Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed

Buck Rogers Matrix Cubed is a sequel to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, but Matrix Cube had a revolutionary aspect for his time; the player could import his character from the previous versions of the pc game to ease the difficulty in the newer versions. (Think as the transfer system of Pokémon, except here is unidirectional and you can’t return your character to the first game.)

But we are going to talk about the technical aspects later; the story is quite good as it should be in the Buck Rogers traditions. A new Sun King rises and unites the Galactic Empire in peace and harmony, but a small rebel fraction doesn’t trust the king's intentions too much and they decided to kill him, so it’s the job of Buck to protect the king from being assassinated. I’m not going to give any major spoiler because any fragment of information can ruin the game, and I don’t want to spoil this golden retro piece.

The story is really good and is the heart of the game. In face, the story of Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is a clear example that a game can be good, entertaining, and playable even with the most primitive gameplay; the given score to the story is a perfect five.

The gameplay is quite fantastic and in my opinion it was ahead of his time. Why would I say that Matrix Cube was an avant-garde game? First, the player could upload his character from the previous game, that was a technological advancement for the period. Second you could create your character from a wide variety of options and as well races, going from Human to Mercurian if you wanted. And third, the best attribute it was that the game had also a free exploration more beside the main storyline, not many games from the begging of the 90’s had free roaming. The graphics are kind of rustic, only 1.5D charters as well the environment that I think is mostly a mix between 2.5D and the Doom mechanics, but still is really good because you see the game originality. The sounds are way cool, really retro and with a nostalgia factor that will remind you of the old series of Doctor Who and Flash Gordon.

The given score to the gameplay is a perfect five, because the game is really an amazing sequel that hardcore gamers will enjoy a lot as it has plenty of nostalgia for games of yesteryear.

The game is excellent, true gamers will appreciate this nostalgic beauty because it has elements that aren’t seen in today’s games. The final score to the game is a perfect five as I said is good and it has a great replay value, not only you can repeat the main story if you like but you can go and explore the universe. If you like Matrix Cubed, you probably enjoy Mission Critical and other old good retro games from the mid-nineties although they are less action oriented that Buck Rogers but it go more with the R.P.G. themes as there is little violence in the games.

Matrix Cubed currently can be found in different websites across the net as a shareware and it can be found really easy across the internet, I don’t recommend buying it as there are only a few original copies left in the market.