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In 1999, “The Matrix” was released by Warner Brothers and the movie went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters in recent years. In light of the success of the film, WB has teamed up with Sega to create “The Matrix Online,” the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game set within “The Matrix” world. For a nominal fee of $12.95 each month, players can create a character and jack into the Matrix.
Character creation is simple enough. You select your character’s gender, along with a psychological profile that determines starting attributes and their belief in the matrix. From there you can edit their physical appearance by choosing hair color, eye color, skin color, build and clothing, among other choices. Next, you jack into a training program that familiarizes you with everything you will need to know before going into the matrix as an Awakened red pill. Combat, movement and skills upgrading are all covered in the training sessions.
Once you have finished the training you are ready to jack into the matrix. One thing of note is that there are no specific character classes within the game. Everyone starts out as an “Awakened,” but from there you can upgrade your memory – which is limited until you hit a new level, with different skills. You can go on one of three different paths: Coder, Hacker or Operative. Once you have chosen a branch – you can choose multiple branches – you can spread out into the different disciplines. The Coder discipline allows you to become an artisan or a technician, while the Hacker discipline allows you to be a medic or a damage specialist. The Operative discipline allows the most free range of motion in what you can do. For example, you can become a spy and from there an infiltrator, or an assassin. You can also choose to be a soldier and become a kung fu expert or a ranged weapons expert.
While in the matrix, you can work for one of three different factions, the Zionists – think Neo and Morpheous – The Machines, a la Agent Smith or the Merovingian – AI programs with free will – and conduct various missions. They range in difficulty, including going to point A, pick up this item, take it to point B; or escorting someone from point A to point B to point C. Some other missions include breaking into different facilities and stealing data disks from computers, or stealing information from a server. You gain some experience from completing missions, but the majority of experience points that you can gain comes from fighting enemies. When you gain experience you level up, the more experience you gain, the more abilities you unlock and the more powerful you become.
The best part of The Matrix Online has got to be the graphics. While they aren’t as powerful as compared to “Half-Life 2″ or “Brothers in Arms,” they are still beautiful compared to other role-playing games like “Everquest 2″ and “Star Wars: Galaxies.” They help recreate the gritty look and feel of the films, but that’s not the coolest part. When you jack into the Matrix, you can see everyone, but all you see over the silhouettes of people and buildings and lines of code, to signify that you are in the Matrix. It’s a pretty brilliant feature. The sound in the game is decent as well but the most impressive element of the game is the combat system.
When you enter into combat a small box of abilities and moves pops up. For example, you can fight hand to hand and perform different moves like kicks, punches, grabs and even dirty tactics such as “Cheap Shot.” You can also use pistols, rifles, submachine guns and shotguns. The more advanced the enemy, the more experience you earn, but the more experienced the enemy is than you, the more likely you are to get a good whipping. Although, in some cases, that’s not always true. For example, Level 10 Agents are able to trash two level 20 characters in certain circumstances. Speaking of Agents, Agents are all around the Matrix. When you finish a mission you have a certain amount of time to get out of the mission area before Agents show up and ruin your party.
The grouping system is alright. But, due to some minor lag issues, which will be straightened out as more servers are added, it is better to go about your missions on your own. Until you get a certain reputation, you can only form temporary groups with other players, as your reputation level increases in a certain faction, you can have the option of forming your own crew – again think Neo, Morpheous and the gang – and doing missions for your faction.
As far as MMORPGs go, “The Matrix Online” is perhaps one of the most innovative and technologically advanced of it’s kind. If you don’t mind the nominal fee, and are really into “The Matrix” films, “The Matrix Online” is the game for you.
