I heard a while back that
The Matrix: Path of Neo was an amazingly good video game adaptation, and I dutifully waited until I'd watched all the movies before renting it and trying it.
HOLY CRAP IT WAS SO GOOD
It actually uses
movie scenes as cutscenes, has most if not all of the right actors as VAs, and the gameplay is like someone took the best parts of every open-world battle system and combined them into one awesome thing of amazing awesomeness. I can recognize a
lot of the moves I pull off in battle as being directly from the films, and even those made up for the game are
so well-coordinated, it's beautiful, and you can tell that they didn't skimp
at all in any area of the game's development. Probably helped that the actual directors had a hand in making it.
It was released in 2005 for the PS2 and original XBox, so some of the graphics are a bit dated (although the couple pre-rendered cutscenes it had WERE SO GORGEOUS, I was very impressed), but after a few hours, I hardly noticed. There were times where I was scared out of my mind, high on adrenaline, verbally keyboardsmashing over awesome things I pulled off, or laughing like an idiot at my own fail or the unexpected randomness of certain levels, like when you seriously have to crawl through cubicles and down the office building while Morpheus guides you on the phone. SO. AWESOME.
Plus, the game CHANGED THE ENDING to something considerably more satisfactory than the canon ending, so that was a nice little bonus -- although I honestly burst out laughing when it played Queen's "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ARE THE CHAAAAAMPIOOOOOONS" during the final scene/credits, because every time I hear that song, I either think of the Disney version where Goofy sings it, or this:
It also has a crapload of unlockable bonus items, a good number of featurettes, and if I didn't have to return the thing, I'd immediately go for a second playthrough on a higher difficulty level.
And I SWEAR, one of these days, I'll splurge and buy one of those things that let you record your gameplay directly to your computer so I can YouTube the entirety of my playthrough. |D
Were I to record my voice as narration along with it, you'd all see what a total spazz I am, as most of my commentary was, honest to goodness, along the lines of
"AHAHAHA OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME"
"GO NEO GO GO GO"
"/SHRIEKS"
"GET OFF MY ARM LET GO LET GO LET GO GET AWAAAAAAY"
"OH MY GOD SHUT UP MORPHEUS I AM TRYING"
"AHHHHHHH KILL ALL THE SMITHS"
"OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO AWESOME"
"RUN, LITTLE ASIAN DUDE!"
"AW YEAH POLE FIGHTING! AND IT'S NOT RETARDED LIKE IN BAYONETTA!"
"DUDE DUDE GUYS DID YOU SEE THAT IT WAS SO AWESOME"
"OH FREAKIN' A--"
"OH MY GOD I JUST OWNED FOUR SMITHS AT ONCE WITH A SWORD /strangling noises"
"STOP CLOSING THE FREAKING DOOR PLEASE HE IS GOING TO FOLLOW ME NO MATTER WHAT"
"/SCREAMS"
"NO! NO! NONONONONONONO!"
"THEY COME FOR YOU, NEO!"And naturally, like any good game, I was humbled several times, such as the first time I acquired a grenade launcher.
Switch: "Is it a good idea to trust the grenade launcher to the rookie?"
Me:
(Pfft, please, I've played Call of Duty and Resident Evil, among others. I think I can handle a grenade launcher.)Bad guys: [appear!]
Me: [fires grenade, immediately kills myself and my three allies] "............"
And then there was the time I tried to kick down a door, only to also kick the high-pressure gas cylinder next to it, which then blew up in my face.
...Come to think of it, I think I'm just bad with explosives.
Like all the times I blow myself up in RE5 and Revelations because I shoot a nearby gas barrel, having forgotten that I'm not playing RE4 and physics now actually matter.Overall, I wish all movie-based games were even
half this good. 8'( Sadly, 99% of the time they're just thrown together for a quick buck and are simply awful; this game, some of the Spidey games, and The Godfather are the only exceptions I'm aware of.
WOE. If anyone has any recs that have slipped under my radar, do tell!
ALSO, I knew the creators of RE once admitted that Wesker's look and fighting style, especially in RE5, were influenced by The Matrix, but skdjfklsdfs DUDE, Rebecca's leather alternate outfit in RE0 is a nearly dead-on copy of what Trinity wears in The Animatrix. :|b And I know that there are only so many fighting styles out there, but I even thought one of Trinity's moves in Reloaded was the same as one that Jill pulled off in RE5, even shot at the same camera angle.
Possibly reading too much into it, but I thought it was an interesting string of similarities all the same.
And if those similarities WERE intentional on RE's part... quite ironic, considering the games did it in such a cool manner, whereas the RE films totally failed in their blatant attempts to rip off The Matrix.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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