To coincide with the release of The Matrix Reloaded in May 2003, the Wachowski brothers also managed a historical feat when, only a week after the premiere of Reloaded, they also released Enter the Matrix, the first out of three video games in the Matrix franchise. Published by Atari, the game was released on May 15, 2003, which marked the day when The Matrix Reloaded was released in theaters throughout North America.
Niobe and Ghost, the main characters in the game “Enter the Matrix”
Enter the Matrix is a film-to-game conversion that was simultaneously produced with Reloaded and Revolutions and features over an hour and a half of original footage, filling some of the gaps between The Matrix and its sequel The Matrix Reloaded. The conceptual idea and the production of the game were directed by the Wachowski brothers using actual actors from the movie, especially for the roles of Ghost and Niobe. The game did well with fans and game aficionados, ultimately selling five million copies worldwide.
The game concentrates on the exploits of Ghost and Niobe, two secondary characters that appear in Reloaded and Revolutions, but who are given front seat roles in Enter the Matrix. The two, together with Morpheus’ crew — which includes Neo and Trinity, among others –, are part of the resistance fighting the machines. Niobe is the captain of Logos, a hovercraft known to be the fastest ship in the rebel fleet, while Ghost is its second in command and an experienced fighter, versed in the use of weapons, strategy, and hand-to-hand combat fighting.
Because the game takes place at roughly the same time as Reloaded it was worth playing especially for the extra information and insight into the Matrix that the fans could get out of it. Players were given the chance to play as either Niobe or Ghost and take them through a bunch of slightly different levels until they competed their mission.
Enter the Matrix is an objective driven, third-person perspective action game which makes use of guns and elaborate fighting skills to defeat a score of opponents — from agents to security and police officers — and complete each level’s objective. Bullet time, called “Focus” in the game, can be employed to slow down the time and execute a series of acrobatically stunning moves, such as dodging bullets and climbing on walls, or complicated fighting sequences. In most of the levels, Niobe is the one piloting the Logos and driving the cars while Ghost is at the guns, shooting down enemies.
The plot of the game weaves in with another medium of the Matrix franchise, that of animation. The story in Enter the Matrix starts with Niobe and Ghost trying hard (i.e. fighting anyone in their way) to retrieve a message left in the Matrix by the crew of the Osiris. “Final Flight of the Osiris,” the last short film of the nine that make up the animation movie Animatrix (released less than a month after the game), tells the story of how the ship came across an army of sentinels digging their way down to Zion and how they managed, just before they were destroyed, to leave a warning message in the Matrix.
In Enter the Matrix, Niobe and Ghost manage to get hold of the message, even though they were chased by an Agent. Upon hearing the message, Zion headquarters instructs the two to call the rest of the hovercrafts back to Zion to prepare for the imminent attack. A meeting is held in the Matrix between the captains of all the ships that were not docked at Zion with the purpose to discuss how to defend themselves. But, of course, Agents attack the building where the meeting is held but Niobe and Ghost escape once again.
The character of the Keymaker is actually introduced in the game well before the action in The Matrix Reloaded. As a program who is able to make keys that open different areas of the Matrix, the Keymaker gives Niobe and Ghost a key that they are meant to give to Neo (a sub-plot very similar to that of Reloaded). Unfortunately, the time was not right and the Keymaker is captured by the Merovingian, a program who smuggles programs into the Matrix, who also destroys the key.
This is crucial information not revealed in any of the movies, thus making Enter the Matrix more than just an action game; it is actually a way of adding more layers of meanings to the overall plot of The Matrix trilogy.
The story then continues with the Logos trying to locate the Nebuchadnezzar in order to inform Morpheus, its captain, that he had to return to Zion. What follows next goes parallel with the action in Reloaded: Niobe and Ghost help Morpheus and his crew get out of the Matrix (remember when they show up in a car on the highway scene, just in time to save Morpheus from his fall?), and then agree to destroy the power plant.
The Oracle also appears in Enter the Matrix and the player has the chance to speak to her. After their conversation, Niobe or Ghost (depending on who the payer chose as the game character) have a run in with Agent Smith who is now able to copy itself. Again, this is something that happens at the same time with the action of Reloaded, probably during (or soon after) Neo’s conversation with the Architect.
The player manages to escape from Agent Smith but sentinels have discovered the Logos and attack it. Using the EMP (electromagnetic pulse), they manage to kill the sentinels and survive, frying all the circuits on their ship in the process. At the end of the game we see Niobe and Ghost waiting inside the Logos for a ship to come and rescue them by restarting its electric system.
It is by now common knowledge that the Wachowskis chose most (if not all) the names of the characters and the ship very carefully. Of the many characters that appear in Enter the Matrix, its worth mentioning Vlad, the leader of the Merovingian’s vampires, obviously a reference to the Romanian ruler Vlad the Impeller, the so-called inspiration of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And then there’s Cujo, the leader of the Merovingian’s werewolves, a neat reference to Stephen King’s Cujo, a horror novel in which a rabid dog becomes a human-hunter.
As the concept of the Matrix itself is highly dependent on people in “the real world” being able to hack into the Matrix, “the dream world,” a neat hacking feature allows players to hack their way in Enter the Matrix via a system where, by entering codes, you could unlock secretes, weapons and skills.
One of the most frequent complaints about the game was that it did not give the players the opportunity to play as Neo, the protagonist of the Matrix trilogy, a fact which was “rectified” with the third Matrix game Path of Neo, released in 2005, a few months after The Matrix Online was up and running on the internet.
Enter the Matrix was generally received with positive reviews, with (the now defunct) Nintendo Power magazine admitting that it “has tons of great stuff for Matrix fans.” Imagine Games Network (IGN) said in their review that “the story elements and the way the Wachowski Brothers tie together the Matrix movies, the Animatrix shorts, and the game is exceptional…; there’s no denying that playing through Enter the Matrix will actually increase your appreciation of the Matrix universe as a whole.”
My intertextual study The Matrix and the Alice Books looks at the way Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass have influenced some of the ideas put forth by Andy and Larry Wachowski. The book is now available as a Kindle ebook too.
