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The Games: The Matrix Online
The second licensed game based on The Matrix, The Matrix Online was released on March 22, 2005. Some basic information about the game:
Speculation on the game's storyline is rampant, with the accepted theory flowing along these lines: after the truce brokered by Neo in Revolutions, the anticipated peace doesn't exactly materialize. There remain factions divided over the future of humanity. Some believe in what Neo has fought for, and they intend to free as many open minds from the Matrix as possible. There are others who don't agree with this course of action. They're preventing the resistance from freeing minds, and are supporters of the Matrix itself. A third faction exists as well, with its own motivations. It's believed players of The Matrix Online will end up choosing which side of this battle they support.
![]() You can get screenshots, wallpapers, and trailers for The Matrix Online on our Downloads page.
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Some of the game features include:
The Matrix Online was developed by Monolith Productions under the creative direction of the Wachowski Brothers. Warner Bros. publishes and manages the game.
The official site has an extremely active forum area with lots of interesting discussions, and an FAQ that they've been updating regularly. It's a highly recommended resource for up-to-date information on the game. Also, you can order your own copy of the game below to ensure you're one of the first to join the battle for humanity's future!
![]() Get The Matrix Online for yourself today!
Get The Official Game Guide for yourself today!
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a special report from our field operative, Zed
The following report was received over several fractured radio signals from Special Operative Zed. It's the only communication we've had with him since he's gone underground. Several passages were lost due to interference and background noise, but we've done our best to clean them up.
The Matrix: Online (MxO) is being developed by Monolith and distributed by Warner Brothers Interactive. On The Matrix: Revolutions 2nd disk, there is an indepth look at the exciting things that are headed your way in October 2004.
MxO is a Massively Multi-player online game - for those of you who don't know what this is, a MMPOG is a simulation where thousands of people participate in a shared experience and they all connect to the same server.
When you start the game, right at the very beginning, you are still one of the people in the farms, who've just come to the realization that the entire Matrix is in fact, a simulation. You will be presented with the option of taking the Red Pill or the Blue Pill, and of course you'll have taken the Red Pill.
In the game the Humans and Machines are still at peace, or rather than peace it's more of a truce. After seeing yourself take the Red Pill, you are able to define your residual self-image. You select your clothes, your hair, what you look like, whether you're male or female, and of course what your skills are. Now these are interesting: depending on what you choose, you are allowed certain skills, as you can choose to be a spy or a hacker, or you can be the equivalent of a fighter, a soldier. And then that's it; you are an operative inside the Matrix!
![]() Almost as soon as your feet touch the ground, these forces, the machines, the humans and the various exiles will begin approaching you and trying to hire you, depending on what you chose as your "job" (spy, hacker etc.) in order to win over your allegiance to their cause. It's not just humans versus machines anymore, and you will have to choose with whom you ally yourself. And yes, there will be characters from the movies in the game with you as they are still running their agendas, they are still trying to accomplish their goals as depicted in the films and they may even try to recruit you to work for them. But someone else who wants you to stop them from whatever they are specifically doing may have recruited you. So it can become a very complicated matter.
There are three routes you can take in the game. One Route is the sit back and chat side of things, where you can go into one of the many bars and clubs around this massive city, which has so many districts. There are full 360-degree views available around the city, and the city is a challenge in itself. There is the Slums environment, and the International District, then there's Downtown and the Industrial districts. And in terms of raw, square footage of game space to explore there is no equal, and I don't think there will be for a while.
The second route is one where you go for missions, and work for people in order to gain reputation and prove yourself worthy to meet characters from the film; this is the route most people will go for.
Then there is the malicious route, whereby you hang out in clubs, but just mess around getting in peoples' way who want to do a mission, whether you've been asked to do it by someone else, or whether you just don't like people who find this sort of game so easy, they just show the rest of us up. The choice is up to you. As Neo adequately put it, "The problem is choice".
