Although the "Matrix 4: Matrix Reboot" movie announced its return after many years, Chinese mainland is scheduled to be released on January 14, 2022. But including my "husband" Keanu? Many friends, including Reeves, also said that it is really outrageous that there is no new "Matrix" game today! While there have been previous works, the most recent "The Matrix: Path of Neo" has been on sale for 16 years.
Although no full version of the game was released, the recent The Matrix Awakening: Unreal Engine 5 Experience has caused a stir on the Internet. After playing it myself, I put aside the fake real picture presentation, and in connection with the previous "Matrix" game, I was also imagining what kind of experience the future game would bring. Today we're going to take this opportunity to talk about the expectations of next-generation games and the relationship between graphics and gameplay.
>>>: The Matrix games have a long history, but they often fail over the quality of the graphics
In fact, as early as 2003, when "The Matrix 2: Reloaded" was released, there was an action-adventure game called "Enter the Matrix" was released. Its story is the same as the movie's timeline, with nearly an hour of exclusive and yet to-be-released Shots from the Matrix, also written and directed by the film directors, the Wachowski Sisters (who were supposed to be brothers at the time). It can be said that this is like an amazing large-scale social experiment, and the game and the movie together frame the complete "Matrix".
In the game, players can control the supporting characters in the film, Ghost Gemini Ghost and Niobe, who are members of the rebel group along with the series's protagonists Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo, and detail their stories outside the film. The game uses a third-person perspective, and although it is not as delicate as the "dynamic montage" camera angle used in the movie action scenes, the smooth combat choreography still guarantees the gameplay to some extent.
The Matrix restores the bullet time system in the movie, which allows players to activate the system at any time to slow down time, enabling precise shooting and dodging bullets in the air. At the same time, the game also designed a lot of 1v1 scenes in the level, which was already ahead of me and amazing enough for young me. In addition to this, the game also involves classic chase battles, and driving the vehicles and planes in the level is exciting.
Even if the 2003 game can't be measured by today's standards, it's time to take off the fan filter and look at it after exaggerating so much. The highly homogeneous action is full of cheapness, while the picture quality and model architecture are also very simple. Gameplay aside from the properties of completing the plot, the gameplay is by no means outstanding, and The Matrix: Into the Matrix is almost like a pre-millennial game.
Perhaps because the complaints of players in The Matrix: Into the Matrix that players cannot use the protagonist Neo are too loud, the Wachowski sisters brought another action-adventure game" two years later in 2005, "The Matrix: Road of Neo", this time we can finally directly control the reduction keanu? Reeves image of Neo.
The game reframes the story of The Matrix in the form of an action game, allowing players to experience many of the main shots in the film and designing many characters from the film, including Trinity, Morpheus, Merowingchi, and so on. The game script also contains a wealth of side storylines, and may even show unexpected developments that differ from the film's ending;
The game's action design is excellent, and players can gradually acquire Neo's skills and gorgeous moves, including bullet time, pause bullets and flight, as well as many weapons. At the same time, through the destructible map scene, the final battle scene with Agent Smith is full of sense. Although it has improved a lot compared to the above works, it is still similar in terms of shortcomings, and the picture quality and character modeling are still not pleasing to the eye.
>>> Modern: The Matrix Demo gives the next generation a glimpse
If the previous Matrix gameplay was decent, but lost out on poor graphics quality, then The Matrix Awakening: Unreal Engine 5 Experience, which has just landed on the next-gen console, turned a disadvantage into an advantage.
I have been on the next-generation console for nearly a year, and if the memories definitely do not belong to the works of PS4 and Xbox One, I really can't remember it for a while. But after trying this demo for myself, I believe that everyone, like me, has already glimpsed the true face under the mysterious veil of next-generation games. The overall process of demo is not only about 10 minutes, and the volume capacity of 25GB is not outrageous compared to today's tens of hundreds of gigabytes, but the game presents amazing visual effects, the graphics and modeling are more detailed than ever, and many friends even question whether Keanu Reeves is modeling or a real person.
