Fighting Guide - Guide for Enter the Matrix

+----------------+
|     Enter      |
|      the       |
|    Matrix      |
|----------------|
|    Fighting    |
|     Guide      |
|    (Xbox)      |
+----------------+

By: UnSub ([email protected])
Date: 24 May 2003
Version: 0.82


Contents
________

 - Introduction & Copyright
 - General Tips
 - Body Movement
 - Hand-to-Hand Combat
 - Gunplay
 - Boss Fights
 - Other Issues
 - Thanks
 - Notes


INTRODUCTION
____________

The Matrix is turning out as a reasonably good geek-movie trilogy, complete
with it's own game that contains original and dedicated footage. Given that I
like games that feature a large amount of fighting, I thought I'd pick it up.
Having mostly enjoyed my experiences thus far I also thought to join the mad
dash of players attempting to get a game guide up in the first days of release.


NOTE WELL: At the moment I have the most experience using Ghost so I am writing
from that perspective. I'm about half-way through with Niobe. The game was also
played in Normal difficulty.


COPYRIGHT: I wrote this, but you are free to use / re-post this guide provided
it is a) unchanged and / or b) free. If you wish to change this guide for use,
please contact me to get permission.


EMAIL POLICY: I'm pretty busy, so don't email me for a chat. I will generally
help you if I can and will identify you if I include some info you send me in
this guide. Don't expect me to be an expert - the stuff below is merely what I
have found to have worked. Oh, and don't send me spam / viruses, just in case
you need reminding.


GENERAL TIPS
____________

HEALTH & FOCUS: Although health kits are available, generally you can just run
around to regain health and focus. Killing enemies will also give you back
focus. This means you can hold down the focus for longer if you are killing
enemies in the meanwhile. Remember this if you are overwhelmed by enemy
numbers.


TIPS: The Tips section (accessible when you hit the Start button and look at
the menu) will give you a list of lessons you have learnt. It can be useful
sometimes to go back and look at this list, if only to remember something you
have forgotten.


FIRST PERSON SHOOTING MODE: I have only used this to snipe and when fighting
the SWAT Copter. Utterly useless since most enemies will shoot at you if you
can see them.


FOCUS: Getting used to using focus is the key. There are three ways to use
focus in general -

1) Not at all. The world moves faster around you and you do reasonable damage
to enemies. Using focus if more fun, but if you need to heal or get somewhere
in real-time, focus won't help. Not using focus will see you health and focus
levels build up.

2) Hold it down. Holding down the focus button will slow everything right down
and allow you to execute some devastating moves on your opponents. Focus will
run out after a while, but it gives you plenty of time to run amok. You become
more accurate with your bullets, you become harder to hit and you hit harder.

3) Tapping focus. Tapping focus or burst using focus will see it last longer
while still causing a lot of pain. Some special moves are accessible only if
you tap focus. You can tap focus to slow down a fight for a moment to dodge
some incoming fire, then go into full speed to take out an opponent, depending
on the strategy you find yourself. Burst focus while jumping will see you go
further while not exhausting yourself before you run into the next ambush.


DRIVING: Focus won't work on driving stages, so it's up to your skill to get
past it. As Ghost, you will mostly hang out the window and shoot at cars on
these stages. In generally you should shoot up cars that are slowing you down
or shooting at you in that order. Cop cars can be destroyed, but cars
containing agents or the Twins will only be slowed down by shooting at them. If
you are being chased by an indestructible enemy, focus on getting away from
them by clearing a path in front of you. This is especially true on the "Twins
in Pursuit" stage - 75% of the time should be spent clearing the path ahead of
you with the other 25% spent slowing down the Twins.

An email from caleb bare says:

"You know the driving levels (yeah i hate them too) well thats where the bug
is. Ok whenever there is someone shooting at you as long as you DO NOT face
them they CAN NOT hurt you. I found this out on that damn twin chase
one. I got killed a couple of times because all i would do is shoot at cars in
front and shoot at the twins, well everytime I died. So I just shot at the cars
in front of me and presto the twins where no longer a problem
because they could not damage me. This also works on any other driving part
where people are shooting at you."

