Path of Neo Is The Best Matrix Game 

Thomas Anderson is a great dev, massive respect for him putting this game out there.

One of only a handful of games where every glitch and instance of jank can be considered canonical/ in-universe.

I swear this game didn't look this bad when I was a kid, i recall it looking so damn clean.

I think that the scene where the Wachowskis tell the player that the "Jesus ending" would be unsatisfying and that they're instead going to have them fight a giant Smith is actually the key to understanding how this game was made. It's not about adapting the movies faithfully, it's about turning them into a fun gaming experience, even if it hurts the credibility of the plot. For instance, they turn the scene of Neo's arrest into a stealth sequence, because in the context of a game, allowing the player to make a successful escape is a much more satisfying option. Every dumb change and dragged-out moment is actually an excuse to have more gameplay, even if it means getting into bonkers territory. Well, of course, it's all let down by poor execution, but their heart was in the right place, and had more effort been put into it we could have had a really solid game. I think.

Unironically one of the sickest games I played as a kid. I never even knew the Matrix movies existed but this game still slapped hard. I love that stupid little bit at the end where the developers were like 'Ya know, we had this giant smith laying around, wanna kick the hell out of it?'

I remember playing the game the first time and taking the blue pill, and I was surprised that the game actually end.

I remember seeing bad reviews for this game and being astounded, I had so much fun playing. Then again I was also 10 years old or so.

I like how Shiny was like... "Remember when we made an ambitious, rushed Matrix game in 2003? Well let's make an even MORE rushed, MORE ambitious Matrix game two years after anybody cared about the franchise!" It's a shame, these guys made MDK and Earthworm Jim!

I love this game, it's what it needs to be, fun, outrageous and I think the Wachowskis took the liberties they did because they wanted this game to not just be a highlight reel of the films and wanted to expand the world of the Matrix universe.

This game was so stupid yet so fun. Using people as nun-chucks never got old to me

Man they should release a remastered version of this game. Literally one of my favourite games growing up. Enter the matrix was also amazing

I remember the combat in the game being so satisfying. It capture the ridiculous energy from the movies. I hope someone does another version and cleans it up. In my opinion, there were few things they did right that haven't been duplicated.

God this looks so bad, and so good at the same time.

I played through this game as a kid when it first came out. I rented it from blockbuster, just to explain how far back were talking. I had this vague memory of fighting a bunch of kung-fu man sized ants, but for years I've been convinced that it couldn't have possibly been this game, and maybe I was confusing 2 games. Absolutely wild.

*ambitious and rushed back then:* pretty cool, amazing graphical design, nice and interesting gameplay, just a few odd creative decisions *ambitious and rushed now:* puzzle games, where the puzzle is how to prevent the game from soft locking or stuttering every 5 seconds as the entire map loads in and out

I love how you can skip the first section of the game by just going back into the window like neo does in the movie.

This game was TRULY ahead of its time. The combat was incredible and its so much fun. Loved hearing that dojo fight music at the start. That lobby shootout rocked. That train station fight is cool. You adding the music back to both scenes makes them even better. I got in touch with legendary game designer David Perry and he had a lot to say. -He and the Shiny Entertainment team LOVED working on this game. He agrees this is much better than Enter the Matrix and enjoyed designing it. -The lobby shootout level was everyone's favourite level including the Wachowski's. -He and the Shiny Entertainment team were aware fans were disappointed not playing as Neo in Enter The Matrix so this game was made as a response. -The Wachowski's had a lot of creative control over the games and would watch over the team during development. -The ending and Agent Smith boss fight of this game is canon for Matrix Revolutions. -Hugo Weaving, Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss weren't able to reprise their roles in terms of voice acting due to working on films at the time but were able to get their likenesses. -All the tutorials at the start of the game are tributes to martial arts films.

17:16 damn that's a good transition

I gotta be honest, despite this being released two years after Enter the Matrix it somehow manages to look worse both graphically, in character rendering and animation wise. The reflections on some levels look impressive though and so too does the environmental destruction.

I would actually really want a Steam port of this, it looks sick unironically

I remember in high school I would talk about it and nobody knew this game existed but they knew about the enter the matrix, I'm glad this game is getting the recognition it deserves

This game was so damn incredible as both a matrix fan and an avid gamer. They fully embraced the medium and made something so ridiculous that it almost felt like a parody. I've been replaying it recently as well in anticipation of seeing the new movie and hopefully can post a video about it as well

When I was a kid, I made the mystake of playing this game before I saw the actual movies. Because of this, I thought a quarter of the first movie was going to be dedicated to training, and that we would see bug people in the second movie. I was also confused when Neo didn't escape his office while evading the agents in the first movie. Despite it being a game of varying degrees of quaility, would say I Enter the Matrix is still my favourite Matrix game, despite its flaws. Keep up the great work Gman.

