The Matrix Awakens is 2021’s must-play flex of current-gen console power

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  Virtual Keanu Reeves, rendered in real time on a consumer-grade Xbox Series X in the latest Unreal Engine 5 demo. [credit: Epic Games ]

2021 is the 25th anniversary of a gaming-related milestone: the Super Mario 64 face. This fascinating tech demo (whose creator opines about it in a May 2021 interview) is the first thing you see upon booting the N64’s signature game, and it was a declaration of the N64’s potential 3D prowess, well ahead of the likes of Sony’s first PlayStation.

Modern games rarely come with this sort of useless, whimsical tech demo, and similar tech muscle-flexes on consoles have been rare in the years since the N64’s ’90s heyday. Tonight, another unbelievable demo joins its ranks: The Matrix Awakens.

This brand-new Unreal Engine 5 showcase, now downloadable on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, is rendered almost entirely in real time on current-gen consoles. What’s more, every image in this article was not only captured on my own home Series X but is also, according to Epic Games, rendered in real time. Only a few choice snippets of the demo, now downloadable via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, consist of premade video footage, which I skipped in favor of the impressive faces, action sequences, and cityscapes that UE5 is apparently equipped to render on the latest home consoles.