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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."
I took the blue pill
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Not a fair comparison at this point, WoW is still in beta.
"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
And it's not form PA :o
WHOA
Yeah, I know. The only reason I got World of Warcraft when it was released was because they released a downloadable open beta that allowed me to try the game out for free. If I hadn't played it then, I probably never would have gotten it. Likewise my brother has a friend who's going to get it after playing the game on my brother's account for a while.
Unfortunately they aren't doing something similar at release. (Although they do have the "trial passes" that Collector's Edition owners can give out.) It really would be nice to see free trials for MMORPGs. (I think a couple of smaller ones offer downloadable trials, but I can't remember any details and don't really want to go searching. :)).
I'm not willing to shell out $50 for a game that I can then only play a month without shelling out more cash. Since I got the free trial with WoW via the open beta, I was willing to pay for it at launch.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
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!!
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!