I'm not sure if this is 100% true, but thinking about it I do recall taking
very little damage from enemies provided I didn't see them when driving. Talk
about an ostrich defense! :-) So for those having trouble with the Twins -
don't look at them.


GETTING THE FLASHLIGHT: I've gotten several emails about this so I've brought
up the section I had on it to here.

There are a number of bugs in this game that sap the fun out of it. I found I
couldn't pick up the flashlight (a required item on one stage) until I'd dumped
a lot of ammo and weapons.

 - Mike Wallace wrote in and said:

"to pick up the flashlight you only have to fire your MP5 once, that is because
the flashlight is attached to an mp5 (later it will be attached to any gun you
equip)"

I've read similar solutions elsewhere, so make sure you don't have a full MP5
ammo count when going for the flashlight. Cops appear immediately after you
pick it up, so be aware.

Nick Proulx reminded me to add:

"But its not really a flashlight you "see", it's supposed to be attached to the
gun your using i think. So when you equip any gun thats when the light will
come on."

Once you have the flashlight it will be on any gun you use. Make sure you keep
some guns drawn to keep the light on.


BLOWING THE ANCHORS: Since some of my friends had trouble with this... You have
to drop three demolition charges near the spinning gear. Drop off the ledge to
avoid the explosion. Once this is done, the cops will stop spawning, you will
have saved your comrades and you can exit through the open pipe to the left of
the platform the gear was on.


OVERALL TIPS:

 - Watch your direction indicator as it will show you the way to go. It will
often appear if you take too long to do something.

 - Swap your weapons constantly to ensure you aren't left with weak weapons
when up against a large number of opponents. This becomes less important later
in the game due to the abundance of automatic weapons.

Andy Tsai emailed:

" - be careful when hiding behind walls as enemies sometimes spawn/approach
behind you"


BODY MOVEMENT
_____________

The most effective defense is not being in the way of an attack. Learning to
move in EtM will really help your ability to progress through levels.

 - When you don't use focus, you've got your usual run and turn maneuvers and
pressing A will cause you to jump / climb over obstacles / pull up on ledges.
Holding down the right trigger will go into strafe mode which is an excellent
technique to learn when fighting - it keeps you facing the enemy and is also
used for cartwheeling. Using focus can see you cartwheel, wall run, actively
dodge while running and dive forwards / backwards.

 - Holding focus and X while running will see your character do rolls, flips
and short dives to dodge incoming fire. It's nice to see but only really has
use if you a) don't have any guns or b) only have a very short way to go. A
long dive (by holding focus, having guns aimed at an enemy and pressing A) is a
better way to avoid incoming fire while closing the gap and returning fire at
the same time.

 - I've found the two best moves to be dive forward (focus, press forward and A
when you have your target selected) and dive backward (focus, pull back and
press A with your target selected). By diving forward or backward you will
avoid a lot of fire while concentrating your bullets on your target(s). You
obviously need room to dodge in this fashion and be careful about sailing over
the edge of a platform.

 - Cartwheeling (hold right trigger for strafe, hold focus to make yourself
more accurate, pull left or right) is a very good dodge move. I've played
around with it some more after reading Andy Tsai's email and found it made
firefights much easier. Use it to dodge between cover while returning fire.

 - Wall running also looks good, but had limited applications. You do tend to
dodge a lot of incoming fire while doing it, but a wall isn't always available
for use. Plus you can flip off the wall and into those bullets you were
avoiding. If you do use wall running, remember to keep shooting while you are
doing it. Press A when wall running will see you cartwheel off the wall so take
care when doing it - I've flipped over barriers to my death when doing this.
Your only offense when wall running is your guns, so make sure you have them
drawn when you do this.

 - You can do a wall flip by running directly at it, focusing and pressing A.
If someone can tell me a use for this move, I'd like to hear it.

 - When running at an accessible door (ie has a 'green hand' on the screen) you
can press X to open it on the run, rather than stopping to open it slowly. This
is important when you are being chased.

 - You run faster with your guns holstered.

 - When in doubt, focus. Slowing things down will make it much easier for you
to work out what is about to happen.

 - You can jump ridiculously far when you focus jump. You can also turn a bit
in the air, so use it to straighten yourself if needbe.