Adored this game in 2005 and replayed it year after year since. One of my all time favorite games, just stupid, classic fun for me and doesn’t even get old as I still thoroughly enjoy it beyond nostalgia.

I loved how the Wachowskis literally interrupted the game at the final boss to introduce the TRUE final boss. And they're represented thought Atari 2600 sprites.

The last part of this game I was probably saying wtf every 5 minutes. The game was buggy and weird, but the fighting was awesome for it's time.

9:46 I really like how that one "ordinary security guard" could just do a kung-fu flip.

Honestly, I think that this games craziest moments are what make it so good. The absolutely crazy stuff that happens (ant world, mega smith, etc) are what give this game a really fun identity. It's obvious the Wachowskis and the developers had more fun making this game, and I still have a lot of fun playing it today.

The thing that stood out to me about path of neo was the opening fight against random bads is a difficulty slider as well. If you restart the game and beat Smith it unlocks The One difficulty. It's something at least.

I absolutely loved this game. Little on the janky side but would love a remaster.

Can’t recall how many times I’ve finished this game since getting it on release day. still enjoy it to this day.

Some of the best hand to hand combat and amazing slow mo and bullet time effects! I remember it was amazing and unbelievable to get this kind of gameplay back then. I would like it to be remade and do the training in different stages rather than in one huge session.

Hot damn, never saw this one coming. Thanks for covering a childhood classic of mine.

One cool thing I remember is that it was possible to change the final boss fight to be exactly like in the movie. To do so, you had to "loose" specific stages of the final fight. It was possible to completelly avoid the "giant trash Smith" (as far as I remember)

Loved your review man, this was my favorite game from my childhood! Just earned yourself a member!

I’m so happy that SOMEONE finally covered this game. It use to be one of my favorites.

The gun fighting is better in the PS2 version. The lock on is hold R2 and fire is R1. Releasing R2 turns off the lock on.

Dude I use to play this while listening to my 2000s rock it was the best action game I have played

This game ticked so many boxes for me growing up. Definitely deserves more love.

This brings back many fond and frustrating memories from childhood. I'm genuinely debating if I want to go through the effort of reliving this game or just leaving it in the janky past haha.

I loved playing this and Enter The Matrix growing up. It’s probably been over 10 years since I’ve played this game but that song by Juno Reactor in the first level is still stuck in my head

I remember replaying the FUCK outta the scene where he's fighting like 500 agents it's so much fun

Best part is, after the levels based on the first movie, glitches can be considered canon because Neo could do whatever the fact he wanted with the Matrix.

Been waiting for this :D TY Gman!

It’s a good day when Gman uploads

Ah, the early 2000s, where console titles which had a PC port that would have missing visual effects, content and even had a forced resolution. And it was considered the norm. Bad times.

One of my favorite things in the game is when the Wachowskis (still the "brothers" back then) just cut into the finale and went, "we know what happened at the end of the trilogy, but screw that, let's have some fun!"

Happy new year bro ❤ I'm excited to see what awesome content you'll be creating this year. Happy new year to everyone else as well!

"My mind is boggled"

Gmans being fairly hard on it. Its definitely unpolished technically but is an absolute powerhouse of fun gameplay and cool level ideas.

YESSS GMAN I was secretly hoping you'd review this. Thank you

I totally loved this game and the controls in keyboard/mouse totally worked for me after rebinding some of them.

Xbox version lacks effects from the PS2 version as well. I made an in-depth comparison video demonstrating them.

The man, the myth, the legend is back! He's back with another video.

Didn't mind the 'crazy' stories that came after the first movie. The Merovingian having a private army of 'rogue programs' or rather, programs he kept from a previous version of the Matrix that used human fear to subjugate them so the experience was like a nightmare, was a great little touch. With vampires, werewolves, witches, wraiths.... all the kind of creature you see Neo fighting against. Personally I think these things are very interesting about the Matrix lore.

Funnily enough you can follow alot of the films beats like turning yourself in at the start of the mission or losing to Smith in the final fight & the game will progress as is. I think in general there's several boss fights you can lose & the game will progress as normal.

the kung fu ants were certainly a highlight for me lmao I love this game

The Matrix Resurrections is not a reboot. It's a straight up sequel.

I never thought about putting the original soundtrack over moments of this game, but that one second of you putting over the music in the Smith fight made it 10x better wow

sweet you actually did it, suggested you doing a video on this before the 4th movie came out!

Holy shit I have so many dear memories of this game. I played through it on my big cousins ps2, sometimes with him watching on. God that was so much fun

I want a remaster of this game, I wanna remember the good ol times

I loved this game! I'm so glad you were the one to review it after all these years.

