Saph
04-21-2011, 12:47 AM
Hello fellow gamers and wonderful review readers!!!
http://www.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/the_matrix_online.png
This is really more a review of sentimental value to myself, and to put a game that holds a special place in my heart in the spotlight, where I wish it had been for a whole lot longer than it actually had!
I am talking about the first MMORPG that I ever played, and it is MxO!
Devs: The Matrix Online was an MMORPG that was released in March 2005(US) and April 2005(EU) by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. It was bought out completely by Sony Online Entertainment soon after the BETA had ended, making them the new owners.
Story: The Matrix Online takes place directly where the last movie left off. In the Matrix Online the player takes on the role as a common blue pill who has been given the choice of red vs. blue.
(An oddity here: The player can ACTUALLY choose to take the blue pill, which quits the game....I'm not sure of the purpose in this? I guess it's just to make them game feel as free roaming as possible!)
Upon choosing the red pill, the player can then customize their character. Then they're thrown into a tutorial scenario where combat, movement, and other things in the game are explained. The player is then on his own, free to shape his own story as he pleases!
On a side note the official story did continue on, events and new happenings in the storyline while playing were quite common, and made the game feel like it progressed!
Combat:
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/543/543233/the-matrix-online-20040830041235999-000.jpg
Combat in MxO was an odd system that was actually refreshing and fun! The system was largely based on 'rolling' a dice, which gave the higher number that rounds damage(sort of like a card game)The combat UI was split into 3 kinds:
Melee
Ranged
Hacker
Melee:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1138/854464666_d56933e958.jpg
Your standard Melee fighting. You could only fight one on one, and you were 'dragged into the fight' as it was called, since you werent capable of just turning tail and run, you had to win a roll of dice to see if your number beats that of your opponent. Various attributes etc. aided you in getting a higher chance of higher numbers here!
Ranged:
http://www.onlinemassivelymultiplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mxommorpg.jpg
A more free combat UI that could also be used in the Melee combat UI(though with less powerful results!). Ranged was very powerful since they were capable of hiding on roof tops or around corners and shoot when people least expected it. A cunning marksman in MxO was incredibly dangerous!
Hacker:
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/MXOcougertID6.jpg
The 'spell casters' of MxO. These players relied on using hack abilities, which could do many things to their opponent, such as damage them, slow them down, stun them, decrease attributes, and enhance their own power! Healers also came from hackers!
The ability tree:
http://www.thematrix.rumbaar.net/Custom/MxO_Abilities/images/awakened_disciplines.png
The ability tree in Matrix Online was completely unique, and so far only RIFT seems to have picked the layout back up!
It begins with the Awakened group of abilities, which are your standard abilities required to survive in Mega City! Abilities such as power jump(jumping impossibly long distances and landing unharmed), more health, and better all around attributes came from here.
From awakened, it branches off into 3 standard trees:
Coder
Hacker
Operative
Coder: A coder is a player who can dominate, mold, and control key programs in the matrix to make them work in their favor! They are capable of hacking computers without risking detection much more skillfully than the more blunt hacker, and can even program the matrix to create an uncontrolled human proxy, which is completely remote controlled by the coder! It is however, weak, and only gives the bare bare basics of the abilities that a coder is capable of!
Coder branch offs: From Coder, you can go in 2 other directions to specialize your abilities in select ways, the branches are:
Code Shaper: Essentially your pet controller player. They put emphasis on their proxy or "pet" to do most of the work while they use slow but powerful abilities while their proxy incapacitates their enemy, making them have a harder time defending themselves. A Code Shaper is the more advanced version of a coder who uses proxies to fight, but it is still not quite up there yet!
Code Shaper branches off to:
Proxy Coder
Proxy Technician
Proxy Master: Essentially all these 3 are just improvements on the combat aspect of using a Proxy to fight with you!
OR
Utility Coder
Utility technician
Utility Master: Essentially these 3 are just improvements on the healing aspect of using a proxy to heal you while you fight!
Programmer: Programmers are essentially the $info(money) making player! They have little or no fighting skills, and are really just merchants. This tree is used for those who use the game as a 'come buy my stuff' game, and rarely, if ever, takes any hostile action towards ANYONE.
Programmer branches off to:
Code Crafter: The stepping stone to begin creating things that people could potentially pay ALOT of $info for!
Code Crafter branches off to:
Apparel Crafter
Tool Crafter
Weapon Crafter
Upgrade Crafter
Ability Crafter (This one is important, as these are the only code crafters who can make the abilities that allows others to improve and evolve! Without ability crafters, the game grinds to a halt)
http://www.thematrix.rumbaar.net/Custom/MxO_Abilities/hacker/hacker_hacker_Layer-5.gifHacker: Hackers are powerful crafters who instead of creating new code like Code shapers do, they manipulate existing code to turn on their enemies, something as simple as hacking the program that holds the air around an enemy, can spontaneously combust as the hacker remakes the program from being air, to being fire, scorching the enemy alive! They can also turn soft objects rock hard! Even a leaf can become a canon ball for a hacker! They are very powerful, and should not be crossed! They are however, very weak in melee combat!
