It is few and far between that a game comes along and actually breaks the mold of its genre. That time is now, with Atari’s Enter the Matrix. Written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, this game is sure to be a fun ride, even for people who never even saw Matrix and Reloaded. In this game, you have the choice of two characters, Niobe, a woman who has totally awesome martial arts techniques and speed, but at a loss of accuracy and strength. Then, there’s Ghost, a man who is tougher and more accurate than his counterpart, but loses speed and technique in place of it, so the difference isn’t just cosmetic. Also, the W. Bros decided to make the games work with the movies, so it’s not the same game with each character, for instance, with Niobe, you’ll be driving in certain areas whereas, with Ghost, you’ll be backing Niobe from out of the car’s window with a SMG, very cool stuff.

     The graphics are not exactly top notch, but they suffice, but the special effects more than make up for them, explosions have never looked so good, asides in Metal Gear Solid 2, but I’m not reviewing that, so who cares about it. Asides the overall texture of the graphics, the characters are amazing looking, with great detail and animation, even if the animations are clunky at times. With realistic characters, effects, but bland backgrounds, this sort of sets the game out of whack, but you can often overlook this, because you just have an overall good time with the game.

    The sounds in ETM are great, everything, from the voice acting, which is around 95% authentic, is great, like you are watching the movie. The sound effects are also very accurate as well, the 9mm sounds as it should, as well as the shotgun does, if a little quiet, but then again, the Xbox has very quiet sounds, compared to the different systems. The music seems to have been ripped right out of the movies, delivering a suspenseful, yet adrenaline pumping atmosphere. Overall, the sounds in ETM are well done and aid to the games overall appeal and enjoyment.

    Enter the Matrix’s control scheme is easy to use, and allows for near maximum utilization of the Xbox controller, note that I said near, my only gripe about the control setup is the fact that the right control stick is not a pitch adjusting one, in other words, you can’t look left and right without turning that way. Other than the aforementioned problem, the control scheme is great, allowing you to do many things with only 4 buttons and the left control stick. Moving on to the next area of ETM’s body, the A.I., these guys are so dumb they make the game easy, it’s like they want to die. They stand there and let you hit them, just thank god there is a lot of them to fight.

     Overall, ETM is a good movie to game transition and makes for a good reference material for what goes on behind the scenes of Matrix Reloaded, and makes for a good rental for casual gamers. However, die hard Matrix fans will most likely not of even read this and will be stacked up next to their Neo action figure Animatrix DVD. ETM is a good ride all the way, but after you complete it, there really is no desire to play through it again.