The Matrix Movies: Where MxO can go Right or Wrong
By Andrew “Red Knight” Maxymillian

Do you remember the day you saw The Matrix for the first time? I saw The Matrix later then most, in a nearly empty theatre. Without a doubt, the movie spellbound me from the first dial tone to the final scene of Neo flying into the sky. When I left the theatre my mouth was wide open, and I was hooked – if ever there were more Matrix movies, Matrix games, or anything at all Matrix related, I would be there.

However, somehow, the second and third movies did not live up to the first. For whatever reasons, and I shall give a few of them here, Reloaded and Revolutions were simply not the movies that The Matrix was. These reasons are essential to understanding what could go wrong with The Matrix Online (MxO). It is my opinion that, for MxO to be a success, it must take as many pages from the first movie as possible.

Firstly, we have to remember why the first movie was such a stunning success. It is my belief that The Matrix combined a compelling storyline, stunning visuals, and perfectly coordinated music. (Not to mention excellently designed settings, props, and character wardrobes.) The overall tone of the movie was consistent from start to finish, with heavy emphasis on the gothic and the postmodern cityscape. Subtle but powerful elements of the movie such as the fact that the Matrix is always green-toned and the real world is always blue-toned, gave The Matrix a life of its own.

Consider the scene where Neo and Morpheus are walking, in a construct simulating the Matrix, to the song Clubbed to Death, by Rob D. The people are walking down the street more or less with the beat of the music, and the extras are all wearing grey business suits. (Morpheus and Neo are in black.) Then the Lady in Red walks by, to be transformed into an Agent, with dramatic effect. Every element in that scene works together, and the effect is synergistic: the whole is far greater then the parts.

The original movie is filled with scenes like these, where the dialogue, the music, and the visuals combine to create a greater whole, indeed the entire movie is executed crisply, and you aren’t really given much downtime in the movie to get bored. Now we transition to Reloaded and Revolutions. The storyline wasn’t as good, the music, while still the hard electronic sound of the first movie, wasn’t always as well executed or as well fitted, (with some exceptions, of course) and the emphasis on constantly pushing the graphical envelope perhaps cost the movies in other ways. The final battle scene between Neo and Agent Smith perhaps sums up went terribly, horribly, wrong with the Matrix Trilogy – a Dragonball Z style combat in the sky, obviously computer generated, completely overwrought, and simply not as exciting or interesting as the gritty kung-fu fighting of the first movie… The trilogy got lost in its own grandeur, perhaps.

So how does this relate to MxO? Firstly, expectations are lowered now – between the second two movies and the first Matrix video game – and so people won’t be expecting as much as they might have if the movies and the game had been stunning masterpieces. Lowered expectations mean that MxO has the opportunity to surprise and stun people all over again.

But it is not enough to simply rely on low expectations to make a successful video game. MxO can draw on what made the first movie great. First and foremost, there must be ingame music, and it must be the same kind of hard electronic sound that made the first movie so darn good. It would be even better if music copyrights could be surmounted and the movie soundtracks themselves could be included with the game – a pipe dream, surely, but a good one. At the very least, an ingame music player should be included that should have the capability to play any mp3 or ogg file – this is a useful function that allows players to put the music they want into the game. A dynamic sound system, one that switches to faster or slower music based on the situation at hand would also go far, sort of like the sound systems used in most modern FPS games.

The visuals is one area where I already feel as though the programmers are staying true to the first movie, perhaps because visuals are the most we’ve seen of the game so far. The first Matrix movie was gritty; it was dark, all grays and blacks. The entire game should and apparently is being presented with that particular urban blight setting and goth-chic clothing that added to the excellence of the first movie.

So far, I’ve only talked about eye candy, but eye (and ear!) candy is a crucial cornerstone to any good game, especially any modern game. Can MxO be good with bad music or bad visuals? Sure it can, but with good visuals and good music, the game will be more immersive, and the other elements of the game – storyline and gameplay – will be enhanced.

Gameplay and storyline are the other two elements of MxO that have to pull through for the game to be that masterpiece that we all hope it will be. Gameplay is the meat of any video game, its core, and MxO is no exception to this rule. If MxO is just “Elves in Suits”, then there will be nothing to cause MxO to stick out from the other upcoming MMORPG games such as Everquest or World of Warcraft. The cornerstone of the classic MMORPG is level building through routine and repetitive tasks, usually monster killing or resource harvesting. We are being promised that MxO will avoid this pitfall, and if it does, by allowing for less restricted and more open ended gameplay, then MxO will be a step ahead of the pack.

I could go into great detail about all the small gameplay elements that MxO can implement, but in reality, I think that many of us are going to get involved with the game because of the storyline elements alone, regardless of the gameplay. If the storyline is actually existent, and if players can feel as though they’re influencing it, then MxO will have yet another crucial element of a good game.

I’ll stop here. Clearly there is a lot more that can be said about what specifically MxO needs – what storyline or gameplay elements it must have to be a success. Up to this point, I’ve only mentioned particulars that MxO needs, and I don’t think anyone would disagree that the game needs storyline, gameplay, sound, and graphics… Every game needs these elements, but a pothole of MxO, and a pothole I’m afraid it will run into, is that the game may, like this editorial, be buried in the specifics of each element and forget what made the first movie so crucially good: the way in which each element interacted with the whole. MxO needs to be cool, and at some point during beta testing, the Devs should simply take a step back from the specifics, go and watch The Matrix, then return to their game and ask “Does MxO live up to the standard created by the first Matrix movie? Does our game faithfully follow and execute the storyline, the crispness, and the action of The Matrix? Do the individual elements of our game have a synergistic effect, creating a game that is far stronger then the sum of its parts?”

These questions are hard to answer, and what I’m asking for is not something that can be fixed with a new game patch or some new screenshots. I have full faith that the programmers at Monolith will completely fulfill the high bill required by this game, but if they fail to tightly weave all the disparate elements of MxO together, the game may wind up being “just another MMORPG”.

Guest Editorials and the opinions expressed therein are those of the author and not necessarily the views and opinions of the staff or editors of The Matrix Online Stratics.

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