The Animatrix was entertaining, thanks to its eclectic mix of tangential stories and varying artistic motifs, and The Matrix Online daringly follows suit in its attempt to try new ideas, including a new "leveling" system. Characters choose one of three professions—soldier, hacker, or martial artist—and can be decked out in a full range of leather, alligator skin, and vinyl. However, instead of straight level-building, abilities can be downloaded and sampled as necessary. Permanent choices come into play only deeper in the game, after you're familiar with the system. This eliminates sifting through unknown statistics and being locked into your choices.

The Matrix Online will also be very story driven; the author of the comic book Concrete, Paul Chadwick, has already scripted out an advanced year-long plot. But missing crucial plot twists isn't a problem—story episodes will be available for download.