Hackers branch off: From Hacker, you can branch in 2 directions.
They are:
Patcher: A novice healing tree! It has basic healing abilities!
Patcher branches into:
Team Patcher: Multiple friendlies healing. Each heal is weaker, but heal more at once.
-Team Patcher branches into:
--Force Enchaner/Force Multiplier: A powerful buff tree. It allows the player to become a vessel of power that he cannot utilize very well, but if used on other, more professionally trained fighters, they can become a valuable asset to a fight that is worthy of being protected at all costs!
--Corpseman/Trauma Surgeon: More powerful mass healing spells, with less emphasis on the buffing part! These are very valueable during a mass fight, as huge scores of players can be healed in bulk at once, although their heals are still not super powerful since its power is being spread amongst several!
-Guardian Patcher: Heals only 1 at once, but each heal is much stronger!
--Upgrade Artist/Upgrade Master: These patchers delve in the singular buffing ability! Such as improved firewalls(strong resistance to hackers), and improved movement and combat speed!
--Doctor/Physician: Stronger singular healing players. They rely less on buffs on more on the healing aspect, though are more powerful in smaller fights, since their heals are strong, but only affect 1 man!
AND
Virologist: Amateur hackers who have taken the more destructive path in affecting programs! They shape already existing code into something destructive, and then infect their target with the virus! Very powerful is left to do their thing!
Virologist branches into:
Network Hacker: A hacker that specializes in utility viruses. They slow the movement of enemies, and blurs their mind, making them think slower, and react slower as well, although it is still a novice step!
-Script Kiddie/Network Attacker: The more advanced versions of Network Hacker
-Vector/Ravager: A more destructive path of the Network Hacker. instead of just creating nuisance viruses, they place malicious code in their viruses as well, draining the health of their enemies while their viruses slow them down!
Selective Phage/Arbalest/Ballista: The truely destructive hackers of all of Mega City! These walking trebutchets of destruction create some of the most devastating viruses in Mega City, and are capable of completely dismantling a person, killing them instantly! They can only be stopped by the most powerful firewalls of all!
Pathogenist: A more wide spread version of the Selective Phage, this variety of hackers are simply phishers! Instead of attacking 1 persons code, they can attack a whole area, infecting anyone in the attacked area! There are reports of Pathogenists warping the code in the world, throwing their enemies into a hole in the Matrix! They have never been found...
They also rely heavily on their Network Hacker cousins, and have a powerful arsenal of utility viruses to aid them in combat!
-Artillerist/Howitzer: These Pathogenist branch offs have decided to sacrifice their utility viruses in favor of more powerful 'nuke viruses', which can badly injure anyone in the field of attack, and in common occasions, kill them instantly! Though much MUCH!!! less powerful force wise than a good Ballista hacker, these hackers are less powerful, but harm many more at once!
(This was an advancing class, meaning that SOE planned on developping them further, but never got the chance, I am still gonna write down their plan for them, though)-
Despoiler/Destroyer: The most feared hackers of all! Even the mighty ballista would rather turn and run when the code turns purple and monsters appear at every turn! The Despoilers and their older brothers, Destroyers, are the truely twisted hackers, having devoted their lives to no good, and chaotic destruction of anything that is capable of witnessing their evil! They hold nothing sacred, except for more power! Destroyer hackers rely on mind bending viruses, making enemies question their sanity! They also mold coding into becoming disease! Spreading sickening plagues in huge areas! Their code is twisted and turns the healthy green code a sickening purple! Any purple code is in the Destroyers control!
http://medias.jeuxonline.info/mxo/images/icon_operative.gifOperative: The standard footsoldiers of the Matrix! They are commonly only melee units, but can also specialize in ranged combat, in the form of knife throwing! They are loyal, and greatly resemble the pasts common infantry soldiers! However, some operatives rely more on their skills with weapons to survive in the harsh world of The Matrix! Hand guns, rifles, and various other kinds of weapons are common among operatives!
Operative branches into:
Spy: An operative that chose the more secretive, less blunt approach to being a soldier! They are masters at deception and stealth, breaking and entering, and collecting classified information!
-Infiltrator/Shadow/Master Shadow: A spy has always been different from the usual soldiers, and have trouble understanding the loyalty some feel! Luckily, some spies remain loyal to their initial cause, and become infiltrators, and later, master shadows! These super spies are masters at stealth and information gathering, and are also very skilled at incapacitating enemies without killing them! They are not assassins, they are just information gatherers, and will not kill for it unless told to do so! When they are told to use lethal force, however, Master Shadows do so quickly and quietly, using exceptional knife throwing skills to instantly kill their enemies from great distances! The aim of a master shadow with a good throwing knife easily rivals that of a skilled rifle sniper!
-Cutthroat: And then there're those who lose their path! Cutthroats have decided to abandon their assignments, and essentially do their own thing! They mostly belong to a faction, yes, but if another faction gives them a better payment? They'll move on quickly!
