Ballistic
12-11-2005, 02:50
I hate to say it as this is a real shame coming from Shiny, but the following comes from the first half an hour of frustration I've had with this product:
The good:
- Slow-motion effect doesn't send the framerate through the floor like it did in Enter The Matrix
- Health system is improved (but not hard to do as everyone's been copying Halo since it came out)
The bad:
- Constantly prompted for language every time you run the game
- Cutscenes and movie scenes are unskippable
- Bad rendering - on one graphics setting I had Neo's head lying on his desk and his entire body missing
- Bloom effect you can't switch off makes 1280x1024 look like 640x480
- Game forgets control remappings every single time you load
- Bad volume mixing on video. Fine in the cinema, not good if you want to hear it on a PC without being deafened when the music starts. Video volume is also out of level with the in-game audio
- The box claims you can 'decide your own path'. Well I decided to go with the Agents in the office scene as this is basically what happens in the film anyway. Guess what? Failed level and had to restart.
The ugly:
- Random crashes to desktop for no reason on a system that, hey, even runs Boiling Point acceptably.
The whole thing looks and feels like a basic rehash of Enter The Matrix with almost none of the problems fixed, surprisingly just released in time for Christmas but strangely not in time for magazine review deadlines.
I gather the sales on Enter The Matrix were fairly high so clearly nobody felt a need to improve (or actually test) the product prior to release this time on account of the fact they knew people would buy it anyway. Sorely disappointed in Shiny (I still remember the excellent MDK) and, after this and Boiling Point, very disappointed with Atari's testing and release strategy.
Will be returning my copy to HMV as I don't think it's an acceptable consumer position to have to wait for a patch which may or may not fix enough of the problems to justify owning this game. Shame, as the combat in the game is actually fairly good fun, but why should I have to carve my way through all the problems to get to it?
Fletch
The good:
- Slow-motion effect doesn't send the framerate through the floor like it did in Enter The Matrix
- Health system is improved (but not hard to do as everyone's been copying Halo since it came out)
The bad:
- Constantly prompted for language every time you run the game
- Cutscenes and movie scenes are unskippable
- Bad rendering - on one graphics setting I had Neo's head lying on his desk and his entire body missing
- Bloom effect you can't switch off makes 1280x1024 look like 640x480
- Game forgets control remappings every single time you load
- Bad volume mixing on video. Fine in the cinema, not good if you want to hear it on a PC without being deafened when the music starts. Video volume is also out of level with the in-game audio
- The box claims you can 'decide your own path'. Well I decided to go with the Agents in the office scene as this is basically what happens in the film anyway. Guess what? Failed level and had to restart.
The ugly:
- Random crashes to desktop for no reason on a system that, hey, even runs Boiling Point acceptably.
The whole thing looks and feels like a basic rehash of Enter The Matrix with almost none of the problems fixed, surprisingly just released in time for Christmas but strangely not in time for magazine review deadlines.
I gather the sales on Enter The Matrix were fairly high so clearly nobody felt a need to improve (or actually test) the product prior to release this time on account of the fact they knew people would buy it anyway. Sorely disappointed in Shiny (I still remember the excellent MDK) and, after this and Boiling Point, very disappointed with Atari's testing and release strategy.
Will be returning my copy to HMV as I don't think it's an acceptable consumer position to have to wait for a patch which may or may not fix enough of the problems to justify owning this game. Shame, as the combat in the game is actually fairly good fun, but why should I have to carve my way through all the problems to get to it?
Fletch