Ten Reasons Why You Should Play the Matrix Online

Back in March 2005, The Matrix Online launched with much fanfare. As to be expected with any new online game, there were server issues. Some of the game mechanics, such as Live Events (server-wide events involving the ongoing storyline that made up The Matrix Online), were new concepts and endured growing pains regarding communication and other technical issues. Most importantly, there were design decisions (and subsequent handling) by the developers that were flawed. In short, the game was not the success people hoped for. The game was sold within three months to Sony, the development staff was cut back, and the community shrank. Development of the continued on, however. Great strides have been made to improve the game since launch, and if you gave the game a pass early on, you're missing out on a vastly improved experience. Part refresher, part introduction, here are ten reasons why you should be playing The Matrix Online:

1. Game engine

The Matrix Online has a great-looking graphics engine, which scales to the user's video card performance. If you have a more powerful video card, you will obviously see an improvement. The game is simply gorgeous on a high-end card. The slick thing is that if you have a low-end card, while you may not see as much detail, the game is very playable, thus not boxing certain customers out. This was the design from beginning, and offers a wider audience the opportunity to play the game, while thinking ahead to future advancements.

2. Huge city to explore

All the more impressive is the scale of the city. While not all rooms are available to enter at all times, the detail within them is amazing, and movement around the city (and its various districts) is smooth. The only caveat is that you start off in the "slums" area of the game, so you have to work your way up to reaching International and Downtown, which are truly awesome to behold. Part of the fun is discovering locations from the movie trilogy, such as the famous lobby scene, where Neo fought the 100 Smiths, and more. You could spend hours just exploring the territory.

3. Dynamic character abilities

A unique feature in The Matrix Online is the handling of "classes" and abilities. In a standard online game, when you initially create your character you select what class they are going to be, usually some variant of fighter, mage, or priest. The Matrix Online is not terribly different in that sense, as the three main classes (or ability trees, as they are known in the game) are Operative, Hacker, and Coder (corresponding to figher, mage, and crafter in other games). Each ability tree spans off into speciality branches. Under the Operative tree, you can become a Spy, Assassin, Kung Fu Grandmaster, and more. Under Hacker, you could focus on offensive attacks or healing. Under Coder, you could either craft items in the game or create a simulacrum to fight for you. The great thing about this is a player is not locked into one single tree. True to the concept of the Matrix, everything in the game is code- so abilities can be loaded or unloaded, according to the circumstances. You can even mix different trees. This flexibility makes for a wonderful game experience.

4. Ongoing storyline

A major reason to play The Matrix Online is that it is the continuation of the storyline where the trilogy left off. Every six weeks, a new cinematic (approximately two-minute video clip) featuring characters from the trilogy and game is released. The cinematic and subsequent new missions push the storyline ahead. Since launch, we have seen fake Agents attack the Matrix, the apparent death of Morpheus at the hands of an incredibly powerful Exile program, a few splinter organizations emerge from Zion (including the Cypherites, who wish to be reinserted into the Matrix), and more. Characters such as Niobe, Ghost, the Kid, and the Merovingian take the center stage of an intriguing scenario within the Matrix, where three organizations attempt to leverage power and peace in the aftermath of the Truce Neo brokered at the end of the trilogy. The pacing of the storyline, which originally was intended to be released weekly, has been slowly adjusted to accommodate the new schedule, and long-term elements are finally coming to fruition. In fact, a major storyline has just concluded within the last month, so now is a perfect time to jump on board.

5. Mission Archive

Tying in to the previous point of the ongoing storyline is the availability of the Mission Archive. This great piece of content, for both new and old players, provides the ability to replay old critical (i.e. storyline) missions from previous chapters and allow you to get caught up on the story. Usually, you can only play missions of the organization that you are aligned with. The Archive allows you to play missions from previous chapters from all organizations, with no effect to your in-game reputation. This adds something like 250+ missions, with more being added as chapters are completed. An added bonus is that, upon completing a chapter, you receive a token. These tokens, when added with other tokens (say, tokens for completing all organizations' chapter 3 missions) can be turned in to an in-game collector, who will give you a special item. The Archive alone offers hours and hours of game time.

6. Revised Combat Engine

The combat engine and abilities at launch was adequate but flawed. As time went on, a need was found to fix this, and thus was born Combat Revision 2.0.

Although controversial at first, CR 2.0 (as it is called) gained the praise of the community. Abilities were better balanced and combat was faster and smoother. No longer did players feel the need to stick to a particular tree (such as Hacker) to make advancement in the game. This makes for a far more enjoyable game experience.

7. Live Events

Just about every day, there is a Live Event on a server. This is where a developer-controlled major character from The Matrix Online involves players in a storyline. These usually tie into the overarching story currently in progress (depending on that week's critical mission). This is a unique opportunity for the players to interact and have an effect on how the storyline unfolds. Though often small affairs, these events can sometimes hold surprises or hints for how The Matrix Online story will unfold in the future, and are deeply satisfying for the player.

8. Additional Content

One of the cries early on from the community was the lack of content. While there is some room for improvement still to be made in this area, the truth is there is plenty of content to be found in the game. Since launch, there have been a few dozen "contacts" throughout the game- non-player characters (NPCs) who can be discovered and who will assign you five missions each. Each set of contact missions comprise an interesting side-story in The Matrix Online, and are worth running. For new players, the game now has a set of collectors at the outset of the game, each giving you a quest to collect items in exchange for other, more useful items, at the same time leading you across one region and helping new players get acquainted with the mechanics and workings of the game. For higher-level players, there are the Pandora's Box arcs, four sets of challenging missions showing a darker side of the Matrix. There is more, such as "dungeons" to be discovered that contain unique items of interest for players, as well as a quest for the highest-level players to uncover some new items, with more to come. Add this with the Mission Archive, and you will find that people who cry "lack of content" haven't played the game enough.

9. Player community

The player community is dedicated and, for the most part, helpful. There are plenty of factions (the equivalent of "guilds" in other online games) who are not only open to new members but willing to help and assist you. The community is also very creative, as can be seen by the various contests that have been held since launch (including "make a music video" and creating custom ads), as well as fan-made movies (using the game itself), player-run events, artwork, and more. The developers have been very helpful in this regard, adding "Prop Vendors" in the game who sell various items that can be used for player-run events. The community's passion is a great part of the game.

10. Unique PvP

The Matrix Online, like many other online games, contains a player versus player (PvP) element. There are a few ways that it is implemented. One is that there is a server dedicated to PvP (referred to as "hostile" servers). If you create a character there, they are safe from PvP until they reach level 16. Afterwards, they will always be flagged for PvP. On the regular servers, a player can flag themselves for PvP using a command. Winning in PvP earns you CQ points, which currently does not serve much of a purpose, but there are plans to use it in some sort of web ranking. Also, there is a new feature being tested in the game for something called "luggables" that will give more meaning to PvP. Luggables will be rare items that can be dropped in the game world or taken. Once taken, the player is automatically flagged for PvP. Luggables are dropped back into the game world when a player dies, teleports to another area, or leaves the game. There are some great possibilities for this, such as something similar to "capture the flag." Also, there are "constructs" in the game- regions of the Matrix outside of the main city. Here, in these special areas, not only can rare items be found by defeating the construct boss, but players are automatically flagged for PvP. This set up is a nice balance for players, so that they can choose to opt-in or out of PvP.

I hope that this has been helpful. Forget what you knew of The Matrix Online- the time to try the game is now.