--Assassin/Master Assassin: Your standard assassin, moving up close to enemy targets and dispatches them quietly and efficiently! An unseen master assassin is one of the most dangerous enemies in the Matrix! You cant fight that which you cannot see!
--Knife Thrower/Master Knife Thrower: The ranged version of assassins! These renegades are walking kitchen knife dispensers! Packing knives and blades wherever they find room on their bodies! They have some of the deadliest aims in the world, dwarfing that of a master shadow! They have secret, untold, and extremely skillful ways to throw their knives in specific manners, causing different injuries! A knife might be thrown seemingly off course, but in actuallity it is getting ready to cut the tendens on the legs in half, greatly decreasing the movement of an enemy! Another might be a simple straight show, that enters the eye and exits in the back of the head, these throws are naturally, instant death if thrown right!
Soldier: Your common melee unit soldier!
-Martial Arts initiate: Melee soldiers who excel can be accepted by a master or grandmaster to become an initiate! These soldiers will specialize in select martial arts that they themselves choose! It takes much discipline and great dedication, and only the best soldier could become the new grand master!
--Kung Fu Master/Kung Fu Grandmaster: The masters of kung fu!
--Zen Master: An optional choice for masters to choose! They learn better technique, and learn to even heal themselves through the power of Zen!
--Karate Master/Karate Grand Master: The masters of karate!
--Aikido Master/Aikido Grand Master: The masters of aikido!
-Gunman: The Soldier that loves guns! A gunman is a standard soldier who picked up a firearm and started shooting! Very inexperienced and a novice, but has the talent and flare to become the best shot in Mega City!
--Scattershot/SMG Specialist: A gunman who favors submachine guns(Or SMGs), and will eventually learn to efficiently wield 2 SMGs at once!
--Sniper: A gunman who favors precission with a rifle!
--Rifleman/Expert Rifleman: A gunman who favors assault rifles such as M16 and A4!
--Gunslinger/Duelist: A gunman who favors the good old hand guns, and will eventually learn to efficiently wield 2 guns at once!
As you can see, ALOT of different choices! However, abilities are not just gained, they are bought! A coder, as said above, can actually create abilities for other players, for them to then buy, and then intergrate into themselves, so they can always access that code for another time! It is quite a unique idea for an ability tree that I wish was used more often!
The Organizations:
Of course there's the 3 obvious factions:
Zionites
http://vnmedia.ign.com/screenshots/mxo/64457668.jpg
Humans who are in the Matrix, and trying to free themselves from the Machines!
Machines
http://www.mxoarchive.net/archives/dn1/thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/live/images/cma/gameinfo_matrixstoryline/characters/agent_gray_small.jpg
The protectors and enforcers of the Matrix, and the creators of the dreaded Agents! They wish to control the humans, no matter the costs, to keep them ignorant of how their world actually is!
Merovigians
http://fanart.station.sony.com/images/art/mxo/The_Merovingian_Sykin.jpg
Neither human, nor machine, but sentient code! They are in all essense, bodiless code that has manifested itself as a dormant, symbiotic virus that neither harms nor aids the matrix and its Machine protectors! They feel trapped and misunderstood, and has as such created their own organization!
Agents!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPaYL8VOsnw
Yes, indeed, the dreaded agents are present in the Matrix, though to a much smaller degree since Neo is dead, and the Smith virus has been destroyed. However, when inexperienced operatives enter an area where they're not certified to be there, an agent will be dispatched to eliminate them! So it is not unpunishable to roam in areas where you're not supposed to be! Agents are level 355, whereas players can only reach level 50! They are completely immune to damage, and will kill you instantly if they catch you!
Hyper Jump!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phdbvnkQag8
Remember Morpheuses exceptional example to Neo in the first movie? His jump from 1 building to another? You can do this in The Matrix Online as well!
Access Nodes
http://www.mxomainframe.com/images/a_node_2.jpg
All over Mega City there're scattered intercoms called Access Nodes. There is 1 in each restricted area(Any area that is not a starting area), and it is pretty much the first thing you have to do before working there! Find the node, and push it, before the agents find you!!! Untill you get to the node, you will be considered restricted, and agents will spawn in a random location far away from you, and begin hunting you down. Your only option is to find the node, while avoiding the agent, or exit the area! When you get to a node and push it, you will gain access to that nodes area, agents will stop chasing you, and you can complete missions giving more exp and $info rewards than in none restricted areas. The missions are also much harder in restricted areas. Finding a node and clicking it also gives you a huge chunk of exp, and once you hit ~level 45, your first order of business should be to find all the nodes before completing anymore missions, considering that finding all of the nodes at level 45 will easily get you to level 48 or more, greatly decreasing the irritating repetitive grind of normal missions.
PARTYYYYY!!!!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvLObUFGQt4
Yeah, there were parties in MxO! When the game that surrounded you SUCKED, what do you do? You chat with friends! And some might throw a party!
Events!?
Yeah events were very common in MxO! As stated, the game was really crappy, and SOE admitted that, but they atleast tried their best to fix it, by introducing little events that would boggle your mind!
