it can be a pain. If you're confident and want to focus on the battle, it can be quite rewarding. Transition from interlock camera back to normal camera can also be a tad jarring, especially if an enemy is firing on you while you wait for the transition to happen. It's being worked on internally, however.

The next aspect of gameplay I should cover is the myriad of things you can do in order to progress:

- Missions
You can get these from one of two places. You'll always have cell phone numbers for your current organization contact. (You can ally yourself with one of the three major powers in the world: Zion, Machines or the Merovingian.) They'll give you critical missions to the storyline and generic randomly-generated missions if you just need something to do.

There are also various standalone mission givers within the city that give you various static missions in the general area they are located in. Rewards for most missions are experience points and $information, the currency of redpills.

- Collectors
There are various gangs scattered throughout the city neighborhoods. Killing members of the same gang usually yields some sort of collectable unique to that gang. There are collectors stationed in that neighborhood that will trade you a certain amount of those collectables for a very nice piece of enhanced clothing.

The final aspect of gameplay I should touch upon is the ability system. Everyone starts off as an Awakened, fresh to the life as a redpill, freed from the system. This contains several core abilities like hyper running and jumping, as well as things that allow you to establish the enemy's weakness for interlock combat.

Further branching out, the player decides between three paths. Coder, which contains the ability to craft and create simulacra; pets of sorts that fit various roles. Hackers, which are the "spell casters." Operatives, which are the melee or ranged damage dealers. Further branching out, Coders can go strictly crafting or creating simulacra. Hackers can become a healer or a damage dealer. Operatives can become an espionage-using Spy or combat-oriented Soldier. Of course even these trees can further diversify, creating an intricate web of possibilities for players to follow.

The intriguing part of all this is that, true to the Matrix style, you are able to switch out abilities any time at a Hardline, provided you have enough $info to buy them and pay for upgrades. This allows for a very flexible character development system, but the expensive nature of upgrading will keep people concentrated on one track for the most part.

Community and Customer Service

This is probably the most important part of any MMOG in my honest opinion. When all is said in done, MMOGs are very social games. To keep up with this, the game is only as good as the community and developers that support it.

Ultimately, MxO as a game is not perfect. There are bugs that need to be worked out. There are things to polish and shape. One of the more major issues is that of latency and lag problems experienced. But I have full faith in the developers for doing this efficiently and with a good approach. In a recent interview, one of the lead developers noted that their whole concept of class balance is that if something is more powerful, boosting the rest instead of nerfing the singular is the most responsible way of dealing with balance. It is a standard they hope to continue throughout the game's life.

Customer Service as I have experienced it so far, in beta and now retail, is swift and with a very helpful and responsive staff of people intent on helping you fix the problem at hand. Who said it couldn't be done?

As for the community, many people predicted that it would be rather horrible. Lots of Neo wannabes running around saying they're the one. Thankfully that's just a mockery people like to make when trying to prevent defectors from straying from their game of choice. The actual community is a collection of rather mature players from my experience that are out there to make the continuation of the films the best it possibly can be. There are factions of players that heavily roleplay and create their place within the canon. There's an entire online radio station created solely by fans that plays good music, has good DJs, and integrates themselves into the storyline as well.



The players also make use of in game locations spread throughout the game to organize all kinds of events. The most common event to take place is almost nightly, which would be raves at all sorts of clubs. Often times, the radio station Radio Free Zion will host one of the raves, devoting a certain theme depending on the club it's held at and have a DJ live at the party. They provide great social events to get to know people and just have a clean good time.



This leads full circle back to the developers again. They have responded to all the feedback and involvement from the community and interact with them as part of the official canon. There is a special team of people at Monolith that are the live events team. They oversee the game every day of its operation and are each assigned a specific role within the story to play. One will play Morpheus, one is Seraph, etc. And these people log in as the characters and roleplay alongside the players. Some times there's scripted dialogue they follow, some times it's improvisation based on their extensive knowledge of the character. From what I have experienced though, it is all very well handled and executed and makes the game worth playing despite bugs, despite things that still need to be ironed out.

Closing Comments

I hope I've covered all the major parts that MxO has to offer. As I mentioned, the game is not perfect. There are bugs to work out and a bit of polish to apply to things, but the team is more than capable of the work ahead of them.

Of course, the game is not for everyone. The challenge presented by a combat system that requires strategy and thought will turn off some players used to the traditional MMOG faire. There is also not a gigantic world to explore, though the city is absolutely huge. It is a more urban environment, so it takes a certain type of person to appreciate the aesthetics applied.

With that said, if you love the Matrix, you will most likely cope with the initial shellshock and love MxO. If you love traditional MMOGs, you may need to enter with an open mind. One statement by the developers I think holds strong: MxO was not built to compete with existing MMOGs, as it attracts a wholly different crowd. I think this is very true, and in my opinion it has hit many strong points in my personal preferences in gaming.



~Cobbi

[Shino]

Nice... I've been wondering about this game.

Especially since it was published in part by Sega. Interesting choice of games for them.

Thanks for the review. Keep us informed on how your adventures go.

[Silver Adept]

Thanks for the review - MxO is a game I was wondering about - perhaps a game that I might get around to playing at some point, but I don't know. There are a lot of possibilities to the game that I'd like to see in action (like with any other MMO) before I put down the cash for it.

[RivaOni]

its typical aint it? i really really want an MMO and theres 3 around atm and one in development i like the look of, but my pc isn't upto running them and cant afford to get a new one. dangit!! looks pretty darn cool though

[reaper]

Man thats a thoughrow review cobbi lol.

Unfortunatly I just got WoW, and I am poor soo looks like that all I am going to get.

[Cobalt Katze]

[BWS-1]

Looks awesome. Man, your screenshot rocks! I love how you make them look like postcards :3

Darn ... Matrix Online or PSU ... the dilemma!

[Cobalt Katze]

[BWS-1]

...

>0<;;

...

*ahem

I err, I knew it <_<


*sobs alone in a corner ,_,

[Robb]

Im really impressed by the look of this game, and it sure is tempting to have a go at it when it comes out