Andy Tsai writes:

"- you can do consecutive cartwheels which are useful when taking out rows of
enemies

- cartwheels (my favourite) are possible in the middle of a mid air jump

- focus can extend the 'air' you get from your jumps

- be careful using focus around ledges, a wrong move could mean doing a
spectacular dive to your death"



HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT
___________________

For me, this is the really fun part of EtM. When you get close enough to an
enemy and hit Y (kick) or B (punch) you will put away your guns and open up
with some bone-crushing kung fu. You also can block melee attacks using the X
button and dodge attacks using the X button and control stick.

 - Certain moves are only available on certain opponents eg you can only do the
staking moves on vampires and some special moves are reserved for Agents / Name
Characters.

 - Remember to mix up your punches and kicks for a bit of variety. Different
combos have different effects. I'll go into this in more detail once I've
played around with the game more.

 - Fight dirty. See an enemy on the ground? Kick them in the guts.

 - Use cover to fight hand-to-hand while under bullet fire. Cover can also give
you time to heal / focus up.

 - You won't take much damage if you are executing a pre-scripted move and
people are shooting at you. This is very important as you won't get killed when
throwing an opponent, for example. This doesn't work for all moves - I've been
doing a wall kick and died after the animation has finished - but I do notice
they mostly stop shooting at you when you are (say) disarming a SWAT member.

 - When running you can press Y to launch a jump kick. This doesn't do a lot of
damage but does knock an enemy off their feet which can buy you some time. You
can also do jump kicks through glass windows which strikes me as kind of cool
when you also land the blow.


THROWS:

 - Throws (Y+B) generally do little damage, but do take an enemy off their feet
and can be used to buy you some breathing space.

 - Focus throwing becomes very important when fighting Agents / Agent Smith /
Name Characters. A focus throw is more likely to come off than a normal throw
versus these characters and will see you throw them further.

 - You can counter-throw Name Characters by pressing X as they move to throw
you. They can do the same to you. I don't believe they can counter-throw you
when you use focus, but I may be wrong.

 - You can throw people who are behind you if they are close enough. If you are
surrounded by enemies try going nuts on the throws to buy you some space.

 - Khyron the Destroyer emailed and said:

"I just wanted to add that you can kill an enemy with one throw.  Just throw an
enemy with your gun drawn. You will throw an enemy, then fire a fatal shot
while they are on the ground.  There are different throws/shots depending on
the enemies position to you, and whether its Ghost or Niobe you use. Ghost has
a cool  one where he shoves his gun in the guys gut and fires. Niobe has a cool
one where she puts the gun under the guys chin and blows their brains  out. 
You can kill one enemy per bullet this way."

Tested this and it works great. Depending on the gun, your character will throw
them and pump a round or two, taking them out. The greatest difficulty comes
from getting the throw executed properly - if you are moving you might jump
kick instead.

 - Jason Tanner adds:

"Sweep and Punch: this is a move only niobe can use. when holding down focus
press (Y+B) together. doing this will let niobe sweep kick the oppenent and
then making him flip sideways. Then she will punch him while he is sideways.
This is a great move when going against bosses.

Grab and Throw: this is a move only ghost can use. when holding down focus
press (Y+B) together. doing this will let the oppenent kick u,and u grab the
oppenents leg and ribs, and will throw the oppenent behind you. this move is
great for getting enemys out of your way from running somthing or going to
something."

These are the characters' focus throws. Sorry to say Ghost, but Niobe's focus
throw is way cooler.


DISARMING:

 - Disarming an enemy (X button when close) is essential to staying alive. Take
their weapon and then give it back to them, bullets first.

 - There are many different disarm animations. The animations are determined by
what weapon is being used against you and the location of the enemy to you when
you go for the disarm. They may also alter by the use of focus, but I'm not
entirely sure. Your best bet may be to use focus up to the point you start the
disarm move, then drop back into normal time.

 - Disarm maneuvers cause different amounts of damage depending on the
animation. For handguns, Ghost may just execute a execute a hand throw and give
the cop a punch to the solar plexus which won't kill them outright. By
comparision he may, when disarming a submachine gun, shoulder throw a cop and
then unload some rounds from the newly acquired gun into them, resulting in an
instant kill. Keep an eye out on the animation used to work out if the disarmed
cop will be standing up again to cause you trouble. Try to watch your focus bar
- killing an enemy will increase it, so you can see when an enemy is finally
dead by a sudden jump in focus.