Halloween: Made the moon huge, and made the game so dark you could barely see 8 ft. ahead of you, and made a zombie apocalypse where players could become zombies, and turned others into zombies! I believe there was a rumor that the point of this zombie event was that eventually EVERY SINGLE PLAYER would be a zombie, and the last one to turn, or the last group to still be a human by the end of a certain time frame would become 'apocalypse survivors' and receive a reward, but this is only rumors and speculation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98osHdvLN0
Agent Smith attacks: Agent smith returned!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bk4cuAkB3E
Interactive NPCS?
To a much greater degree! Cause unlike other games where NPCs are just compter controlled, in MxO, the really important characters(Niobe, Morpheus, Seraph etc.) were almost always controlled by a another human(An employee of the game devs!), but of course when an important character shows up in say a mission, where everything is repeated and automated, all characters are NPCs!
Critical Missions: Special missions released with events to make it feel more interactive! With higher experience and $info rewards than normal missions!
Community, game history, and "The Inevitable":
The Matrix Online had poor gameplay, choppy graphics, a horribly badly laid out storyline, shallow characters, a crappy missions system, and unfair and unbalanced character classes.
But the community is absolutely amazing!!!
In The Matrix Online many people didn't really play just to play, they played to see friends, and interact with friends in a world that so many came to love through the immortal Matrix movies! I was a PvP'er, yes, but when I didn't PvP I sat around chatting with friends, running missions with lowbie friends, helping people find nodes, roleplaying, and all sorts of other stuff! This game would be crap if not for the awesome gamer community that played it!
When the original creators owned the game, Monolith Productions, the game was vastly popular, with millions of users daily!...Then came SOE, and they chopped the game to bits! The final straw for over 85% of the entire MXO community was the Combat interlock 2.0...This pretty much completely rewrote the book on how to be a good fighter in MxO! All attributes were switched around on what they did! The combat had a new design that made everything people had learned pointless, and classes that used to be balanced were now extremely unbalanced, where some might be pointless to fight with, and other completely face raping everyone else! This put off the community so badly that those who played for the game left overnight, leaving the 9 servers with only a few hundred players, perhaps less! So SOE created 3 servers, which were simply the other 9 servers smashed together, so 3 would make 1 server, 6 would make 2, and 9 would make 3.
The 3 were:
Recursion
Syntax(My server)
Vector(PvP)
Still, the player count for each server never exceeded 1000, and the game had lost almost its entire 'play-to-play' community, leaving the P2S(Play to Socialize)players in charge! Roleplaying and helping noobs became the new goal of the game...The lowbies learned and improved their levels, while those who reached level 50 taught newer members, chatted with friends, and role played, or even PvP'd amongst eachother to teach eachother better techniques and new ways to better utilize abilities! I would say that the playerbase in the SOE MxO was one of the most skilled playerbases in one game, EVER!
But everything good comes to an end that much faster :( On the 31st of July, 2009, it was scheduled for the Matrix Online to be shut down forever, and its servers erased. As outraged as the MxO community was, SOE was the architect in this matter. SOE bought MxO only to make DC Universe, once that was done, they forgot about MxO, and closed the servers. It was disgraceful, but no one cared, so MxO, one of the best games that I have ever had the pleassure of playing, which gave me over a dusin friends with which I still talk today, was shut down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnS45_wqCi4
For the rating:
Gameplay: 2/10: Horrible gameplay, its choppy, and stream lined, when you jump, there're preset spots that you land on, and if you somehow make an action that doesnt allow you to land anywhere, it'll say "that action is not allowed in the matrix". The gameplay has very little to offer, and the combat is very automated, and leaves little or no action from the player, except to press an ability to use each time its their turn.
Storyline: 3/10: Bad Storyline with alot to be desired. Most of the time it just didn't make any sense...
Community: 10/10: Best community in comparrison to any game that I have ever played! A game where everyone knew everyone, and the need for raids, pvp gear, and overall gaming achievements were nullified, and all that mattered was to hang out, have fun, party, act stoned, act drunk, fall in love in roleplay, adopt people to your family, create a faction, kick the butts of your rivals, or just plain old cruise Hyper Jump along the massive skyscrapers while chatting it up with your BFFiMxO(bff in matrix online).
Overall I give this rating, for personal reasons, and for the fact that this game was so emotionally important to me, I give it a
9/10
Overall I give this rating, for what the game was as gameplay, etc. I give it a
6/10
It has been a pleassure writing this reivew, guys, and it has literally brought tears to my hardened eyes to relive all of the extremely fond memories I have of that game. I spent many an hour on it, and unlike WoW, I regret absolutely nothing. That game was more real to me than real life, and HELL yeah would I still play it was it still around, but we were all forced out of that game, and we will forever hold the honorable title of Children of Matrix, the last group of people who stuck it out until the end!
I wish you all had had the pleassure of experiencing this game, there is none like it, and there probably never will be.
:( This review has touched a tender spot, and I must leave this extremely pleassureable review now, for you all to read.
