I always heard about this game, it would get derided pretty often but at the same time, there are some of fans of it. I can't deny that I do enjoy this game, but as someone who is a fan of the Matrix franchise, if you were to view the game in isolation the game pales in comparison to the Max Payne series, and in some ways even the first Dead to Rights game which came out around the same time as Enter the Matrix. So much of your enjoyment of this title comes from how much you enjoy the Matrix story as a whole and I mean beyond the first movie.
I'll start with what I liked, when it comes to the look, sound and feel of the game, it feels very much in line with the franchise it's based on which is great it has Don Davis's distinct score and musical motifs in the orchestral tracks and it has the rock and techno music that are also in the movies. Everything about the presentation and production values *feels* like it belong in the Matrix franchise. Usually, I find live action cutscenes in games to be gimmicky but it gives Enter the Matrix a weird charm to it like it gives the game a feeling that is also part of the larger Matrix narrative.
The story of the game is also kind of interesting, but only if you find the overarching story the Matrix sequels were trying to tell to be interesting and I kind of do so seeing how side characters like Niobe and Ghost tie in to the overarching plot of the Matrix Reloaded was rather interesting. It also helps shine some light on how despite Neo in the Matrix sequels seem to be powerful and even invincible to some degree, he still needs guys like Ghost and Niobe to help him, I also think Ghost is interesting in the sense that despite being a small player in a grander story, he fufills his role with conviction, it also helps that the dialogue whether you like it or not is in line with the movies making you feel like you are watching a Matrix movie in video game form.
The gameplay is also pretty decent stuff, this is where the game gets divisive since Enter the Matrix in a lot of ways was a dated game even for it's time but more on that later, what I liked about it is the moveset you get. Remember all those cool moves Neo and Trinity did in the lobby shootout of the first movie? You can do most if not all of it in Enter the Matrix, like the slo mo cartwheels, running up walls, running down walls and kicking people, slo mo, as well doing martial arts takedowns, as well as Max Payne's shoot dodge from the front and behind, my personal favorite was the slo mo cartwheels, you technically don't need to do this and it's complicated to pull off since you need at least 3 inputs to pull it off, but it looks so damn awesome that I loved doing it. That one time where I run across a wall and kicked an enemy in the face just made me go like, "that was awesome".
The animations in combat are pretty good, and the guns feel decent enough to use and despite what some say, I didn't have much in the way of issues with auto aim for the guns. The auto aim always felt like I hit my enemies when I fired the weapons, it at the very least works better than Rise to Honour's shooting.
I also really liked the final chase scene in Chinatown, it did a good job at replicating the fast paced and intense from the final on foot chase from the first movie in game form especially with how Agents are swarming the player along with SWAT teams as you are climbing ladders and running for your life with barely any means of defending yourself but his now leads to my next issue.
Now here comes the negatives, the first one and this is a big one is how short the levels are, like they are really short, you can beat many of the sections in less than 5 minutes, the Chateau level is the worst for this, you kill 1 or 2 guys open a few doors and then the level is over and the game wants you to save. This is immersion breaking as well as not giving the player a satisfying amount of play time in between save screens, I wouldn't be surprised if many would be like, "but that barely lasted 5 minutes". The power plant level fared the best since moment to moment shooting in those levels were the longest in the game, even it isn't saying much. This also somewhat ruins the final chase which I praised since you will be an intense on foot chase, and then the game is like, "do you want to save now?"
The aforementioned Chateau level can be pretty underwhelming, I thought the player was going to have to be creative in how they were going to kill the warewolves and vampires since you need to stake them but instead Ghost will just have a dedicated stake at all times and you just need to whail on the enemies and they die, imagine this what if Ghost had to constantly find stakes with tables and furniture to destroy and have staking enemies be some kind of resource the player has to use in order to take them down. You even get a crossbow which I never needed since stake enemies normally was already really easy. This felt like a wasted opportunity to me. This section could've broken up the pace but instead it's just combat without the shooting.
The controls aren't the greatest, it controls like a PS1 game at times where the right stick gets no camera control, it's used for first person aiming and you press the L2 and R2 buttons to strafe, this is going to turn away many people but if you played 3D games before the days of active right stick involvement during gameplay, then I argue you could get used to this.
Two other issues is that while the combat animations are great, the running and climbing animations can look pretty goofy. That and I'm not a big fan of the gimmick levels, they control way too awkwardly like the the car chases and on rails shooting sections both in the car and final sequence against the machines. They just feel like awkward gimmick levels. That and well, they lack any kind of epic build up with the game's existing mechanics since you played Enter the Matrix for it's epic slo mo fisticuffs and shootouts and instead the game ends with an on rails sequence against a bunch of sentinels, it can feel rather unsatisfactory since it used a different set of mechaincs and rules for the final sequence to end off the game. The ending itself is pretty unsatisfactory in it's own right since it's basically nothing more than hyping the Matrix Revolutions movie.
Final issue is that regen health gets disabled during bosses and there is no explanation for it so it's jarring to lose the ablity you were relying upon for no reason. It is rather interesting that this game predates Halo 2 when it comes to games having fully regenerating health. Another weird thing is that this game also has a contruction yard sniping npc escort sequence like Max Payne 2 does.
Overall, while the game isn't bad your milage may vary and much of your enjoyment hinges on you being a Matrix fan especially outside of that first movie. You could find a decent action game here, but at the same time, games like Max Payne do play better but at the same time to Enter the Matrix's credit there is stuff you can't do in MP unless you mod the former.
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