 - You can't disarm Agents and they will hurt you if you try.


BLOCKS & COUNTERS:

 - Pressing X blocks melee attacks. If you time it right you can also catch
their attack and unlease one of your own. This timing takes practise.

 - Having blocked an attack on most enemies will leave an opening for you to
hit them back.

 - Pressing an attack (Y, B or Y+B) immediately after a successful block will
see you execute a counter move. This is vital to fighting name characters.

 - Using focus will make countering much easier and the counter moves more
damaging.

 - You can counter-throw people if you timing is right when they attempt to
throw you.


FOCUS:

 - Focus in hand-to-hand combat makes it easier for you to block attacks while
making you also hit harder. The best moves are done using focus.

 - As stated above, you can kill an enemy silently when pressing X behind them.
If you do this without using any focus, you will strangle them (actually, it
looks to me like a "Guess who?" gag, but anyway). Doing this while holding down
focus will see you slam their head into the ground, cracking their skull. Tap
focussing (namely pressing focus as your character's hands reach for the enemy
from behind) sees you perform a lethal neck snap.

 - When running near a wall and coming up to an enemy, hold focus and press
kick to perform a powerful triangle kick off the wall, doing a ton of damage to
the enemy. (I have managed to do this when my back is against a wall and the
enemy is right in front of me, but not reliably. Doing it while running is much
more common.)

 - You are very likely to send an opponent flying when using a focus melee
attack which can lead to some pain if the enemy gets up again and starts
shooting you from a distance. Try to disarm them first.

 - I've knocked over enemies with a running focus jump before. Although not a
great move, it has its uses (like when you hit the wrong button!).

 - I'll go through the focus combos at a later date once I've played more.


TACTICS:

 - Hand-to-hand can be very effective, but can see you gunned down quickly.
Disarm enemies first, use cover as needed and always terminate with extreme
predjudice.

 - Disarmed enemies will attempt to find a weapon. This will usually give you
some time to do other things, but don't let them pick them up too often.

 - If there are no weapons available, they will then try hand to hand. Try not
to get sandwiched between two or more enemies; dodge out if this situation
occurs. You can sometimes damage two opponents with one move.

 - Learn to block melee attacks and to counter move. This involves some timing
practise but will make your boss fights much easier. To make blocking simple,
you can just hold down X, but you won't be able to counter if you do this.


GUNPLAY
_______

EtM has a wide range of guns to choose from which fall into four main
categories - pistols, machine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles. Remember to
reload after each encounter. If you have a weapon that is almost empty, I find
emptying it and throwing it away the best option - you don't want to hit a
firefight and switch to a near empty weapon. I also find using the Back button
to select weapons is better than using the Directional Pad.

 - Pistols are usually handled two at a time and I've seen Ghost appear to aim
at two separate targets when using them.

 - Machine guns can really dish out the damage while chewing up ammo fast. They
can be very effective in taking down the enemy.

 - Shotguns seem to be one-hit kills on enemies in close to medium range. Try
to avoid catching their shells with your character's body since it will hurt a
lot.

 - Sniper rifles are required in certain levels. You can use your focus to slow
down time when using a sniper rifle which makes things immensely easier.

 - Secondary weapons are usually pretty hard to use effectively, given how far
you throw them. However, they can be massively damaging if used effectively.
I'd often finish stages not having used more than 2 grenades out of the set of
five I was given, so I didn't find them that useful.


WEAPONS LIST:

 - to be included later


FOCUS:

 - You become more accurate when you focus.

Andy Tsai wrote in to add:

"- focus improves the accuracy of your secondary weapon throws

 - you can pick off enemies from a distance with pistols if you use focus to
make your attacks for accurate"


TACTICS:

 - Remember that if you enter melee mode you will put away your guns. This can
cause problems.