Thank you so much for letting me share this. I hope you enjoyed it.
~Saph
http://www.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/the_matrix_online.png
This is really more a review of sentimental value to myself, and to put a game that holds a special place in my heart in the spotlight, where I wish it had been for a whole lot longer than it actually had!
I am talking about the first MMORPG that I ever played, and it is MxO!
Devs: The Matrix Online was an MMORPG that was released in March 2005(US) and April 2005(EU) by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. It was bought out completely by Sony Online Entertainment soon after the BETA had ended, making them the new owners.
Story: The Matrix Online takes place directly where the last movie left off. In the Matrix Online the player takes on the role as a common blue pill who has been given the choice of red vs. blue.
(An oddity here: The player can ACTUALLY choose to take the blue pill, which quits the game....I'm not sure of the purpose in this? I guess it's just to make them game feel as free roaming as possible!)
Upon choosing the red pill, the player can then customize their character. Then they're thrown into a tutorial scenario where combat, movement, and other things in the game are explained. The player is then on his own, free to shape his own story as he pleases!
On a side note the official story did continue on, events and new happenings in the storyline while playing were quite common, and made the game feel like it progressed!
Combat:
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/543/543233/the-matrix-online-20040830041235999-000.jpg
Combat in MxO was an odd system that was actually refreshing and fun! The system was largely based on 'rolling' a dice, which gave the higher number that rounds damage(sort of like a card game)The combat UI was split into 3 kinds:
Melee
Ranged
Hacker
Melee:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1138/854464666_d56933e958.jpg
Your standard Melee fighting. You could only fight one on one, and you were 'dragged into the fight' as it was called, since you werent capable of just turning tail and run, you had to win a roll of dice to see if your number beats that of your opponent. Various attributes etc. aided you in getting a higher chance of higher numbers here!
Ranged:
http://www.onlinemassivelymultiplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mxommorpg.jpg
A more free combat UI that could also be used in the Melee combat UI(though with less powerful results!). Ranged was very powerful since they were capable of hiding on roof tops or around corners and shoot when people least expected it. A cunning marksman in MxO was incredibly dangerous!
Hacker:
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/MXOcougertID6.jpg
The 'spell casters' of MxO. These players relied on using hack abilities, which could do many things to their opponent, such as damage them, slow them down, stun them, decrease attributes, and enhance their own power! Healers also came from hackers!
The ability tree:
http://www.thematrix.rumbaar.net/Custom/MxO_Abilities/images/awakened_disciplines.png
The ability tree in Matrix Online was completely unique, and so far only RIFT seems to have picked the layout back up!
It begins with the Awakened group of abilities, which are your standard abilities required to survive in Mega City! Abilities such as power jump(jumping impossibly long distances and landing unharmed), more health, and better all around attributes came from here.
From awakened, it branches off into 3 standard trees:
Coder
Hacker
Operative
Coder: A coder is a player who can dominate, mold, and control key programs in the matrix to make them work in their favor! They are capable of hacking computers without risking detection much more skillfully than the more blunt hacker, and can even program the matrix to create an uncontrolled human proxy, which is completely remote controlled by the coder! It is however, weak, and only gives the bare bare basics of the abilities that a coder is capable of!
Coder branch offs: From Coder, you can go in 2 other directions to specialize your abilities in select ways, the branches are:
Code Shaper: Essentially your pet controller player. They put emphasis on their proxy or "pet" to do most of the work while they use slow but powerful abilities while their proxy incapacitates their enemy, making them have a harder time defending themselves. A Code Shaper is the more advanced version of a coder who uses proxies to fight, but it is still not quite up there yet!
Code Shaper branches off to:
Proxy Coder
Proxy Technician
Proxy Master: Essentially all these 3 are just improvements on the combat aspect of using a Proxy to fight with you!
OR
Utility Coder
Utility technician
Utility Master: Essentially these 3 are just improvements on the healing aspect of using a proxy to heal you while you fight!
Programmer: Programmers are essentially the $info(money) making player! They have little or no fighting skills, and are really just merchants. This tree is used for those who use the game as a 'come buy my stuff' game, and rarely, if ever, takes any hostile action towards ANYONE.
Programmer branches off to:
Code Crafter: The stepping stone to begin creating things that people could potentially pay ALOT of $info for!
Code Crafter branches off to:
Apparel Crafter
Tool Crafter
Weapon Crafter
Upgrade Crafter
Ability Crafter (This one is important, as these are the only code crafters who can make the abilities that allows others to improve and evolve! Without ability crafters, the game grinds to a halt)
http://www.thematrix.rumbaar.net/Custom/MxO_Abilities/hacker/hacker_hacker_Layer-5.gifHacker: Hackers are powerful crafters who instead of creating new code like Code shapers do, they manipulate existing code to turn on their enemies, something as simple as hacking the program that holds the air around an enemy, can spontaneously combust as the hacker remakes the program from being air, to being fire, scorching the enemy alive! They can also turn soft objects rock hard! Even a leaf can become a canon ball for a hacker! They are very powerful, and should not be crossed! They are however, very weak in melee combat!