Finally! I've been waiting God knows how long for you to review this.

This was a great game that just needed some more polish to truly shine

the best moment in my opinion in the whole game ,is sword training, where three ninjas jump from above the trees, nice entrance,i love it ✌️✌️✌️

What a treat just for me. Thank you gman.

God I loved this game, replaying the Agent Smith fight in the park again and again was a favourite memory

Yes, this was the best matrix game ever. So much fun, and it has NEO, the only character we really wanted to play since the beginning. I played the PC version.

This game used to rock when I was a kid, even on pc, but I'm afraid that I might have nostalgia goggles

Yooooo! The second clip with added music… NAILED IT! Now I have to play lol!

Seeing this video made me smile. Path of Neo was my go to power fantasy game when I was a kid. Awesome stuff.

I remember getting this game as a kid when I was younger for christmas.. one of the best games I ever played imo. The game is batshit crazy sometimes & I love it.

Honestly my comfort video game as a kid it’s not the best but boy was it crazy

I remember renting this from blockbuster, good times. Actually that first level, where the game shows what it may have looked like if Neo had the balls to escape - if you fail, then it gives you the movie scene of him being arrested.

".... make me sick, MAKE ME SICK !" alway crack me up. Everytime the intonnation is perfect ! Never change dude.

Honestly, this is the best movie to video game adaptation I've seen (unless you can count riddick). We can all make fun of how it cheesy it was and how dated it looks but at the time destructible environments and showing all those smiths was extremely impressive for 6th gen graphics and the ambition of the visuals is obviously gonna fucking break apart at the seams through reduced framerates and such, that's why it's a shame the PC port was so bad because I think that'd be a good indication of the actual potential had it been better. As for the silly shit in the plot, I'd rather they do that than copy the movie 1:1, it gave the game its own identity, however flawed. It had, dare I say, "SOUL". It was ambitious even if that ambition was not always properly implemented which I'd massively prefer over a boring watered down copy. I also think that the wachowski sequence was good because it indicates some of this silliness was actually intentional, so having it in the game was actually a good thing in hindsight even if it spoils megasmith, I actually kinda consider it part of the megasmith weirdness. I wanna see more video game adaptations of movies go as batshit as Path of Neo did with the kung fu ants and shit like that, not less.

This was basically a quick run through of the matrix movies for my little kid brain

Actual shot for the content gman!!! U absolute legend

I used to play this on my xbox all the time it's definitely my favorite matrix game.

i wish they made a matrix game like superhot how sick would that be

I just busted out the PS2 and played through this the other day, and honestly, it was the most fun I've had with a game in a long time the mechanics aged pretty well and there are parts that are a few genuinely challenging, fuck the part with the doors though.

You made me think of Stranglehold when you were taking about Woo and that is a great thing.

I played this game so much! An absolute staple in my collection

This game and Enter the Matrix are two games that perfectly optimise the generations that they were released in and despite all of their flaws and jank, I absolutely love the both of them to bits and still regularly revisit them every couple of years. It’s a shame that the franchise had to end up going the Force Awakens route 😔

I loved this at the time, but have never replayed it. A new Matrix game with something akin to the Arkham/ Shadow of Mordor fighting system would be amazing!

The fight with the guys with axes was so fun and so was the fight with seraph. Fighting on those poles was so cool.

22:44 Your last "Make me sick!" Sounds pretty honest... to be in the script. 🤣

It makes you feel like you're *The One* for sure. As a kid, playing Matrix is such a blast Shame the latest Matrix film sucks. Well no one really asked for it anyway. We can pretend it doesn't exist 😆

This game was so damn jank but it had some amazing melee combos in it. Another great review as always

Weird coincidence. I downloaded this in about 2017 and just recently played through it. Finished it a few days ago and you release this. Haha

if this ever gets a remaster i will be ready cuz this is peak childhood

I had this game and I actually played the hell out of it. I will always remember the ant level.... shit was confusing

Wish there were some mods for this game. Would only make it even more sick.

I absolutely loved this game when it came out. Freshman year of HS. Back then graphically for me it was very impressive at the time, and I just loved the combat I seemed to have looked over its negative aspects.

Dude, you're taking me through memory lane

The combat was so nice

Love this game except the part where you have to save the security guard, for me it was kind of tough mission. The parts with tutorials are really the rip offs/homages of movies: Enter the Dragon The Seven Samurai Hard Boiled The Drunken Master 2 Shogun's Ninja

I loved this game as a kid, the gameplay was enough to keep me going even if I failed over and over again.

The one redpill level was fun in the Merovingians club against the ceiling walkers. I loved that part in Revolutions and it was great to able to recreate that.