Developer(s): Monolith Productions
Publisher(s): Warner Brothers/Sega
Distributor(s):
Designer(s):
Engine:
Latest version:
Release date(s): March 22, 2005
Genre(s): MMORPG
Mode(s): multiplayer
Rating(s): ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s): PC
Media: CD
System requirements:
Input:
The Matrix Online (MxO) is a MMORPG developed
by Monolith Productions. It is set in the fictional universe of
The Matrix and continues the story told in the Matrix series. The
game began closed beta testing in June 2004, and saw a special closed
beta test for pre-orders beginning in November 2004. Warner Bros.
and SEGA officially released MxO on March 22, 2005 in the United
States. It was released in Europe on April 15.
Ubisoft originally planned to co-publish the game with Warner Bros.,
but backed out of the deal in February 2004 [1]. Many gamers believe
that this was done in response to the mixed audience reaction to
The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but it was also
part of a wider trend for Ubisoft to drop its support of MMOGs.
This opened the door for SEGA to become the new co-publisher.
On June 17, 2005, Warner Bros. and Sony Online Entertainment, owners
of several other online multiplayer game worlds, including EverQuest
and Star Wars Galaxies, announced that SOE has picked up the rights
from Monolith to operate
The Matrix Online. This
change was apparently due in part to the game's underwhelming critical
and commercial success since its debut, having sold only 43,100
copies (with undoubtedly fewer active subscribers) as of June 2005.
[2] This small user base has caused a server restructuring. As of
August 2, 2005 the nine game servers have been merged into three
new servers. [3]. The transition to SOE was completed on 15 August
2005, with only one change to the game itself. Prior to the transition,
MxO players were able to use the AIM chat program from within the
game, but after the transition this function was disabled.
Contents · 1 Overview· 2 Major events
o 2.1 Race to find the Oneo 2.2 Red-eyed Agentso 2.3 Nightfallo
2.4 Hunt for Morpheuso 2.5 Choice and Consequenceo 2.6 Double Crosso
2.7 Death of the Destroyer· 3 Rumors· 4 External links
Overview
Gameplay
The Matrix Online is as close to an Action-MMOG
as any manufacturer has come.
The Matrix Online
(MxO) has a streamlined and unique combat system, consisting of
several different methods of attack and special abilities, all of
which embody the Matrix world, including Bullet time, Wire fu and
many entertaining systemic anomalies.
Missioning, a major part of any MMORPG, is hugely different from
most other games in this genre. Missions, while randomly generated,
are complex, multi-step affairs that contain realistic elements
of the Matrix storyline. Elements such as hacking, lock-picking,
nerfing, Simulcra, and planting drops to incriminate foes are all
included.
One of its most intriguing elements is in its Live Events. Periodically,
characters from the storyline (such as Niobe, Morpheus, Ghost, and
Seraph) come online or jack-in and interact with other players.
These characters are full time roleplayers employed by Monolith.
The events they host come with a set of critical missions that extend
the randomly generated missions with even greater plot and interactivity.
However, Sony has stated through its community relations head that
it will be toning down the intensity of the live events in story,
appearance, length, and Live Actor participation. This has met with
objection as a majority of the player base has stated that they
do not want Live Events to be altered.
The game consists of four major zones, each of which has its own
difficulty level and in which players wage the secret war between
Zionist Humans, Exiles, and Machines. These zones are called the
Slums, the Barrens, Downtown, and the International District, and
it is clear that more zones (each of which contains a massive sprawl
of cityscape) will be added as time goes on. Players can travel
through any zone by Subway, electronic Hardlines, or walking. One
can move from one zone to another easily, though if one uses a Subway
or a Hardline, a small loading time is required.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Major events
Race to find the One
The first major event to occur in
The Matrix Online
was a "race" between the three factions to gather Neo's
RSI fragments. The first faction to gather a certain number of fragments
received upgraded defence statistics. Different factions won on
different servers.
Morpheus has also complained that the physical remains of Neo were
never returned to Zion from the Machine City (Zero One), yet cryptically,
the Machines have said that they did not recycle Neo's remains either.
Red-eyed Agents
The second major event a week later was the appearance of Agents
with glowing red eyes. These Agents appeared mysteriously and began
attacking all humans...including those allied with the Machines.
None of the three factions claimed to be controlling the red eyed
Agents, and some believe they serve a new fourth faction. They attacked
anyone with an RSI code fragment ("contraband fragments")
or anyone attempting to defend them.
Later, a message from the Oracle indicated that "intruders"
angered by the Truce are behind this, and that somehow Neo split
himself up into fragments within the Matrix knowing that it was
needed for the future. However, the only way to put Neo's code back
together is with the help of programs known as Shapers. Fighting
then broke out between the factions for control of Shapers, leading
to the Red Eyed Agents capturing a Shaper in the confusion, which
allowed them to create Lightning Agents. Soon Niobe sent a message
to players to fight the menace along with a new wave of agents which
bore a strong resemblance to Neo.
Nightfall
The third major event, Nightfall, began with the kidnapping of two
important leaders from vampire-like and werewolve-like Exiles gangs
(the Blood-drinkers and the Lupines, respectively). It was soon
revealed that Malphas and his Lupine counterpart Ookami had not
been kidnapped at all, but were hiding from the Merovingian. Upon
returning, they led a revolt of both gangs against the Merovingian's
domination of all Exiles, attempting to rally many humans to their
cause. However, while Malphas was absent his subordinate Invalesco
attempted his own power grab against him, promising to turn humans
that joined him into immortal 'vampires' with his source code. He
was unsuccessful: upon their return Invalesco was hunted down and
killed. Amidst this infighting, the Merovingian was able to defeat
the uprising and capture Malphas and Ookami. Subjected to torture
in the Frenchman's Chateau, they were (for now at least) bent back
to his service out of fear, and the attacks ended.