Hackers branch off: From Hacker, you can branch in 2 directions.
They are:
Patcher: A novice healing tree! It has basic healing abilities!
Patcher branches into:
Team Patcher: Multiple friendlies healing. Each heal is weaker, but heal more at once.
-Team Patcher branches into:
--Force Enchaner/Force Multiplier: A powerful buff tree. It allows the player to become a vessel of power that he cannot utilize very well, but if used on other, more professionally trained fighters, they can become a valuable asset to a fight that is worthy of being protected at all costs!
--Corpseman/Trauma Surgeon: More powerful mass healing spells, with less emphasis on the buffing part! These are very valueable during a mass fight, as huge scores of players can be healed in bulk at once, although their heals are still not super powerful since its power is being spread amongst several!
-Guardian Patcher: Heals only 1 at once, but each heal is much stronger!
--Upgrade Artist/Upgrade Master: These patchers delve in the singular buffing ability! Such as improved firewalls(strong resistance to hackers), and improved movement and combat speed!
--Doctor/Physician: Stronger singular healing players. They rely less on buffs on more on the healing aspect, though are more powerful in smaller fights, since their heals are strong, but only affect 1 man!
AND
Virologist: Amateur hackers who have taken the more destructive path in affecting programs! They shape already existing code into something destructive, and then infect their target with the virus! Very powerful is left to do their thing!
Virologist branches into:
Network Hacker: A hacker that specializes in utility viruses. They slow the movement of enemies, and blurs their mind, making them think slower, and react slower as well, although it is still a novice step!
-Script Kiddie/Network Attacker: The more advanced versions of Network Hacker
-Vector/Ravager: A more destructive path of the Network Hacker. instead of just creating nuisance viruses, they place malicious code in their viruses as well, draining the health of their enemies while their viruses slow them down!
Selective Phage/Arbalest/Ballista: The truely destructive hackers of all of Mega City! These walking trebutchets of destruction create some of the most devastating viruses in Mega City, and are capable of completely dismantling a person, killing them instantly! They can only be stopped by the most powerful firewalls of all!
Pathogenist: A more wide spread version of the Selective Phage, this variety of hackers are simply phishers! Instead of attacking 1 persons code, they can attack a whole area, infecting anyone in the attacked area! There are reports of Pathogenists warping the code in the world, throwing their enemies into a hole in the Matrix! They have never been found...
They also rely heavily on their Network Hacker cousins, and have a powerful arsenal of utility viruses to aid them in combat!
-Artillerist/Howitzer: These Pathogenist branch offs have decided to sacrifice their utility viruses in favor of more powerful 'nuke viruses', which can badly injure anyone in the field of attack, and in common occasions, kill them instantly! Though much MUCH!!! less powerful force wise than a good Ballista hacker, these hackers are less powerful, but harm many more at once!
(This was an advancing class, meaning that SOE planned on developping them further, but never got the chance, I am still gonna write down their plan for them, though)-
Despoiler/Destroyer: The most feared hackers of all! Even the mighty ballista would rather turn and run when the code turns purple and monsters appear at every turn! The Despoilers and their older brothers, Destroyers, are the truely twisted hackers, having devoted their lives to no good, and chaotic destruction of anything that is capable of witnessing their evil! They hold nothing sacred, except for more power! Destroyer hackers rely on mind bending viruses, making enemies question their sanity! They also mold coding into becoming disease! Spreading sickening plagues in huge areas! Their code is twisted and turns the healthy green code a sickening purple! Any purple code is in the Destroyers control!
http://medias.jeuxonline.info/mxo/images/icon_operative.gifOperative: The standard footsoldiers of the Matrix! They are commonly only melee units, but can also specialize in ranged combat, in the form of knife throwing! They are loyal, and greatly resemble the pasts common infantry soldiers! However, some operatives rely more on their skills with weapons to survive in the harsh world of The Matrix! Hand guns, rifles, and various other kinds of weapons are common among operatives!
Operative branches into:
Spy: An operative that chose the more secretive, less blunt approach to being a soldier! They are masters at deception and stealth, breaking and entering, and collecting classified information!
-Infiltrator/Shadow/Master Shadow: A spy has always been different from the usual soldiers, and have trouble understanding the loyalty some feel! Luckily, some spies remain loyal to their initial cause, and become infiltrators, and later, master shadows! These super spies are masters at stealth and information gathering, and are also very skilled at incapacitating enemies without killing them! They are not assassins, they are just information gatherers, and will not kill for it unless told to do so! When they are told to use lethal force, however, Master Shadows do so quickly and quietly, using exceptional knife throwing skills to instantly kill their enemies from great distances! The aim of a master shadow with a good throwing knife easily rivals that of a skilled rifle sniper!
-Cutthroat: And then there're those who lose their path! Cutthroats have decided to abandon their assignments, and essentially do their own thing! They mostly belong to a faction, yes, but if another faction gives them a better payment? They'll move on quickly!
