'The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience (2021)' is more of a tech demo than an actual game. It consists of two sections: a scripted car chase and an open-world city. The experience only has very simple gameplay, with the car chase being entirely on rails and the city segment lacking any meaningful interaction, but the thing isn't really about the gameplay. Instead, as its title suggests, it's a showcase for its engine. Its real-time graphics are stunning, especially when it comes to destruction and lighting, and the amount of detail that's crammed into the surprisingly large environment is truly impressive. The piece allows you to tweak things such as traffic amount and sun rotation, which further conveys the brilliance of the engine's real-time features. It's really only thanks to the power of the PS5 that the thing even runs at all (its frame-rate does drop significantly if you crash into several cars at once, but it holds up everywhere else). The narrative is a bit odd and overly meta (perhaps an appropriate taste of what's to come in 'The Matrix Resurrections (2021)?), but it only really serves as an excuse to show off UE5's impressive new features and it does that well enough. Though there isn't much to do, the demo is still worth experiencing. Plus, you'll get even more out of it if you're into games design or games art. It's perhaps a little underwhelming as a game, but as a tech demo it's awesome. 6/10.
The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience
(2021 Video Game)
An impressive tech demo.
29 December 2021