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The Matrix Online Launches
Another large, commercially built virtual world has launched. The MMORPG Matrix Online, based on the popular Matrix movie series, is now online and accepting red pills. From the launch announcement: "...a specialized role-playing live events team at Monolith will assume the roles of the actual Matrix characters and support the continuation of the game's storyline through choreographed interaction. Players will meet, battle and eventually team up with the familiar characters on high-profile missions or at player-organized events."
Anyone know if this is as good or better than WoW now that it isn't in beta?
On the other hand isn't this the only MMORPG that doesn't feature wizards, medieval and sci-fi theme, making it alittle unique?
I took the blue pill
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Support Indy Music. Buy
"Where's the OS X version?"
That's what you get for taking the aqua pill.
"Derp de derp."
..And one leaked screenies. It pretty much sucks, according to everybody I've heard of who did the beta test. Not a whole lot of innovation gameplay wise.
YMMV.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
Too bad you have to buy a physical copy of the game from a store. If you could download it and play immediately, I'd be logging in right now and giving it a shot. Even if I had to pay $20 for the download. But I'm sure not going to bother paying $50 for a box copy, wait several says, install it, find out (like every other MMORPG) that it doesn't keep me interested very long and then dump it after a couple weeks.
And it's not form PA :o
WHOA
got a friend who did the beta, said the graphics were sub par and the combat system was pathetic. So ill take the pill to save me money from shitty MMORPG's and keep on with CoH...
Home of the midwest loser - www.say-10.net
Apparently the machines run the matrix on x86 processors, not Motorolla gear. Sorry.
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
The community is probably one of the better ones, based on past MMPGing experiences. Not too much snobbery from players that reached the top echelon. It's bringing in a lot of the "Fast N Furious" type crowd too, compared to alot of the "I got a lvl. Uber Dragonslayer in D&D" crowd I've run into in other games.
Their big "whiz bang" feature, "Interlock" combat, was still really nothin' special and performed terribly when I last "jacked in" (a week before beta shut down). Basically you buff up your character in close combat skills/modifiers and in melee combat the camera goes on auto pilot, zipping around to give you "Matrix-like" views of the action. There were terrible lag issues still, where you and your opponent would some times stand there facing each other with nothing happening, then suddenly one of you is dead.
Visually the game is pretty good. It looked more polished and runs better than SWG did on my computer when I played that, but doesn't perform as well as City of Heroes. Although unlike CoH, there aren't "instanced" mission areas. You just walk in and out of buildings w/ no load time.
I was disappointed playing as a hacker. It just doesn't seem hacker enough to me. Your special attacks are visualized as lightning bolts and weird glyphs that spasm around your target. I would have preferred seeing the characters twitch or blur or do something more in line with the movies. It feels a little more magical and less like you're actually hacking The Matrix.
I never got passed lvl 20 before a big update which would see a character wipe, so I don't know how hard it is to advance after that, but it's easy to get into and level up at lower levels. It isn't as lean as CoH, but it also isn't constant maintenance and grinding like SWG.
If fills a niche for those that aren't into swords and sorcery without breaking any fresh ground.
No sig for you!!
I found this review at http://forums.evercrest.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi ?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=063745 to be pretty decent. Gives a pretty good sense of what the game is like.
--- It's not my fault this post looks redundant. I just type too slow.
From one of the screenshots:
The machines stole a computer virus of ours last night and it must be returned. We need the computer virus recovered and a bomb put in it's place as a...friendly reminder...that taking what is ours will not be tolerated.
Go to this location and pick up the bomb from Heron. When you have the bomb, I will send you the targeted location for the bomb and where the virus will be recovered. (What was that about a bomb?)
Jeez, maybe they could hire someone who can write to do this kind of stuff...
---- Take the Space Quiz!
MxO has a crucial flaw that seperates it from most RPG games.
Your attack roll is the same as your defend roll. Other games have a seperate difficulty check for attack and defend, so that if you fail a defend roll, you can still land an attack.
However, in MxO only one side may win a roll comparison.
All special abilities require that you win the roll comparison. To increase your roll comparative to the enemy via buff or debuff, you must first win a roll.
The use of equipment can increase your roll.
This means that if their equipment allows their rolls to overpower yours, the abilities you use are much less relevant since they are defeated before they begin. It's not to say that your abilities are never used, it's that they are used far less frequently than in other games. Many games have equipment that influences the outcome of duels, but the nature of the roll comparison is that even slight advantages in the base roll will create large discrepancies in the effectiveness between two players.
Most games working off the seperate attack and defend rolls allow for an exchange of abilities that will work sucessfully more often than not. This allows player skill in applying abilities to be important. (Not singling out City of heroes, but just as a n example, the base hit chance against an even level enemy is 75%, whereas in MxO, you'd have a 50% chance to hit an enemy since it's a comparison between two equally probably roll victories)
However, with MxO's single comparison, the frequency of an ability to land is drastically reduced. When your selections of power applications are drastically reduced in this manner, your skill in choosing which powers is much less relevant.
Aside from this crucial flaw, MxO performs suprisingly well in many respects. I expected to instantly dislike the game. But as it turned out, I enjoyed the game immensely until I had to accept the fact that this flaw in the combat system is not something plausible to change. If it were not for this mechanism that removes player involvement in combat, I'd be recommending this game.
Remember how Jason Hall, once founder of Monolith (devs of Matrix Online - MO) and now head of the WB games division, went on some tirade about quality games a year ago?
Reviews haven't hit the web yet, but I wonder if Hall will hold his former company to the same standards he threatened. From advance press, my guess is that the Matrix Online will be sufficiently underwhelming to get any kind of decent score. So what happens then? Will Jason withhold royalty to his own friends and former co-workers?
Postscript: Ironically, didn't WB also just announce a second Matrix game by Shiny? Hall is still in charge right?
Well, Omroth, I *did* mark your words.
You see, I have been a developer on the Matrix Online project since its onset. I'm not generally thin-skinned, particularly about what people post on Internet forums. But for some reason, your ignorant, casual dismissal of the nearly two years of work my teammates and I had already put into this project plus any and all of our future efforts, well, it just really stuck in my craw.
Now the game has released, got any more words of wisdom? Any more predictions to share, perhaps?
You know, I suppose I really ought to thank you. Whenever the project faced a setback or a delay, whenever the grueling work schedule seemed especially endless, whenever I could not find an elusive bug despite hour upon hour of searching - in short, whenever I felt like we could never get this big, complicated game out the door - I only had to think of your comment here. Any frustrations and hopelessness would fade away, and my level of motivation would surge.
So, I sincerely hope you pick up a copy of Matrix Online and check out what we've accomplished. Because in your own small, cynical way, *you* actually helped make it possible!