The Matrix Awakens

 Woah.

Just as with most around my unspecified age, I grew up with The Matrix and got the chance to see first hand how it was simultaneously one of the most ground-breaking and worst things to happen to cinema. On one hand it pioneered so many cool techniques that would go onto be developed into some of the most visually impressive CGI effects we have today, the technological proficiency of the best studios in the world owe one notch of their journey to the success of The Matrix. However in a much less grand-scale consequence, every movie tried to be The Matrix to oftentimes nauseating results. Every action movie wanted to emulate it, every TV show wanted to 'pay homage' to it, and every 2 bit weirdo on the street wanted to dress like it. I genuinely credit this trilogy alone for giving rise to and then killing off the leather fashion industry. They speedran that.

As for how the movies were to me: I liked them just fine, I guess. I watched all of them when I was too young to really get what they were about, and by the time I could appreciate that story I just wasn't invested anymore and this property was already old-hat. But aside from lacking the core of the plot, I did think the movies were enjoyable to watch and even though I've literally only watched the original movie about three times in my entire life, (All during an age where I didn't really understand the plot) I'm sure I'd enjoy a rewatch one day if I can ever tie myself to a sofa long enough to watch another movie again. (I get antsy after 20 minutes on a seat not in front of a computer, it's gotten bad.) I know that had these movies hit me when I was a little bit older I would have been all about them. Oh yeah; I would have been collecting the merchandise, stencilling my room, legally changing my name, the whole shebang. But opportunity passes us by like pollen on the spring wind, and it's just not possible to seize at the scattered remnants of our paths not lived.

It's an actual shame, because looking back what The Matrix was trying to do was really cool and something I wish more entertainment franchises had the balls to try. Cinematic universe are all well and cool, but back in the day The Matrix was trying to pull off an inter-platform universe with movies, animated shorts, comics, ARGs and a couple of video games all contributing to the main narrative. It wasn't particularly deftly weaved, but it was ambitious; and that trumps out perfection in my book. No one has tried anything of that scale today, but I often think on about that and wonder what sort of entertainment worlds we'd have were this concept as well adopted as the movies' many gaudy fashion choices. It almost feels like a misstep in cultural evolution. With a little bit more of a push, Matrix could have been spoken about in the same breadth as The X Files for TV, or Metal Gear Solid for games; as a true landmark moment that changed the very face of entertainment. But even more important than those examples, because they wanted to change the whole entrainment industry at once.

The new Matrix movie on the horizon has run the gambit of emotions for me so far. First I was dead against it, thinking the idea to be hackneyed and played out, and reasoning how, the many franchises that have ruined their legacies by coming back when they really didn't need to, was proof that The Matrix was better off in the past. Then we saw the first trailer and I became cautiously interested in the whole concept, put off by the familiarity but drawn in by the knowing wink and a nudge resting just behind it. Then as the idea blossomed I became fascinated, almost to the point of actually wanting to see the movie. And then we got so many trailers that it felt like I'd seen too much and I pretty much ended up wanting nothing to do with it. I'm hovering right now, I want it to be good, but I'm not taking that risk in theatre. No way. So here's hoping it's the exception to the reboot/sequel rule that Hollywood seems to be establishing for itself.

But movies are pish and posh, stains on the public zeitgeist that fly past a dozen a week. I wanna know about games, which is why when I heard about the Matrix game coming to the next gen I peaked some interest despite myself. Yes, the thing was said to be an 'experience' that showed off the power of the Unreal Engine 5 software, but maybe there would be something more to it than a simple tech demo of simulated floorboards like what Blue Box Studio famously did. This seemed to be somewhat confirmed itself when people heard that it would be activated in the middle of the Game Awards, and lo and behold it's activation during the event was heralded by the real life leads of The Matrix hijacking the Game Awards for a chat. (It's a good thing Geoff and the team are so rigorous with the schedule, else that carefully knitted aura of mysterious omnipotencey would have been utterly unravelled.)

So now that everyone has had the chance to play the experience (or rather, the elite sector of the public who managed to snag a Next Gen console before they became rarer than Lonsdaleite) what exactly is this Matrix-connected experience? Well, true to the movies it exists to be more than itself, and it's something of a statement. The thesis behind this seems to be 'How further are we to the point where the line between the virtual and real blurs irreversibly'? The writers are kind enough to leave this as a pondering query, rather than a doomsday prediction of the apocalyptic technological singularity, but given the overt themes behind the Matrix franchise, it's hard to divorce that grim context from what we're being shown. Speaking of, wow does the Unreal Engine render good.

Of course, this was something that everyone already knew thanks to the actual Unreal tech demo that Epic distributed on their Youtube some months back, but seeing that tech utilised with purpose drills all that home so much more. In this Matrix experience, subtitled Awaken, we see literal uncanny valley renders of Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss running in real time with next gen hardware. Whatsmore, as you can find many videos of online, the team actually tied a whole cinematic car chase gun battle with rudimentary controls for you to play around with and it looks incredible. We're talking Hollywood movie level CGI being rendered by the Unreal Engine in real time, directly in front of us. Seeing cars crash into themselves on the highway, realistic deforming steel, shooting sparks, and exploding in a fireball, has never looked this good on any other game. There has never been gameplay with this level of fidelity, period.

But that it just the cherry ontop of the cake. The real meat of the experience comes after the gunfight when the player it thrown into a simulation of the city. And I mean, The City. The whole place, rendered in this experience, with unmatched fidelity oozing off of it. Millions, if not billions, if not trillions (maybe not trillions) of vertices on screen at once, a rudimentary but functioning simulation of city life. The team have essentially created The Matrix and given it players to look about and take screenshots of for the next few months. It is mindblowing. Human faces still need work, as does the water, but everything else is indistinguishable from real life. And Epic even go so far as to attest it was a relatively small team who made this in a very reasonable time frame. It's been said before and I add literally nothing by repeating the refrain, but there is little better summary for this whole Matrix showcase: This is the next generation, manifest. So well done to the Matrix, for making a splash in the video game industry that may even be larger than the upcoming movie, depending on how that turns out. Proving once again how transcendental The Matrix could be. (And, I guess, well done to Epic for doing the heavy lifting.)