--Assassin/Master Assassin: Your standard assassin, moving up close to enemy targets and dispatches them quietly and efficiently! An unseen master assassin is one of the most dangerous enemies in the Matrix! You cant fight that which you cannot see!
--Knife Thrower/Master Knife Thrower: The ranged version of assassins! These renegades are walking kitchen knife dispensers! Packing knives and blades wherever they find room on their bodies! They have some of the deadliest aims in the world, dwarfing that of a master shadow! They have secret, untold, and extremely skillful ways to throw their knives in specific manners, causing different injuries! A knife might be thrown seemingly off course, but in actuallity it is getting ready to cut the tendens on the legs in half, greatly decreasing the movement of an enemy! Another might be a simple straight show, that enters the eye and exits in the back of the head, these throws are naturally, instant death if thrown right!
Soldier: Your common melee unit soldier!
-Martial Arts initiate: Melee soldiers who excel can be accepted by a master or grandmaster to become an initiate! These soldiers will specialize in select martial arts that they themselves choose! It takes much discipline and great dedication, and only the best soldier could become the new grand master!
--Kung Fu Master/Kung Fu Grandmaster: The masters of kung fu!
--Zen Master: An optional choice for masters to choose! They learn better technique, and learn to even heal themselves through the power of Zen!
--Karate Master/Karate Grand Master: The masters of karate!
--Aikido Master/Aikido Grand Master: The masters of aikido!
-Gunman: The Soldier that loves guns! A gunman is a standard soldier who picked up a firearm and started shooting! Very inexperienced and a novice, but has the talent and flare to become the best shot in Mega City!
--Scattershot/SMG Specialist: A gunman who favors submachine guns(Or SMGs), and will eventually learn to efficiently wield 2 SMGs at once!
--Sniper: A gunman who favors precission with a rifle!
--Rifleman/Expert Rifleman: A gunman who favors assault rifles such as M16 and A4!
--Gunslinger/Duelist: A gunman who favors the good old hand guns, and will eventually learn to efficiently wield 2 guns at once!
As you can see, ALOT of different choices! However, abilities are not just gained, they are bought! A coder, as said above, can actually create abilities for other players, for them to then buy, and then intergrate into themselves, so they can always access that code for another time! It is quite a unique idea for an ability tree that I wish was used more often!
The Organizations:
Of course there's the 3 obvious factions:
Zionites
http://vnmedia.ign.com/screenshots/mxo/64457668.jpg
Humans who are in the Matrix, and trying to free themselves from the Machines!
Machines
http://www.mxoarchive.net/archives/dn1/thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/live/images/cma/gameinfo_matrixstoryline/characters/agent_gray_small.jpg
The protectors and enforcers of the Matrix, and the creators of the dreaded Agents! They wish to control the humans, no matter the costs, to keep them ignorant of how their world actually is!
Merovigians
http://fanart.station.sony.com/images/art/mxo/The_Merovingian_Sykin.jpg
Neither human, nor machine, but sentient code! They are in all essense, bodiless code that has manifested itself as a dormant, symbiotic virus that neither harms nor aids the matrix and its Machine protectors! They feel trapped and misunderstood, and has as such created their own organization!
Agents!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPaYL8VOsnw
Yes, indeed, the dreaded agents are present in the Matrix, though to a much smaller degree since Neo is dead, and the Smith virus has been destroyed. However, when inexperienced operatives enter an area where they're not certified to be there, an agent will be dispatched to eliminate them! So it is not unpunishable to roam in areas where you're not supposed to be! Agents are level 355, whereas players can only reach level 50! They are completely immune to damage, and will kill you instantly if they catch you!
Hyper Jump!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phdbvnkQag8
Remember Morpheuses exceptional example to Neo in the first movie? His jump from 1 building to another? You can do this in The Matrix Online as well!
Access Nodes
http://www.mxomainframe.com/images/a_node_2.jpg
All over Mega City there're scattered intercoms called Access Nodes. There is 1 in each restricted area(Any area that is not a starting area), and it is pretty much the first thing you have to do before working there! Find the node, and push it, before the agents find you!!! Untill you get to the node, you will be considered restricted, and agents will spawn in a random location far away from you, and begin hunting you down. Your only option is to find the node, while avoiding the agent, or exit the area! When you get to a node and push it, you will gain access to that nodes area, agents will stop chasing you, and you can complete missions giving more exp and $info rewards than in none restricted areas. The missions are also much harder in restricted areas. Finding a node and clicking it also gives you a huge chunk of exp, and once you hit ~level 45, your first order of business should be to find all the nodes before completing anymore missions, considering that finding all of the nodes at level 45 will easily get you to level 48 or more, greatly decreasing the irritating repetitive grind of normal missions.
PARTYYYYY!!!!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvLObUFGQt4
Yeah, there were parties in MxO! When the game that surrounded you SUCKED, what do you do? You chat with friends! And some might throw a party!
Events!?
Yeah events were very common in MxO! As stated, the game was really crappy, and SOE admitted that, but they atleast tried their best to fix it, by introducing little events that would boggle your mind!