You will have to really work hard though and gain reputation in order to meet the characters from the movies in person, or rather character to character, and if you are a good enough player, you will be able to talk to those people, like Morpheus. But to meet one of the characters from the film will be a monumental task, and is something people will be able to brag about for months!
There are Agents in the game too, so you will have to watch your back, but generally unless you attack them they won't attack you unless they are either told to go after you, or you are perceived as a threat to them.
Something else that is new to the online scene is types of weather - snow, sun, rain etc. MxO has its own eco-system. One day when you logon, you may be able to run through the city in glorious sunshine, the following day, clouds may have come over and rain may be falling, so why don't you re-enact the Super Burly Brawl while it's still raining and no-one else wants to play?
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For those graphics nuts amongst you, you can go into every floor of every building in your search for your goals, and there is a lot of information you can find by just exploring, on the other hand there are going to be a few people who may want to kill you... Also though, one of the goals of the graphics boys at Monolith, was allowing the player to move seamlessly from indoor to outdoor, to be able to run up a flight of stairs, take an elevator and come out on top of a rooftop and see the area that you just left, seamlessly without load zone, which we all know can disappoint even the most avid of us gamers at times.
![]() This is a brand new server the developers have bought, and in order to deal with the latency issues that undoubtedly will come up they designed a new software package for the server, although these details have been keep under wraps, and closely guarded. So despite my best attempts to get some info out of them, they haven't said a word. However there is a whole team on the staff of the production group whose only goal is that after MxO ships, their jobs is to continually add content to the game so it's never going to stop.
Another cool feature is that everything in the Matrix is Code: weapons, clothing, and even abilities. So characters who can write code can, given the required resources and ability levels, create nearly any item or ability in the game.
Now, MxO is a continuation of the Matrix story, so where the 3rd movie ends the game literally picks it up and goes with it from there. Throughout the course of the game you will literally have the story unfold before your eyes, if you're in the right places; if you're not, then you'll have to ask around to see the changes, if they are not obvious to you. So when you walk round, everything will not be as it was in the Matrix films, it is a continuation of the story of what happens in the Matrix. Players won't know where the story goes, so there will always be a surprise for the gamers. The game designers will be online most days as well to see how the game is progressing, but you won't know who is a designer and who isn't...or they'd just get swamped with people asking for help.
The game designers may help to steer the story in one way or another, so no-one can say they know how it's going to end. In fact, the game will not end, it will keep going, keep taking new twists. Larry and Andy Wachowski wanted the players to be able to not only go round a new city, in the Matrix environment, with the Matrix rules (like the ability to bend the rules of gravity) but the Brothers also wanted places from the movies in the game, like the location of the Burly Brawl: you can run around there, you can have a fight with your friends on the Burly Brawl set.
There are events that will happen each month, and the game designers will be telling the story both in short movies, and in gameplay where the characters will be moving about the world on specific missions that that can send them to certain parts of the story in order for them to gain a better understanding of the game.
![]() As we know from The Matrix, there is a heavy emphasis on martial arts and in terms of combat inside the Matrix: you can do Kung Fu, Karate moves, you can also do wire-fu (Kung-Fu Matrix Style). You can jump from building to building, and there are situations that allow you to fight one-on-one, one-on-three, four-on-one. There are crazy new moves you can do - for example, there is such a move whereby you smash your fist into the ground to knock over your opponent or opponents. The game really does capture that intense, visceral feel - if you punch someone in the throat then you really are punching them in the throat. As you become more and more powerful you will learn more and more special moves, literally dropping into bullet time with people around you seeing you do that slow-motion move that has become the signature of the Matrix.
And really, after this game comes out, when someone says Massively Multiplayer Online Game, or MMPOG, it should be difficult not to think about The Matrix: Online.
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Did You Know?
Given we know Neo flies 500 miles from the Merovingian's castle to the city to save Morpheus and the Keymaker on the
highway, and it takes 14 Minutes and 20 Seconds of movie time, it appears Neo can fly around 2093 mph! Of course, this doesn't take into
consideration the magic of movie editing, or any bathroom breaks.
- Suggested by Ben Ghaner |
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