Video game takes ‘Matrix’ franchise to virtual reality

After months of testing and two years since the sequels, the persistent virtual reality of “The Matrix Online” is available for U.S. gamers.

A brief reintroduction for those still scratching their heads after “The Matrix Revolutions”: When we last saw Neo, aka The One, he made a truce with the evil machines and saved the last bastion of humanity in the underground city of Zion.

A revised Matrix was formed after the renegade, replicating Agent Smith was defeated, and we saw the machines carting off Neo’s corpse to points unknown. Did he die? And what about all those people still unwittingly serving as batteries for the machines?

That’s just part of the murky mystery in “The Matrix Online,” where players can choose to ally with the Machines, the Exiles or residents of Zion for control of the new system.

“Nobody is sure how long this truce will last. The theme for the first year is peace and the things people will do to screw it up,” said writer Paul Chadwick, who was chosen by “Matrix” creators Larry and Andy Wachowski.

Writing the story for such a never-ending online game where hundreds can gather at once was among the biggest challenges, said Chadwick, creator of the Concrete comics.

“You can’t really hold everybody’s attention on the same spot at the same time, so you’ve got to spray story at them from four different directions,” he said. “I think I finally got the hang of that. There will be story happening all over the place.”

Many key characters from the films make a return, including Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Merovingian (Lambert Wilson).

The movies were a dystopian vision of the future, and that certainly continues in the video game version.

The character Morpheus, front, played by Laurence Fishburne in the series of futuristic Matrix movies, remains prominent in the video game The

The kung fu combat and gravity-defying battles take place in the same steel-gray world of towering skyscrapers and urban grit called MegaCity.

Like its competitors, “The Matrix Online” is PC only, costing $50 plus a $15 monthly subscription fee.

Lead game designer Toby Ragaini said “The Matrix Online” should appeal to “people who are never going to be interested in dwarfs and orcs. It’s a contemporary urban fantasy.”

Such online games are notorious time sinks, requiring hour after hour of secluded devotion to advance.

For Ragaini that’s one of the things he tried to overcome.

“A lot of people just don’t have two-, three-hour periods of time to devote to games,” he said. “We decided it was important that players be able to complete a narrative experience in a half-hour.”

Chadwick isn’t worried that the critical backlash over the last two films would affect the game version.

“I have to speak up for the sequels. ‘Reloaded’ is my favorite. I think they are going to go through a Stanley Kubrick cycle,” he said. “I think the critical consensus will warm up to the trilogy as a whole in the next few years.”

And what of the almighty Neo? Will we see him again?

“In the game, Morpheus finds himself without the great quest of his life. He wonders why the machines won’t return Neo’s body,” Chadwick said. “A lot of people have different ideas. Maybe he’s still alive? Rumors are a big part of our story.”