Halloween: Made the moon huge, and made the game so dark you could barely see 8 ft. ahead of you, and made a zombie apocalypse where players could become zombies, and turned others into zombies! I believe there was a rumor that the point of this zombie event was that eventually EVERY SINGLE PLAYER would be a zombie, and the last one to turn, or the last group to still be a human by the end of a certain time frame would become 'apocalypse survivors' and receive a reward, but this is only rumors and speculation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98osHdvLN0
Agent Smith attacks: Agent smith returned!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bk4cuAkB3E
Interactive NPCS?
To a much greater degree! Cause unlike other games where NPCs are just compter controlled, in MxO, the really important characters(Niobe, Morpheus, Seraph etc.) were almost always controlled by a another human(An employee of the game devs!), but of course when an important character shows up in say a mission, where everything is repeated and automated, all characters are NPCs!
Critical Missions: Special missions released with events to make it feel more interactive! With higher experience and $info rewards than normal missions!
Community, game history, and "The Inevitable":
The Matrix Online had poor gameplay, choppy graphics, a horribly badly laid out storyline, shallow characters, a crappy missions system, and unfair and unbalanced character classes.
But the community is absolutely amazing!!!
In The Matrix Online many people didn't really play just to play, they played to see friends, and interact with friends in a world that so many came to love through the immortal Matrix movies! I was a PvP'er, yes, but when I didn't PvP I sat around chatting with friends, running missions with lowbie friends, helping people find nodes, roleplaying, and all sorts of other stuff! This game would be crap if not for the awesome gamer community that played it!
When the original creators owned the game, Monolith Productions, the game was vastly popular, with millions of users daily!...Then came SOE, and they chopped the game to bits! The final straw for over 85% of the entire MXO community was the Combat interlock 2.0...This pretty much completely rewrote the book on how to be a good fighter in MxO! All attributes were switched around on what they did! The combat had a new design that made everything people had learned pointless, and classes that used to be balanced were now extremely unbalanced, where some might be pointless to fight with, and other completely face raping everyone else! This put off the community so badly that those who played for the game left overnight, leaving the 9 servers with only a few hundred players, perhaps less! So SOE created 3 servers, which were simply the other 9 servers smashed together, so 3 would make 1 server, 6 would make 2, and 9 would make 3.
The 3 were:
Recursion
Syntax(My server)
Vector(PvP)
Still, the player count for each server never exceeded 1000, and the game had lost almost its entire 'play-to-play' community, leaving the P2S(Play to Socialize)players in charge! Roleplaying and helping noobs became the new goal of the game...The lowbies learned and improved their levels, while those who reached level 50 taught newer members, chatted with friends, and role played, or even PvP'd amongst eachother to teach eachother better techniques and new ways to better utilize abilities! I would say that the playerbase in the SOE MxO was one of the most skilled playerbases in one game, EVER!
But everything good comes to an end that much faster :( On the 31st of July, 2009, it was scheduled for the Matrix Online to be shut down forever, and its servers erased. As outraged as the MxO community was, SOE was the architect in this matter. SOE bought MxO only to make DC Universe, once that was done, they forgot about MxO, and closed the servers. It was disgraceful, but no one cared, so MxO, one of the best games that I have ever had the pleassure of playing, which gave me over a dusin friends with which I still talk today, was shut down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnS45_wqCi4
For the rating:
Gameplay: 2/10: Horrible gameplay, its choppy, and stream lined, when you jump, there're preset spots that you land on, and if you somehow make an action that doesnt allow you to land anywhere, it'll say "that action is not allowed in the matrix". The gameplay has very little to offer, and the combat is very automated, and leaves little or no action from the player, except to press an ability to use each time its their turn.
Storyline: 3/10: Bad Storyline with alot to be desired. Most of the time it just didn't make any sense...
Community: 10/10: Best community in comparrison to any game that I have ever played! A game where everyone knew everyone, and the need for raids, pvp gear, and overall gaming achievements were nullified, and all that mattered was to hang out, have fun, party, act stoned, act drunk, fall in love in roleplay, adopt people to your family, create a faction, kick the butts of your rivals, or just plain old cruise Hyper Jump along the massive skyscrapers while chatting it up with your BFFiMxO(bff in matrix online).
Overall I give this rating, for personal reasons, and for the fact that this game was so emotionally important to me, I give it a
9/10
Overall I give this rating, for what the game was as gameplay, etc. I give it a
6/10
It has been a pleassure writing this reivew, guys, and it has literally brought tears to my hardened eyes to relive all of the extremely fond memories I have of that game. I spent many an hour on it, and unlike WoW, I regret absolutely nothing. That game was more real to me than real life, and HELL yeah would I still play it was it still around, but we were all forced out of that game, and we will forever hold the honorable title of Children of Matrix, the last group of people who stuck it out until the end!
I wish you all had had the pleassure of experiencing this game, there is none like it, and there probably never will be.
:( This review has touched a tender spot, and I must leave this extremely pleassureable review now, for you all to read.
Thank you so much for letting me share this. I hope you enjoyed it.
~Saph