4Players: In terms of gameplay, why did you decide to send Neo on a solo-adventure?

Dave Perry: We wanted this game to be the NEO game.  Our message is "Be the One". The truth however is that people do fight alongside you, Trinity in the Lobby scene or on the Rooftop (dodging bullets) is a good example.  There you need to distract the Agents, when they fire at you, dodge the bullets and (hopefully) Trinity can get a shot into the agent while he's distracted. :)

Dave Perry: That's a damn good question.  How lucky were we to get the rights to ALL three Matrix moves for one game.  (How often does that happen?  The entire Trilogy for one game?)  Until you realize that we need to make nearly every character in every costume change through all three movies!  Then you need to add the new characters the Wachowskis want the gamer to meet or see. It's a MASSIVE undertaking.  Some of them (I promise) will really surprise you!  (Including the Directors themselves!)

4Players: Why do you think lots of people were disappointed of Enter the Matrix? What are you going to do differently this time to avoid such reactions?

Dave Perry: Enter the Matrix was our first Xbox and PS2 game.  We learnt a lot and are actually our own worst critics.  All we can hope to do is to keep learning and making better games.  From the awards we've had for this game already, it seems to be getting some serious respect.

4Players: How much freedom did you have with the gamedesign? Could you include your own gaming elements or did you have to stick to the events in the movies? How far where the Wachowskis involved?

Dave Perry: The Wachowskis give us the path, the plan, the goals, and then Shiny's design team actually works on making that reality.  There are

Shiny's new game is all about Neo.

4Players: Is the game going to unfold some of the mysteries of the movies? E.g. the backgrounds of the oracle or the architect?

Dave Perry: We tend to focus on Neo.  I think you will know more about him, and more about the Matrix itself when you are done.  The fantastic thing about working with the creators of the Matrix is that any new areas instantly become authentic.  So I need to be very clear, this is not Shiny's version of the Matrix, the directors themselves chose the path that we will follow. That path leads through all their favorite action scenes, like the lobby scene, or the dojo training program with Morpheus, or the park where you fight loads of Agent Smiths.

You want to see more? Take a look at our exclusive screenshots:

Screenshots PC

Screenshots PS2

Screenshots Xbox  Then (to add some surprises) they take us deep into other training programs and locations that would have been in the movies if they had more time.  The game is intended 100% for fans of the Matrix and we make sure to include a lot of sequences from the first Matrix movie as there was never a game made for it.  So that means we also get the "Original" Oracle in this game.       

Dave Perry: We are making it for Playstation 2, Xbox and PC.  There's a lot of competition in the team.  (The Xbox guy trying to beat the PS2 guy etc...) It's very healthy and I think because of it, all three versions should make good use of their hardware capabilities.  When we started the game, I called a team meeting.  I told the team that the world would expect us just to add new levels to Enter the Matrix and try to sell that.  They would expect Enter the Matrix 1.5  I said we needed to go to 5.0  It's funny now as I keep hearing that mentioned, and I have to give it up to my team, they somehow have pulled exactly that off!  There's effects in this game that have never been seen before on the Playstation, we got a major "best technology" award at the big E3 conference and also runner up for best graphics of the entire show.  (A show that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 was at!)  And were not even finished making this game yet.  So right now, we are pretty excited.

4Players: Why are you developing for current generation systems like PS2 and Xbox when PS3 and Xbox 360 are about to start?

Dave Perry: Because we wanted to really push today's hardware the best we could before moving on. Enter the Matrix was just the beginning for us.  The Path of Neo shows what our tools are capable of.  Then we move on to the next generation.   We also will probably get about 10x more sales, simply because there's a ton of current generation hardware out there.

Dave Perry: I would love to get the game onto the PSP.  I'm a huge fan of the hardware and would love to have more 3rd person action games available.  My guys will do research on that after they get some sleep.

4Players: On what technology is PoN based on? Are you using an enhanced Enter the Matrix-engine or are you working with a brand new engine?

Dave Perry: I would say it's about 80% new engine with entirely new fighting and rendering systems.  Shiny has always made it's own engines as we can only blame ourselves that way if things go wrong.  We can also be sure to add all the features the Design team wants.

4Players: The characters in the E3-Trailer are looking kind of blocky and square - is this gonna change until the release?

4Players: Is there a way to save Trinity?

Dave Perry: No. There's always the lady in red.  :)

4Players: Will this be your last trip into the Matrix?

Dave Perry: Yes, now that we got to make the Neo game, our work in the Matrix will be done.  At Shiny, we like to keep challenging ourselves, so we won't be doing Matrix 3,4,5,6    We're lucky that our Publisher doesn't force us to do that.

You find the german version of the interview here.