User Rating: 6.3 | Enter the Matrix GC
Not a bad game at all. It is a generic action game with some pretty big flaws, but it's still an enjoyable and addicting game. Let me first say that the graphics are HORRIBLE. The GameCube is supposed to be the second-most-powerful next-gen console after the XBox, but I can't tell that from this game. Textures are flat and unconvincing, the models are low-poly and Ghost and Niobe have really bad running animations. But the worst, absolute WORST, graphics are the models for the Agents. They are reminiscent of generic Poser models, literally, and those after-image special effects that are in the movie when they dodge bullets are strangely absent, as is the green de-digitization effects of jacking out of the Matrix. Bullet-time or Focus-time doesn't look anything special, basically just slow-motion with some green fuzzy effects around the screen edges and the bullet ripples. Some of the Focus martial arts moves are great, though, and the fighting animation is top-notch. Gameplay is repetitive but fast-paced. I never tire of beating the crap out of people, whether in or out of Focus, and the Merovingian's Chateau is by far my favorite level, because it is ALL hand-to-hand combat. The driving levels are by far the worst, because the vehicles have a tendency to simply spin out of control for no reason. The gunfights are exciting, however, and the detail of the martial arts animation is great. There are frustrating moments, though, particularly in the sewer levels, where one wrong step can ruin a whole level, and in the airport against the helicopters, which take up to five machine gun clips' worth of damage before falling. The sound and music get tiresome, however. Although the gun sounds are realistic and the music is very Matrix-y in style, you get tired of listening to the same sounds over and over and over every few seconds. The voice acting is superb, though (since it has big-name, big-screen stars doing the voices). Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs. They are everywhere. I got stuck in a wall in the mail room. I fell through the road driving after a cargo plane. Dozens of SWAT policemen got stuck on stairs, walls, escalators, etc. Trinity fell through the ground and died in the Zen Garden level. A host of other miscallaneous bugs and glitches marred this game's performance. Level design is TERRIBLE. The sewers are, by far, the worst levels in any action game I've played. Too many hidden pitfalls and unexpected traps that kill your character instantly make it the most frustrating level I've played, ever, and because most of these are towards the end of a particular zone or level, it becomes triply frustrating because you then have to repeat EVERYTHING that came before. One particular pitfall I repeated three times. Once, I just ran through and missed the jump entirely. The next one I was angled a little to the right and missed the other side of the way-too-narrow bridge. I made it through the third try, but only after dying twice more fighting SWAT policemen who kept shooting at me with sniper rifles that could kill in four shots, and throwing grenades that could kill in one or two blasts. Overall, I think Enter the Matrix is a fair game that is especially good if you're in the mood for a beat-em-up. The bugs are very annoying, and the level design is sometimes non-sensical (one level requires you to just step into a room, then step out again through a door three paces in front of the one you entered). But the fighting is addicting and enjoyable, and the cutscenes are well-done. 