At the same time, the rich character dialogue in the process and the smooth action scene design are also amazing, and the classic line in "The Matrix" is "What is real?" "Almost breaking the fourth wall and hitting the player's heart, is this the strength of Unreal Engine 5?"
But this game is really just a demo, so it really doesn't have any gameplay. The classic chase battle section is back, and players can raise their guns to design the vehicles and planes they are chasing, but the design feel is very stiff, and the excessive participation of automatic aiming makes the game feel less realistic.
But frankly, the demo identity of this game also allows us to focus more on the technical display. According to the official reveal, the vehicles and characters in the open scene of the game are automatically generated and simulated by the algorithm, and the movement of the vehicle, the destruction of the character's clothing and buildings, etc., are unique each time. Dynamic global illumination systems and real-time ray tracing show incredible realistic lighting, shadow displays, and detailed character facial expressions in demos.
At the same time, Unreal Engine 5's next-generation super-resolution super resolution (Temporal Super Resolution) ensures richer detail and light performance at high resolution, and Demo players can also freely control the direction of sun lighting and lens scenery. The various built-in graphics options not only make me sigh how much energy it would take to make a full version of the game...
>>> future: will the industry's technological power continue to advance, and will picture quality eventually triumph over gameplay?
After talking about the past and present of the gamification of The Matrix, maybe we also imagine what the future of game works will become? This question is more refined, I think it is a cliché: which is more important, the gameplay of a work or the quality of the picture?
In fact, privately I have thought about gameplay and picture quality countless times, and it has always been gameplay that has won an overwhelming victory. When I was a little devil, how good could the game graphics be? As long as the gameplay is good or tells an interesting story, I can open the game over and over again.
In recent years, there have been countless examples of the above points of view, probably because I am older, and in the massive number of games that are released every year, I can remember the one with unique gameplay. Excellent graphics don't allow me to get into what the game wants to say for a long time, and simple mechanics, such as pushing and shoving boxes with a mouse in Baba Is You, parry and bounce in "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice", and monotonous reciprocating loops in "Loop Hero", provide a lot of immersion and realism that has nothing to do with the quality of the picture. These games don't rely on good graphics to frame the world, they don't have the so-called "cinematic" quality, but they achieve the simple goal of "having fun".
But frankly speaking, I can also understand the idea of many "picture parties", and now the development of technology and the acceleration of the pace of life make it easier for players to get the game, the choice is greater, and even the mobile end has a lot of works with excellent picture quality. At this time, the console game will bring out a less beautiful and delicious "dish", and many friends will indeed not look at it, let alone play it themselves.
Graphics are not a mistake, but then again, the classic Zelda Legends graphics are very bad, but to this day there are still a lot of new players who are introduced by Amway and considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. If not excellent gameplay, what makes it so "delicious"? Both good and bad should be spoken, and graphics are important, but in addition to gameplay is the element that defines a game as a game. There's nothing wrong with choosing a "blue pill," but maybe new friends should try the red one too
Ultimately, it must be emphasized that this article is not intended to provoke a dispute. Lately I've also been reflecting on the "old-fashioned" way of thinking, with the Final Fantasy series being remade and renamed countless times, and SE making up for the backward graphics quality and gameplay design. The key to the popularity of the re-presented work may not have affected the story the game originally intended to tell. At some point in the future, picture quality and gameplay should no longer be "opposites", and we don't have to argue about which of them is more important. Game companies may find a way to make them a match made in heaven, where everything that was once considered a flaw is remedied and becomes an important attraction for a work. Sincerely hope that this day will come sooner...
Well, these are some of my immature fantasies after playing The Matrix Awakening: Unreal Engine 5 Experience. What else are you looking forward to for next-generation games? What do you think about the relationship between graphics and gameplay? Look forward to seeing your new ideas in the comments section. If you think we're doing a good job, you can like and follow. Of course, comments and suggestions are also welcome, so let's see you in the next article. Meow ~ !!!