Re-enter The Matrix with Path of Neo
Atari and Shiny take the wraps off the next Matrix game, where you get to replay all the best bits from the trilogy from Neo's perspective. Woah.
No one can be told that Shiny's working on another Matrix game; you knew that already. However, Atari has finally given the persistent rumour of another Matrix title substance by announcing that The Matrix: Path of Neo for PS2, Xbox and PC will be released in Q4 2005.
And interestingly, despite all-those-involved's previous assertions that Neo was "too powerful" to be a player-character (hence Enter The Matrix's bit-parts, and the "no fly" rule in The Matrix Online), that's all this one does. You play as Neo and relive the best bits of the trilogy.
As with 2003's style-over-substance title Enter The Matrix, Path of Neo is being developed by Shiny Entertainment with collaboration from trilogy producer Joel Silver and, critically, the elusive Wachowski brothers. The path the player takes in resolving each situation will be scripted and directed by the brothers, with all the actors and actresses' likenesses intact, and we'll also see footage from all three films and The Animatrix woven into the storytelling side of the game.
Sort of a Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for The Matrix, then, which needn't be a bad thing. Having been given one of the most destructive and adrenaline-fuelled central protagonists in cinema history to play with though (a character so fundamentally cool, lest we forget, that his appeal even overcome the use of Keanu Reeves), we only hope Shiny learns from past errors and does Path of Neo justice.