 - Wall leaning (push up against a wall and then left or right) can let you
look around corners. Pressing shoot will have you step out and fire fairly
inaccurately at a target. I prefer to wall lean, hold down focus and then press
A to dive out. Your shots will be more accurate and you will also avoid
incoming fire. Run to the next bit of cover and repeat.

 - Pressing the Black Button to pull out a gun when there is an enemy directly
in front of you will see Ghost execute a powerful kick to that enemy before
drawing his gun to put another round into them. This move is easiest to do when
using focus. I don't believe Niobe has one of these moves.

 - Try to watch which weapons you use. You don't want to empty all of your
machine guns and find yourself left with pistols in the last big firefight of
the level. Mix up which weapons you use to reflect what you are being given.

 - Always dodge as you are firing. You are much more likely to hit them than
they are to hit you.

 - Look for things you can blow up and put a couple of shots into them to take
out enemies indirectly. Make sure you are out of the explosion radius. Don't
take cover behind / near explosive items.


BOSS FIGHTS
___________

During boss fights your health won't go up, which makes things harder.

GHOST
-----

|SWAT Helicopter| - The helicopter sweeps around the front of the glassed area,
swings back and drops off SWAT officers through the skylight. You should hide
yourself behind the wall in front of you when the helicopter's chain gun is
facing you, but once the helicopter swings back step out, go into first person
mode and open fire on the helicopter for as long as possible. Start focussing
as the SWAT guys drop through the ceiling and take them out as quickly as
possible. If you don't take out the SWAT guys they will most likely seek cover
behind the ornament at the front of the area. Avoid their fire if this happens
and take them out. Repeat until the helicopter is destroyed. Watch out for more
SWAT guys once the blast door opens up.

Nikki Britton suggest the following (this worked on the PS2, so be aware if
you've got a different console):

"When the fight begins, hide in the curve of the left or right walls, as your
guide tells.  Step out and fire when it's guns stop firing.  But when the swat
guys come, this is where it get's easy.  Try to time a grenade to be thrown
about 2 seconds before they BEGIN to descend from the roof, and it should blow
up, just as all of them hit the ground.  It won't always kill all 4 swat guys,
but it usually does.  By the time you run out of grenades, the chopper should
be dead."


|Agent Helicopter| - From where you start, the helicopter attacks from the
north (in front), the east (to your right) and the west (to your right) in that
order. It may take a death or two to figure out what the pattern is. The
helicopter hovers for a while just shooting at you before moving off to the
next location to do the same. To kill it, wall lean (don't stick your head out)
on a column and count to about 5, then press focus and A to dive out from
behind the column. Open up fire as you go and try to keep moving once you land.
If you've got it right, you'll shoot the helicopter while dodging the bullets
it fires at you. Again, it may take a little while to get the timing right. You
need to know at all times where the entrance to the tower (locked once the boss
fight starts) is because it will open up just before the helicopter crashes
into the tower. If you don't make it to the stairs in time, you'll die and have
to start over again.

Nikki Britton suggests something slightly different (which I haven't tested
yet):

"The Agent Helicoper comes in a pattern, as you have said.  It starts north,
and this is easier to explain from the north, so I'll explain it this way.

The agent helicoper will appear on the north side of the wall, in the center of
the wall.  Go to the SOUTHWEST pillar of the room, and hide behind it on the
WEST side of it.  When you see the Agent Heli come in, focus and step out from
behind the pillar and unload as many bullets as you can.  Doing this will kill
the Agent Heli in 2 rounds (maybe even in 1 round if you are good...i did 4/5
damage to him every time).  the important part is that you are on the WESTERN
side of the SOUTHWESTERN pillar.  This allows you to fire at the Agent, but he
can't hit you.  Continue this from the various directions he comes at you,
until he is dead.

