By Staff Writer, Mike Schmidt
You perform amazing acrobatics as bullets are slowly making their way past you.
You single-handedly beat a half-dozen attackers, using moves that do not seem human.
You are “The One.”
In “Matrix: The Path Of Neo,” the player takes on the role of Neo from the “Matrix” trilogy.


Directed by the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, who wrote and directed the Matrix movies, “Matrix: Path Of Neo” loosely follows the Matrix trilogy. The player begins the same way as the movie, not as Neo but as Mr. Anderson. A phone call alerts him of the men in suits heading his way. Following the commands from the mysterious man on the phone, the player guides Mr. Anderson out of his cubicle and eventually out of the building.
This is when the real “Matrix” experience begins. Through the use of snippets from the films, those unfamiliar with the “Matrix” trilogy are caught up. The player then gets “jacked in” to the Matrix, for a number of training levels to familiarize them with the special abilities allowed within the Matrix.
One of the main things that distinguishes this game from other “Matrix” games, such as “Enter the Matrix,” is that after following the storyline from the first Matrix movie, this game allows the player to see what happened between the first and second movies.
This type of “fill in the gaps” idea is not a new one, but to those who want to know what happened, it is nicely done.
Unfortunately, the graphics are not as good as they should be. In the only cut-scene that was unrelated to the movies, the designers show what the system can do, and it is a bit of a let down that they did not seem to put as much effort into the rest of the games graphics.
The fighting moves, however, seemed to have been very well studied. Almost all of the martial arts action is clear and crisp, and after a certain adjustment period, (which can be expected with almost any game), the variety is very good.
One of the biggest announcements about the game was the fact that the Wachowski brothers had designed a new ending. Prior to showing this ending, the player gets a small introduction by the brothers in their digital forms, which explains their reasoning for making a new ending while providing some comic relief.
The ending does not disappoint. It is on a very large scale, and when first viewed, it can cause the player to reference sanctified excrement. However, this reviewer has never been one to give out spoilers, so one will just have to play the game to find out what it is.
Overall this is a very enjoyable game. It is a little on the short side at about 11 hours of gameplay, and there are some points where it can be incredibly frustrating in both the levels and with the camera angles. However, a weekend gamer would not be disappointed if they rented this.