Hunt for Morpheus
Morpheus stepped up his quest to convince the Machines to return
Neo's body. By planting specially coded bombs near places where
redpill players were likely to gather (usually hardlines, but later
on or near monuments), the bombs would detonate and, while they
did no physical damage to the Matrix, spread a virus to any redpills
caught in the blast. This virus was designed to reveal the underlying
code, showing the bluepills the true nature of the Matrix, causing
them to reject it as real, and possibly crashing the system. All
organizations were out to kill him. Agents patrolled the streets,
as did the Lupines and Blood Drinkers. Another mysterious group
emerged during this time, called Cypherites by many players, consisting
of masked humans. Not only did they sabotage hardlines to trap people
in the Matrix, but they also rabidly hunted Morpheus. Players rushed
to defuse Morpheus' bombs in order to protect the truce, while others
fought to protect the bombs.
On the sixth day of the ten day event, tragedy struck. Morpheus
met a mysterious assassin as he set one of his final bombs in a
waste water treatment plant. He fled the initial attack, only to
be caught off guard when the Assassin caught up to him, apparently
able to bend the rules of the Matrix as he slipped through a narrow
vent in front of him. He was unable to dodge the onslaught of gunshots.
Morpheus was dead.
Niobe met with leaders from the machines, who denied involvement.
She later formed a faction of her own to track down who had sent
the Assassin. The hunt for Morpheus' Assassin was on. Soon, exiles
called Corrupted began to appear throughout the Matrix, attacking
players at random. It was later discovered that these programs were
created by the Assassin in his own image using a "corrupted
virus", meaning that the programs' bodies were composed of
flies. During the chaos that ensued with the attacks, Agent Skinner,
liaison to the Machinist redpills, was permanently deleted by the
Assassin. Soon, players found documents on the Corrupted that were
attacking them, and piecing the information together from it they
learned that killing Morpheus had not been the Assassin's ultimate
goal. The Corrupted were designed to destabilize the Matrix upon
death, and by releasing them en masse, the Assassin hoped that players
killing them would completely destroy the Matrix.
The event culminated with much larger versions of the Corrupted,
called Complete Corrupted, who could only be destroyed by special
pesticide items. All players of all organizations put aside their
differences and worked together to defeat these massive programs
and restore order to the Matrix. However, with the event over and
order restored, one thing remains: the Assassin is still at large.
Following the permanent deletion of Agent Skinner, the Machines
activated a new Agent as his replacement, Agent Pace. Agent Pace
is a 'new style' of Agent, most notably in two ways. First, it is
more emotionally expressive. Second, "it" is a "she";
Agent Pace is the first 'female' Agent. Pace's behavior is markedly
different from previous models of Agents because she was designed
to be "more human". Pace actually smiles on occasion,
and behaves almost benevolently toward human redpills under her
authority. A hidden message from Agent Pace can be found on the
official site, in the "Sentinel" fake newspaper page,
by clicking on a typo that says "fragmenting" twice; a
picture of her is also there. She seems to have the odd (for an
Agent) habit of falling into using Italian words frequently when
she is speaking.
Choice and Consequence
The crew of the hovercraft Novalis II must try to save the life
of their crewmate, Neurophyte. This scenario had alternate ending
which played out differently on the separate game servers. However,
with the later merger of the 9 servers into 3, it is unclear how
this storyline may play out in the time to come.
Double Cross
The Cypherites, masked redpills that want to be put back into the
Matrix like Cypher once did, begin a string of attacks led by Gemaskeerd
and Enmascarado. In the end Enmascarado is killed by the Assassin,
the Assassin releases a new flame virus, and Novalis II crewmember
Toorima is revealed as a Cypherite leader called Veil, but not before
she is able to kill her crewmate Vashuo.
Death of the Destroyer
An insecticide program is developed to kill the Assassin once and
for all, though he splits into several copies. All three organizations
team up to defeat him for good and avenge Morpheus. A new character
known as The General first appears. He claims his name is General
David Beatts, leader of an army that no longer has a purpose, and
may be tied to the mysterious heavy air traffic of helicopters (he
arrived in one).
Rumors
· An Exile named Silver may be behind the Red Eyed Agents
and appearance of mysterious LED PDAs.
· Neo's ultimate fate has been openly called into question
as Morpheus has pointed out that his remains were never returned
from 01 (the Machine City) back to Zion, but at the same time the
Machines have commented that they did not recycle (liquefy for re-use)
his body.
· Morpheus may not have been the Assassin's actual target.
· Rare transmission excerpts claim that the Assassin was
a program in charge of recycling (of dead human bodies in the power
plants) before it went rogue to become an Exile program. The same
excerpt claimed that while the Assassin was still in charge of recycling,
it received a command expressly forbidding it to recycle Trinity's
body.
· Rumor abounds that Agent Pace has some connection to Trinity,
either that Pace is somehow really Trinity (or her consciousness)
kept alive and turned into an Agent, or that Pace is an Agent created
in imitation of Trinity, because Trinity was one of the best Zion
field operatives. There is little evidence to support these rumors
however. Agent Pace is a duelist and so was Trinity.
· Many Zionites (Zion operatives) believe Morpheus has, in
fact, not met his demise. His remains, both in the Matrix and in
the Real, have not yet been seen or recovered since his supposed
assassination. In his final days, he was reported as saying, "I
may have to leave this place for a while to continue my work".
This suggests he may have staged his death in an attempt to evade
the Assassin.
External links
·
The Matrix Online The official site with
news, screenshots, and a forum
·
The Matrix Online Forum The official Forum
