It was five minutes before 11:00 a.m. on May 12, 2004, and I walked into the Warner Bros. meeting room, out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the game floor. I had chatted with Travis Williams on the floor a short while before, and witnessed one of many regularly-scheduled player-vs.-player brawls between the ATI booth, the Sega booth, and Monolith up in Seattle. To say the least, I was nervous; after all, this was my first day at E3, within the first three hours of entering the convention center. I had never covered a video game before; of course, that would change soon after.

Baelish, Dariuas, Optikfusion, and I were led into a small room, where we were greeted by Toby Ragaini, William Westwater, and Paul Chadwick. After introducing ourselves, we were invited to sit down and put our hands to the keyboard and mouse. Being the natural opportunist I am (and at the approval of Baelish), I quickly volunteered to take on this task.

I was initially greeted by the very intuitive Jack-In interface. Nice, explanatory tabs at the top led to very well organized menus, such as the Ability Code menu with a simple trade-in and trade-out scheme and a graphical tree for ability code prerequisites, and the clothing and equipment load-out menu. I was able to see what my character’s mental capacity for ability codes was, and switch codes around as necessary. William also explained the extent of the class customization: "In the case of ‘Hey, we need a healer,’ one of you is out to a hardline, back in the loading area, hacker program in your head, healer program in the back, you’re back in the game and ready to keep playing." He also explained that it is possible to create duplicate items that degrade over time due to unstable code. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explore the rest of the Jack-In interface, but a noteworthy tab was the "Marketplace."

One click and a beautiful Matrix code load-in sequence later, and I was standing in front of a hardline, greeted by a few other players playing from Monolith. After being shown how to use the very useful shortcut toolbar to change clothes and select skills. I was then shown the Inventory and Action screens, and treated to a description of how Hackers may embed code into clothing for added protection and other such nifty things. Then came combat.

Before this demonstration, the only understanding I had of combat in The Matrix Online were the three categories of styles: Power, Speed, and Defense. Naturally, I was blown away when I saw combat with my own eyes.

The combat system is known as "Tactics." The Power, Speed, and Defense styles remain; however, the game recommends to you which styles you use. As soon as combat begins, there is a bar with a queue of five boxes. These boxes contain icons and colors representing fighting styles, and numbers that represent the power of each individual move. The first move in the queue is pitted against the opponent’s, and in an elegantly simple but effective calculation, the person with the higher power either blocks or deals damage that round of attacks.

Here is where the player comes in. By clicking on the individual moves, the player may rearrange the order of tactics however he or she wishes. Also, if one move is positioned next to another move of the same type, the player may combine the two moves for increased power. This system gives the choice to the player how involved he or she wishes to be in the combat system.

Additionally, a player’s momentum in combat plays a major role. Every move selected by the player adds to the tactical momentum, which accumulates during combat. This momentum allows the player to perform special moves. It encourages players to keep going on fighting instead of the traditional "Fight, then sit until you regain all health" approach to combat; the player could find a place to heal, or he/she could use the momentum gained to perform special moves on one more opponent, likely weakening them with effects attached to the moves, and taking them out quickly by the end of combat.

Hackers play an important role in the game as well, taking on both the roles of "crafter" and "mage." Their codes affect other players outside of Interlock, healing, buffing or debuffing themselves or other players, or inflicting status effects. Also, the Hackers are integral to the advancement of other players; if a player levels up, he or she is not immediately awarded an ability code. Instead, it is necessary for a Hacker to patch together a few code fragments, compile, and voila--New, and hopefully stronger, ability code.

Anyway, after a demonstration of my mad skills (and the fact that the opponents I was fighting were of lower level), I defeated two opposing players. Notably, I also leveled up--it seems that PvP combat gives experience right from the get-go. After the combat was finished, I was asked to join a mission team. I followed my team with the help of the very smooth controls, and entered a rather tall building. Before entering the elevator, I had a quick look out the window, to see another player waving from outside. Then I boarded, and clicked a convenient "Mission" button on the elevator controls. Could this be the instanced mission system I had heard so much about?

An elevator ride and several Player vs. Enemy fights later, I had completed my mission. I ran back to the hardline, and that was the end of my experience in the Matrix. I left the meeting room, my expectations for the game having been raised even more, feeling like I had just lived a dream that was so real…