Enter The Matrix Was Harder To Make Than Path of Neo

As The Matrix reinvigorates itself through its fourth film, the developers of the two tie-in video games, Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo looked back at the games and concluded that Enter the Matrix was the harder one to make. While the Matrix games themselves are full of info gamers might not have known, developer commentary sheds new light on the process behind making the games.

With the explosive success of The Matrix, the Wachowskis and their colleagues were keen to capitalize on it, and video games seemed the perfect medium with which to do that. Enter the Matrix launched in May of 2003 alongside The Matrix Reloaded, and Path of Neo followed just two years later. With the exception of The Matrix Online, which was available for only four years, gamers have had to go without a new Matrix game ever since. That changed somewhat last year with the release of The Matrix Awakens, a demo that, while mostly serving to show off Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities, shows that there’s a need for a new AAA Matrix game. While there are currently no announced plans for a new Matrix game, a look back at the old games can still reveal plenty of new, interesting information.

A reporter from Polygon interviewed several key members of the team at Shiny Entertainment, the studio that developed both Enter the Matrix and Path of Neo, and they stated that Enter the Matrix was the more difficult of the two to make. David Perry, President of Shiny Entertainment, said, “Enter the Matrix, we bit off a little more than we could chew…with Path of Neo, the stress factor dropped profoundly. It was more or less, ‘Make something cool.’” While some might not think of the two Matrix games as actually good, they were definitely ambitious, and that ambition took serious work. Between high expectations based on the first Matrix movie and the demands of developing for unfamiliar hardware, the team at Shiny Entertainment had a tough task on their hands, especially with Enter the Matrix as the very first Matrix video game.

Enter the Matrix was a colossal undertaking for a studio that didn’t have much experience with established IP, and certainly not as big as The Matrix. In addition to the normal trials and tribulations of making any game, Shiny Entertainment was also tasked with telling a story that would feature brand-new live-action footage meant to supplement the Matrix films, as well as replicating the movies’ famous “bullet-time” as a game mechanic, and all under strict time constraints. Comparatively, Path of Neo was made after all three movies in the initial trilogy were complete, and with much more space to breathe, the team at Shiny Entertainment was able to focus on a much more enjoyable game-making process. Saxs Persson, the game’s director, said, “Path of Neo was much more cathartic.” Overall, it seems clear that, while the team enjoyed both projects, Path of Neo was much less demanding.

Many hope that the return of the Matrix film franchise might lead to a new Matrix video game, and only time will tell if that comes to fruition. If it does happen, hopefully, its development follows the easier road of Path of Neo and is spared the hardships of Enter the Matrix.

Source: Polygon

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