Who here played Enter the Matrix? Who here had to stop playing Enter the Matrix before the sheer amount of bugs in that game overwhelmed your TV set and entered the real world, thus destroying everything and everyone you hold dear? That's what I thought.

I was fairly fortunate with my copy of Enter the Matrix. I didn't experience nearly the multitude of glitches that a lot of people did. How that's possible, I'm not entirely sure. I had a friend playing it on XBOX that literally could not get past half of the game due to a bug that would freeze the game every single time, right in the same spot. I've heard numerous other horror stories about it as well.

When the pre-game hype for Path of Neo started, I was pretty skeptical. There's a lot promised, and washing away the sins of the former Matrix game was a feat of biblical proportions in itself. Combined with the reviews for the game not hitting until the game launched (much like Enter the Matrix) and I pretty much has this game summed up before I tried it out. Crap.

I've gotta say though, I was pretty wrong. Granted, it's not going to be the best game you've played all year, and it has its issues, but I will say that it is literally LEAPS AND BOUNDS better than its predecessor.

Path of Neo does exactly what the titles says, it puts you into the role of Neo, more or less starting from the Office scene in the first Matrix that saw Mr. Anderson attempting to escape the Agents by climbing out onto the ledges of the building he worked in, all the way up to the final fight with the viral Mr. Smith in the rain flooded streets of the Matrix.

As you progress thru the game, you'll gain more and more abilities to help keep in line with the physical progress the character made in the films. When you first pick the Red Pill, you'll begin your training with Morpheus. This isn't simply a rehash of the dojo fight from the first film, instead you'll be placed into a series of training programs that will help you test out the different combat mechanics, use of Focus (Bullet Time like slow down), and the ability to pull out a string of combo's in a God Of War lite fashion. This is actually the slowest part of the game, as the training scenarios take up a bulk of time when you really want to delve into the fights from the movies. They're worth playing thru though, as they do an excellent job of getting you acquainted with the various move sets you have available. The default controller settings are a bit clunky, but you can alter them around a bit to make them better fit your style of play. Once you progress thru the training programs (and yes, you will fight Morpheus in the dojo) then you begin to move along with the story.

Like the training sequence, you'll come across some events not covered in the movies. There's a period of time between the first Matrix and Reloaded that you'll have to explore which has Neo "rescuing" certain people from the Matrix. Also, some of the fight scenes will be expanded, such as Neo's battle against the Oracle's guardian. It fills in a few gaps between the movies for the fans, but there's nothing there that you couldn't have assumed in the first play. It does manage to make the game a bit more worthy of playing though, with the average play thru taking anywhere from 10-15 hours, which is decent for most action games.

The controls are a bit hit and miss. For the most part they seem responsive, but there are a few platform style levels that will have you trying to snap your controller in two with frustration. Also, the combo system is pretty easy to use, but it doesn't always seem to work. It's not necessarily a game breaker, but if you really want to use a specific combo or knock an enemy in a certain direction, it can be a bit maddening. Also, the auto target for weapons is frustrating as hell. Instead of being able to easily cycle between your enemies, you have to constantly lock and unlock to finally be able to select the person you want to hit. By that time it'll be too late, and you'll find yourself relying on melee attacks much more than weapons as you get farther into the game, simply because the weapon system sucks.

The look of the game maintains that washed out green effect on the levels, but there's quite a bit of detail in the surrounding environments, and noticeable different in between levels, to keep it from being bland. Character models are animated really well, but there's some noticeable slowdown to be had when you're fighting against multiple opponents. The game does manage some fairly impressive feats, such as the 100 Smith fight in the Park during Reloaded, but does suffer from the limitations of the hardware.

The music is pure Matrix though; whether that is good or bad I'll leave up to you. There's some techno/trance and a bit of hard rock thrown in. I don't recall anything licensed though, so if you're looking for some soundtrack stuff like the Rage Against the Machine track at the end of the first Matrix, or some Manson from the second film, you won't find it here.

There are video clips! Nothing new like the stuff created for Enter the Matrix, instead these consist of a bunch of scenes put together to progress the story in the most non-sensical way possible. I'm assuming that they're figuring the core group of players will be people that have seen all three films (and the Animatrix) because if you haven't, the cut scenes won't help you. At all. It's a really odd way of putting them together, and I think they were attempting a bit of flash over substance with it. Regardless, it doesn't come off all that well, and just looks hastily done.

Ah, the ending. I won't ruin it here (but you can easily do so across the internet), but it is out there. More so than what was originally presented in the film. This is because the Wachowski's decided that the original ending in Revolutions would be a bit anti-climatic for a video game setting, so they, uh, changed it a bit. I'd actually say it's worth playing the game just to see. So strange...

Bottom line, Matrix: Path of Neo is a fairly decent game. If you can get past the control issues, it's actually somewhat fun to play. It's worth a rental at least, and maybe even a buy if you're a fan of ALL three films. And even if you're not going to play it, look up the videos of the end. Seriously.