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The Matrix: Path of Neo for PlayStation 2
The Matrix: Path of Neo for PlayStation 2 lets you follow Thomas Anderson's development into Neo. This action adventure takes events from the three original Matrix films as its starting point and adds original playable situations. You escape guards, train with Morpheus and fight the programs policing the simulated world. Familiar settings and faces return, but you do not merely watch scenes: you choose how Neo moves through a fight yourself.
His capabilities grow throughout the adventure. You link punches and kicks with throws, evasions and attacks using found weapons. Focus slows the action and strengthens special moves, letting you leap between enemies or shoot from the air. Watch the surroundings too: throwing an opponent against an object can achieve more than repeating the same attack. You learn new combinations and skills, so a later fight offers different possibilities from an early training session in the dojo.
You play the entire campaign alone with a DualShock 2. Characters assisting Neo are controlled by the game; there is no local co-op or two-player duel like the unlockable extra in Enter the Matrix. The right stick helps you choose the camera view and targets, while on-screen prompts indicate combinations. Between fights you climb along ledges, cross gaps and look for the next passage. Busy confrontations thus alternate with moments requiring you to examine the space.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
The Matrix: Path of Neo for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of The Matrix: Path of Neo
Atari announced The Matrix: Path of Neo in February 2005 and released it later that year for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Shiny Entertainment returned after 2003's Enter the Matrix. The brief changed considerably: no longer expand on events around Niobe and Ghost, but let players be Neo themselves. This allowed the team to use fights and other recognisable situations from the entire original film trilogy, with his growing powers as the connecting thread.
The Wachowskis again worked on the script and direction of the game's events. The game incorporated footage from The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Animatrix. Characters received the recognisable faces of the film actors, but that likeness does not mean every actor also performs all the game's voice lines. By rearranging the film footage and linking it to extra training sessions and fights, the developers built their own rhythm around Neo's introduction to and mastery of the Matrix.
The ending was also adapted for the game. At release, Atari and Warner emphasised that the Wachowskis had written and directed a new conclusion. It is therefore not an entirely literal conversion of the last film. That decision fits the rest of the design: a scene needed not only to be recognisable, but also to provide room for fighting and using powers. This PS2 release contains that original solo adventure from 2005, not a later online game or a story about a custom-made character.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Enter the Matrix uses the same world and Focus slowdown, but chooses Niobe and Ghost as its protagonists in an additional story alongside Reloaded. Path of Neo instead centres on Neo and draws events from the entire original trilogy. The structure differs too: his growing skills guide the sequence of fights and training sessions here. Enter the Matrix's fictional Hacking section and its unlockable local duels do not belong to Path of Neo.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne shares the slowed shoot-outs and behind-the-hero perspective. There, Bullet Time and diving jumps primarily help you place shots more accurately in a crime story. Neo also uses his powers for extensive fighting combinations, aerial moves and throws. The similarity lies in temporarily breaking the usual pace of the action; the difference becomes clear when you find yourself among several enemies without needing a firearm.
Oni combines firearms with punches, kicks and throws on PS2, just like Path of Neo. Konoko moves through an original science-fiction world influenced by anime and learns how her past connects to the organisations she investigates. Neo follows a story with recognisable film scenes and gains increasingly superhuman powers. Both make distance and position important in a fight, but Path of Neo adds slowed action and ever more extraordinary movement abilities.
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing also lets you control a film hero from a third-person viewpoint. Gadgets, shoot-outs and vehicle missions give Bond varied ways to complete his assignment. Path of Neo focuses more strongly on the development of one fighter and his supernatural abilities. Bond receives a standalone spy story, while Neo relives familiar moments from three films. Recognition here therefore more often concerns an existing scene rather than a new conspiracy.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time combines combat with climbing, wall-running and jumps beyond ordinary human abilities. The prince also uses his time power particularly to undo a failed move and retry puzzle routes. Neo's Focus instead lets you react more strongly and quickly while acting. The palace adventure more often asks for a precise route through the architecture; Path of Neo uses this agility mainly for larger confrontations with several enemies.
