Creators of The Matrix (no longer a trilogy, since The Matrix 4 trailer dropped), the Wachowski sisters are well-known to be furious consumers of pop culture. Shiny Entertainment’s Dave Perry, who led development of both Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path Of Neo, once told IGN that the Wachowskis “seemed to have seen every movie ever made”.The Wachowskis themselves also told IGN that they spent “crack-den amounts of time” playing games. It's fair to say that games were a massive influence on the Matrix franchise, and there are many games that fans would do well to check out if they want to fully explore the series’ roots.
10 Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller
This early CD-ROM title took advantage of the technology. It involves liberal use of FMV sequences and a huge amount (for the time) of digitized speech performed by reasonably big names like Dennis Hopper, Stephanie Seymour, and Grace Jones.
It hasn't aged at all well, but the similarities with The Matrix are abundant. In this game, Hell is actually a virtual reality construct built to threaten and punish an oppressed populace. The protagonists must rescue and recruit trapped individuals from Hell, much as Morpheus and his crew rescue people from the Matrix.
9 Marathon: Durandal
The Wachowskis are big fans of the Halo series, but their fandom of Bungie dates back to before the studio broke big with Master Chief and co. The sisters actually wanted to produce a game alongside the first movie, and Bungie was one of the developers they approached regarding the project.
This was before Halo existed, so it’s likely that the series that inspired them was Halo’s spiritual predecessor, the Marathon trilogy. Just like The Matrix, this story features rampant AI as a central theme.
8 Death Jr.
This early PSP third-person action game stylistically has more in common with the movies of Tim Burton than those of the Wachowskis. However, Lilly Wachowski is known to be a big fan of Death Jr. regardless.
In a 2006 Gamespot interview following Foundation 9’s acquisition of Shiny Entertainment, Foundation 9 CEO Jon Goldman revealed that Lilly was a fan of the game. Lilly was in a minority in that respect, as Death Jr. wasn’t generally well received, but it just goes to show what “well-read” gamers the Wachowskis are. Fans who want to explore The Matrix's roots should give it a shot.
7 Messiah
Shiny Entertainment’s ambitious action-adventure was not a great critical or commercial success in itself, but it would ultimately open up an extremely lucrative opportunity for the company. It’s an action game with a cyberpunk setting and religious, chosen-one-ish themes, so it’s easy to see why the Wachowskis loved it so much.
The Wachowskis pursued Shiny for some time before finally striking a deal to make Enter The Matrix. The game went on to sell almost 6 million copies and grossed $250 million, making it by far the biggest game in Shiny’s history.
6 Beneath A Steel Sky
This cult classic point and click adventure has numerous similarities to The Matrix, and is even cited as an influence on the movie by IMDB. If there’s any direct reference to Beneath A Steel Sky in The Matrix, then it must be very subtle. When GameRant approached developer Revolution Software, they had this to say:
“While we couldn't claim that the Matrix movies (or comics that came before) were borrowed from or inspired by Beneath A Steel Sky, the idea of the hive mind, and simulation theories run all the way back to George Orwell, and beyond. But we would like to think that we contributed to the zeitgeist that made these topics intriguing to pop culture at that time, and would be humbled if the Wachowski sisters had indeed played, and were inspired by our video game.”
5 Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
At the time The Matrix movie was in development, this cult classic was the Wachowskis' favorite game. So enamoured were they with Tenchu: Stealth Assassins that they travelled to Tokyo and visited the offices of its developer, Acquire.
During the hours they spent at the company’s offices, they told studio head, Takuma Endo, that the action in Tenchu was exactly “what they wanted to reproduce” in The Matrix. It’s not much to look at now, but back in 2008 Tenchu did have exceptionally acrobatic combat, and some elaborate finishing moves.
4 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty
Alongside Bungie and Shiny Entertainment, Hideo Kojima was another candidate in the running to develop a tie-in with the first Matrix movie. That game never got off the ground, but after Kojima saw The Matrix, he wrote to the Wachowskis to tell them how much he loved it.
They replied that the first game they’d played after finishing up The Matrix had been Metal Gear Solid, and soon afterwards the trio met for an interview with Famitsu magazine. In the interview, Kojima revealed that “what I was planning to do in my next project, they pretty much made into a motion picture.” That next project was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, which features some very Matrix-esque action sequences that fans should appreciate.
3 Splinter Cell
When development began on Enter The Matrix, Shiny Entertainment president Dave Perry quickly learned just how obsessed with games the Wachowskis were. In a 2000 interview with GameSpy, he recalled Lana Wachowski mentioning Splinter Cell among several other games she had recently bought and played. Perry said that the Wachowski’s love of games made working with them much easier.
Perhaps Lana was drawn to Splinter Cell’s Matrix-esque, green-glow color scheme, or its acrobatic, high-tech action. Or maybe she played it simply because it was a fantastic game, and because she apparently plays every game that's out there.
2 Tabletop RPGs
The Wachowskis loved tabletop games just as much as video games, and spent many a weekend playing Dungeons & Dragons during their teens. They even created their own tabletop RPG called High Adventure, and later compared playing D&D to the filmmaking process.
There have, of course, been dozens of official Dungeons & Dragons videogames (most notably the Baldur’s Gate series), but for an authentic insight into what inspired the Wachowskis, nothing beats Tabletop Simulator. Except playing actual tabletop RPGs on a real table with real people, of course.
1 Final Fantasy VII
In 1997, the Wachowksi’s ought to have been too busy with pre-production of The Matrix to have sunk hours into that year’s biggest game. But when the similarities between Final Fantasy VII and The Matrix are highlighted, it’s hard not to wonder if they found the time to play it.
Both Final Fantasy VII and The Matrix center on a gang of underground resistance fighters in a cyberpunk city, battling against abuses of technology while being pursued by mysterious special agents who wear black suits and dark sunglasses. This is probably a case of “great minds think alike,” but the comparison is intriguing nonetheless. Those who appreciate The Matrix's central themes will no doubt get a kick out of this game.