14 DAY TRIAL // 
I must say I am by no means what one would call a "diehard fan" of the Matrix movies, on the contrary. Also, due to its being a console game my expectations were rather low from the start. Predictably, Shiny's latest game is not shiny at all, just another action game in a different setting, which does not break new grounds nor does it attempt to, content to wallow in its own mediocrity, the PC version actually being worse than its console counterpart.
Story Path of Neo is Shiny's second attempt of dragging the movies screaming into the new medium, this time as a reenactment of the entire trilogy from Neo's perspective, from his narrow escaping the Agents in the office building, prior to his capture at the beginning of the first movie, to his spectacular aerial battle with Agent Smith at the end of the trilogy. The story is told in the form of a confusing jumbled mix of sequences from the actual movies at the beginning of certain levels, the developers having probably asked themselves why anyone who has not seen the movies would want to play a game made after them. Why indeed... The game also boasts an alternative ending written by none other than the Wachowski brothers themselves, as that from the movies must not have been big enough by arcade standards. Turns out it's big alright... and about as stupid. What were they thinking?
Gameplay The emphasis of the game is on nonstop action. There's nothing to do besides fighting, no puzzle solving or any other means of distracting you from the mayhem as you advance through familiar locations from the movies (including some never before seen ones), in its thirty-three or so levels, all of them teeming with hostile opponents.
If it is one thing it succeeds at, that is capturing the feel of being Neo, thanks to a surprisingly appealing if not loose combat system which allows you to perform all his gravity defying feats from the movies without requiring finger twisting combinations, only a large dose of patience, but that is a given for all console games. You also get to make full use of his famous martial prowess and the staple tools of destruction of any self respecting action game (pistol, submachine gun, both which can be dual wielded, shotgun, assault riffle and grenade launcher), which can be combined with the afore mentioned feats at leisure for some impressive results.
Till the end of the game you get to fight your way through numberless enemies, most of them familiar from the movies, like the ever present police forces and the Agents of the matrix, important characters like Morpheus, in the sparring session from the first movie, a small level in itself, and Seraph, likewise a small level, even innumerable instances of Agent Smith, but also a couple of new ones which I shall leave for you to discover yourselves. In the Agent Smith sequence from the second movie there really are a huge number of them on screen at once, but you only get to fight a limited number at one time, those not participating creating a living ring while incessantly rotating around you.
I especially enjoyed the sword fighting sequences and I hated their being so short, not due to your lacking opponents, but due to melee weapons' breaking so quickly. The good news is some of the bonuses you can unlock after finishing the game are cheat codes, one of which makes all weapons indestructible. If only were them codes accessible from the very beginning, without requiring activation...
There are also times when the game strays from its established formula, like in the helicopter sequence during Morpheus's rescue from the Agents, when you have to actually control the helicopter's gatling gun, which is nowhere near as appealing as the combat experience, but such sequences are fortunately few and far between.
The battles that make up the heart of the game feel great and are beautiful to behold due to the excellent animations and decent ragdoll physics, however the experience is ultimately buried deep under a heap of problems. Path of Neo was designed from the ground up for the consoles and no effort has been made to adapt and optimize it for the new PC environment whatsoever. While barely playable with the keyboard and mouse, controlling it using a gamepad is a breeze. The game's lack of a save option, bad checkpoint system (having to replay entire levels after dying is not my idea of fun) and occasional errors resulting in your staring at the desktop make for some frustrating moments, not to mention the camera which seems to have a life of its own, constantly facing away from the action, as if trying to leg it in the opposite direction. Add this to a number of irritating issues such as having to modify your settings every time you run the game and not being able to skip certain video sequences after dying or to disable the tips windows, and any appeal the game may have offered by then slowly vanishes. At least for me it did. Indeed, the tips may be useful the first time they appear, however they become major annoyances after you've seen them more than five times.
Video The graphics for the console version of the game are nothing to write home about; however the PC version actually looks worse. How that is possible is beyond me. It is as if the developers' decision of decreasing its graphical quality for the PC was deliberate. Not even the maximum 1280x1024 resolution and the highest settings available can do anything for the low resolution textures, the characters' faces especially ugly during closeups and, unfortunately, continually thrown in your face with every video sequence. I also wonder whether the developers played the game themselves. If they did, I reckon they would have noticed poor Morpheus's having a hole in the head where the texture of his face and that of the back of his head are joined, allowing you to stare into the vast emptiness of his head.
The animations however are an entirely different matter. They are superb and extremely varied, not only Neo's but of all the opponents you face and, as expected, the main character's moves especially stand out. He uses different combat styles for unarmed combat and for each melee weapon in the game (hanbo and bo sticks, as well as swords), all these modifying with your progression in the game to reflect his transformation into The One, becoming increasingly effective and attractive to look at. I would have liked to perform all these moves myself when I played it but, unfortunately, I did not manage to get my keyboard to cooperate.
There are a lot of objects and bits of the environment (in certain predefined places) that are destructible and it felt really great when smashing them to bits by using enemies as projectiles. However, when you can create a human shaped hole in the faience covering the wall of a room it is reasonable to expect to be able to do so anywhere in the room... It is not the case.
Like all console games, Path of Neo offers a number of bonus features for completing it under certain conditions, the most notable being the cheat codes I mentioned above and three gameplay movies. There's also a gallery with concept art from the making of the game, but at such a low resolution that I deemed it uninteresting, and some story boards for some of the in-game video sequences, also uninteresting.
Sound The musical score of the game is just average, but that's hardly a surprise. Every level has its own distinct theme but none of them have really caught my ear. I found the music of guns blazing and bullets whizzing by much more appealing, though itself unremarkable.
From the original cast of the movies only Laurence Fishburne has returned to lend his voice to his character in the game, but the new ones voicing Neo and Trinity do a rather decent job when delivering their glorious "one liners".
Multiplayer It does not have multiplayer.
Conclusion To sum it up, this is a bad transition to the PC for an average game, and not even "The One"can save it from mediocrity. Diehard fans of the Matrix movies who have a thing for mindless button smashing may get some enjoyment out of it, the rest of you just steer clear of this one. It is not worth your precious time.