Also, two things I should note.  This strategy works on NORMAL difficulty on
the PS2.  Since your guide is for the XBox, I can't guarantee it will work, but
I'm pretty sure it will.  Give it a try."


|Cujo| - A hand-to-hand fight. Tap focus to power up your attacks and blocking
ability. Pound on him constantly. Cujo has an unblockable attack - he does a
big set of arm motions and then does a two-fisted punch (you'll know what I
mean when you see it). I haven't yet worked out if you can counter this attack
but did manage to dodge it once. Once Cujo gets to under half health, he calls
down two lackeys to fight you while shooting at you with a machine gun. Use
focus to dodge the bullets and use the lackeys to boost your focus levels. When
Cujo comes back, beat on him again until you run him through with the stake.


|Cain and Abel| - You can beat on them for as long as you like, but to get away
from them you have to knock them into the prisoners' arms who will hold them
long enough for you to make an escape.


|Trinity| - Although this is a 'fun' fight, she's got a power bar like a boss,
so... it doesn't matter if you win or lose this fight as the game continues
regardless. Trinity is tough and will block a lot of your attacks. You will
have to have good hand-to-hand skills to beat her. Use her to practise your
counter-move timing. Focus moves (especially throws) become vital to taking her
out. You will see that both of you will 'pull' some moves, so don't expect
every blow that gets through to hurt.


|Agent| - After you've helped Niobe get to the Nuclear Core (after the stage
where you play sniper to get Niobe to the core while fighting off SWAT teams
yourself) you will be told you have to clear the area of SWAT before you can
plant your charge. Shortly after you get notice of an Agent in the area. Agent
Green appears (well, he's in a green suit) and you need to knock him back into
the 'sparking servers'. To do this first blow up the servers in front of the
green door that Agent Green comes out of by shooting it. From here engage the
Agent in melee and fight him back into the damaged server. If you try to run
away you will find him fast and accurate with his handgun.


|Seraph| - As an aside, what happens when a kid wants to see the Oracle? Does
Seraph kick the crap out of them first? Anyway, another Name Character fight.
Seraph has some nice looking moves (including a rapid gut punch that looks like
it would hurt a lot) but he isn't that hard overall. Throw him around, kick him
on the ground and use focus moves to beat his defense. Run away from him to
replenish your focus. Once you get him to a small amount of health, he will
take you to see the 'new and improved' Oracle. If you fail in this fight, you
don't get to do the Agent Smith section and miss out on some fmv footage.


|Agent(s) Smith| - You can't kill the Agents Smith, only run away. Follow your
direction guide at the top of the screen and keep running. If you do get
trapped by him, you can try to focus throw him (if there are only one) or wall
run away (if there are two or more). Agent Smith is a cheap fighter, relying on
throws to keep you down. If you get more than one they may start to play pass
the parcel which isn't very fun for you. He also has a very powerful kick.
Don't bother shooting him as he will just dodge it. I did manage to throw him
off a building though - that was quite satisfying. :-)


NIOBE
-----

|Agent in the Plane| - You have to push the button to open the cargo doors and
kick him out. Use your focus throw as it will send him flying. Andy Tsai has
covered pretty much everything else.

Andy Tsai writes:

"Agent in the plane - A hand-to-hand fight with an agent. He has no visible
health bar and he'll take any kind of pounding. As suggested by the green
tooltip that comes up, you should remember to flick open the green switch to
open the bar doors, and repeatedly hit him until you can kick him out of the
back of the plane. Use focus combos to make substantial hits and remember to
reserve enough focus for the last few metres, because he will block almost all
of your normal attacks. Be careful of falling out of the plane yourself, and
try to counter-attack wherever possible."


OTHER ISSUES
____________

I don't like driving games. The stage where you save Axel didn't help me change
that opinion.


THANKS
______

To my girlfriend who has actually started to play the Xbox even if you gets the
names horribly, horribly wrong (ie House of the Dead III is NOT called House of
the Ghosties).

To David and Michael Nash for lending me their Xbox so I could play EtM.

To Shiny for releasing a pretty good fighting game. Would have been nice if you
could have polished out some of the bugs though.

Special thanks to those who sent in material to improve this guide: Khyron the
Destroyer, caleb bare, Mike Wallace, Andy Tsai, Nikki Britton, Nick Proulx,
Jason Tanner

No thanks to the person(s) who stole my Xbox. I want my saves back! :-(


NOTES
_____

Version 0.82: Added more contributor materials; altered some information to
reflect greater experience with Niobe.
Version 0.81: Addition of Body Movement section; inclusion of contributor
materials; other added materials.
Version 0.8: Incomplete version released.


---------------------------------
Version 1.0 | 19/05/2003