It might be the one time in history that a film has been compromised for the benefit of its licensed game, rather than the other way around. It’s only Enter The Matrix players who wind their way through the plant, shutting off the lights and taking down snipers in the dark.
Niobe’s crew is tasked with blowing up a power plant to prevent a security system being triggered-but the movie cuts straight to the explosion. At one point in Reloaded, Morpheus sets up a heist of sorts. Oddly, there are other times in this shared story where it feels as if cinema-goers have been robbed of spectacle so that Enter The Matrix players can enjoy it instead. As in the Wachowskis’ transmedia empire, every part is of equal importance. If Neo is fated to save mankind, the story goes, it’s not a foregone conclusion-it’ll only happen with the help and sacrifice of others. It’s an approach that gels nicely with the Matrix sequels’ less Messianic take on The One. As Niobe or Ghost, you drive that car up the freeway, fending off cops and Agents so that you can show up for Morpheus-knowing exactly how important your role will be. Playing the game afterwards, however, fleshes out that arc with powerful effect. Niobe has volunteered her crew to go chasing after Morpheus rather than stay behind to defend Zion, so being there to save his life validates her choice. When Niobe catches Morpheus on the bonnet of her car during the climactic freeway fight of The Matrix Reloaded, the moment functions nicely as a surprise twist. For the most part, it gets away with attempting both, presenting different angles on sequences familiar from the movies. It’s a clear echo of the standout action scene from the original film (for which Perry turned down a game deal, not anticipating the phenomenon that would follow).Įnter The Matrix was a product of two different urges-one to dive from the rooftop after the established spectacle of the movies, and another to follow its own path. Yet, before you can leave that post office, the shutters come down and you’re pushed into a lobby firefight, pinwheeling out from behind pillars as bullets strip the marble from the walls. You’re planted in a US post office to pick up a tape containing the last transmission of the Osiris, so that you can hand it over to Zion-literally passing the baton from one medium to another. The very first level of Enter The Matrix reveals a tension in that premise. Instead it was merely a switch in perspective, from the Nebuchadnezzar to another crew caught up within the machinations of Morpheus. For once a game adaptation was not a poor relation to its cinematic inspiration. The Wachowskis wrote and directed an hour’s worth of cutscenes for Enter The Matrix, and it’s those that still represent its key draw.
And after the conclusion of the trilogy, a Monolith-developed MMO officially took the story forward into the future-at least until 2009, when The Matrix Online was shut down. Then, Shiny’s game ran parallel to the film, embellishing and expanding on plot points referenced on-screen. But since the beginning, founder David Perry had his sights set on Hollywood-hence the ‘Entertainment’ suffix, which he believed would make the company appear more worldly to film production companies. A strict no-sequels policy ensured oddball ideas could thrive, making the studio a spiritual precursor to Double Fine.
Shiny Entertainment’s games had long been distinguished by their imagination-from the squishy, gross-out cast of Earthworm Jim, to the hybrid RTS strangeness of Sacrifice.
For the interactive counterpart, they went to the developer behind a goofy sci-fi shooter they’d been fond of in the ’90s-MDK. They commissioned Neil Gaiman to write a comic in Tokyo, Madhouse and Studio 4☌ produced anime. And the Wachowskis, suddenly at the head of a multimedia empire, used their position to work with as many of their favourite artists as they could. Guillermo Del Toro was losing himself in Ico, which he declared a masterpiece. Peter Jackson recognised a fellow auteur in Michel Ancel, and tasked the Beyond Good & Evil designer with adapting King Kong. It was born from a time when Hollywood was crowning a new wave of powerful directors, a younger generation to whom the artistry of videogames was self-evident. Rather than mimic scenes from the movies, you could become a part of their story, interwoven with the green strands of its code.