The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experienceoffers players their first return to the Matrix’s green-hued simulation sinceEnter the Matrix,The Matrix: Path of Neo, andThe Matrix Online.
The Matrix Awakenstruly demonstrates what Unreal Engine 5 can achieve through graphical fidelity, which was not capable with previous games inThe Matrix’s franchise. Recently, a developer with a unique outlook onThe Matrixgames has compared Epic Games' latest experience withThe Matrix’s older games.
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Chandana Ekanayake, a former game director, art director, and character artist at Shiny Entertainment, shared his admiration for how far graphics have come since his work onEnter the MatrixandThe Matrix: Path of Neo.The Matrix: Path of Neoreleased two years afterEnter the Matrixand therefore has comparable graphics. ButEnter the Matrix, when compared toEpic Games’The Matrix Awakens, is much less rich in immersive detail, texture, and fidelity, and is much more low-poly.
Comparisons are inevitable due to their relativity to one another in the franchise. Ekanayake shows close-up frames of Trinity inThe Matrix: Path of Neocompared toThe Matrix Awakens, and while the former has done commendable work representing her it is clear that lighting effects and realistic facial model textures are superior in the latter. Ekanayake goes as far as to share photos of 3D scans forEnter the Matrix’s Niobe character model that were made “using patch modeling techniques” from the PS2, which further differentiates it fromThe Matrix Awakenstechnologically.
But these particular comparisons have been made as a result ofThe Matrix Awakens' freeway traffic gunfight reflecting that ofEnter the Matrix’s. This comparison has led to the resurfaceddesire for anEnter the Matrixremasterwhere itcould be given a facelift similar toThe Matrix Awakens. Indeed, the lack of texture and draw distance inEnter the Matrixpales in comparison toThe Matrix Awakens' high fidelity and immaculate renders.
It is unsurprising that graphics have indeed received upgrades through advancements in contemporary technology and platform hardware, but the improvement that such upgrades have made in nearly two decades is a phenomenal featbetweenEnter the MatrixandThe Matrix Awakens. IfThe Matrix Awakensis a sample of what players may expect next-gen games to look like, there is a lot of emergent technology that could sustain a fully-fledged game inThe Matrixfranchise, whether it is a remake or a new installment.
Enter the Matrixis available on PC, PS2, GameCube, and Xbox.The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experienceis available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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