all i want is to share this game mechanic idea.
After having watch a video talking of Driver San Francisco gameplay mechanics it came to me the idea of a "Matrix" game that you start out not exactly like in the movie, but rather as regular person that is offered multiple path which offer a variety of storylines and gameplay systems, and the heart of the idea is applying the Driver game mechanic of changing cars whenever you feel like it at any time with 0 restrictions. When you play as an Agent for example, this mechanic would be made available to others gameplay as well, but depending on the storyline there is 2 way to move to another body. By force or by consent. One is called possession and the other is overshadowing.
During a possession the host mind and body can be uncooperative and can enter in rage, berserk mode, confusion, While in overshadowing the host is very cooperative and his mind is focused the body is relaxed and calmed, so it is very responsive and allows the the overshadowing to be actually beneficial to the host, while a possession leaves a Host in fear and not remembering anything, Overshadowed host tend to become more spiritual and at peace. (overshadowed host are more opened to overshadowing at any given time, while possesed being are more opened to be possesed again and again.) (a red light on a person means that this person can be possesed and will be cooperative, if overshadowed it will not be cooperative, if overshadowing a green light the person will be greatly cooperative while possesing a green light can kill you, use at your own risk.)
Anyway enough with this introduction, here is the idea itself. (note that originally this was a comment as a reply on a youtube video)
a way to adapt this mechanic would to be make another matrix game but you start as an agent with this ability and you got to catch the hackers and other anomalies...depending on how you play, the machine can enhance other abilities of yours to make you more deadly or you choose to become an exile program that have hacked access to previous protocols such as what all agents have access to + you gain abilities like exiles do.
When becoming an enforcer of the machine the story become straight forward, which can get very difficult at some point if you go reckless.
When choosing to be an exile you can either build up your empire and not give a shit about anyone like the Merovingian or become a guardian of truths like the Seraphim. With their own difficulty spikes and gameplay basis.
The agent gameplay is more about like being super cop, fallowing orders and getting shit done.
The Exile gameplay is more focused as rts/rpg hybrid in which you build your base and develop your character, with the power of Agents without their limitations. (execpt that you can not be a God, you remain a super powerful program.) (Exiles and agents are pretty much like cop vs robbers, the Agents can't hack thru an Exile. Agents can not die, they get transfered to another body fallowing a script from the machine. Exiles are returned to their base as long as their Nexus is functional if they perish in a fight and if their base resource allows them to.)
On the seraphim gameplay it is much harder, because there is more talking to be done then fighting, however if you choose to fight, the game will be very difficult unless you are particuliarly well skilled player. (when fighting an Agent the Seraphim players are the only players that can litteraly Kill an agent or Exile and prevent them from being rerouted to another body. (this come to a great cost however, Save points to a seraphim character are few and are connected to the source and when you are killed you have 0 checkpoints. Seraphims can be killed quickly so it's a very challenging playthru.
Other play type is that You become an exile that have join the Cult of Morpheus. You choose to be "saved" by Morpheus red pill, That gameplay is similar to the seraphim gameplay except that you have 0 access to the secrets door and to source however you can save almost whenever you feel like it, simply by organising a point with your opperator to jack out.
Planify your things because each and every time you sucessfuly jack out you increase you heat on the Agents.. to lower down your heat you have to do side quest in the matrix to throw the agents off or do anoying jobs to other exile programs or source programs to get them with a special code that reduce the heat on you, making it less hard for you. However after completing certain missions the heat level increase drasticly and can not be decreased completely, only temporally, like around 30 mins.
and the last gameplay type for hardcore char. is when you take the blue pill. You start literaly with the counciousness of a normal human. And the power of one as well.... So the only way to progress in this is to be extremely careful... When you see an agent you comply and give them what they want, this will increase your rep to the matrix machine, They promise not to hack you, but what they can do is use you temporally so that you gain the power of an Agent and then the agent leaves and you are back as a human, remembering nothing of what happened..So this way the game is easy, but your consciousness awareness does not level up.. (like possession) The higher your rep with agents the more likely you can call them and the more powerful the possesion can be, as long as you do the will of the machine...if you start to annoy the machine they will leave you and not respond to you anymore. However you might spark the interest of some very wicked and deceitful wrenches within the exiles, If you choose to help the oracle and do borring and anoying work for her you will be eventually be alloyed to be connected to some exile that are not like seraphs, but still pretty powerful, while being overshadowed by those exiles, when they are there your coiunciousness levels up from lvl 10 up to 1....yes backwards. a level 0 is Neo and there can be only one.
However in this gameplay you can become a lvl 1 t strength closest character as powerful as you can get next to Neo. Most masters in the game would be level 2 or 3 t-strength.
the more your t strength raises the longer you can remain overshadowed and at one point you can retain shared abilities over a team of 3 exiles which you can swap whenever you feel like it.
if an exile dies it will return only after you return to specific location. if the lifepoint of an exile get low try to learn to use swap attacks. (you switch, strike and switch back. each exiles have their combo.) This is not availaible with agents gameplay, however agents can call for reinforcment, they can block roads and even call of the millitary opps.
When playing the possesed side you start out powerful, only your rep to the agents grow, not your counciousness, however you will be offered to become an agent, you can refuse off course, but this play thru will make so hard that at one point you would prefer becoming an agent. Still you will have the choice given to you.
Almost forgot to talk about the red pilled characters these character base offer so much flexibility as to how and where you want to jack in the matrix, the only limit you have is in gigabytes shown in number in the screen. The more data you upload in the matrix with you when you jack in the more then likely that you will need to move fast and slightly far from your jack in position.
The lighter you are when you jack in you attract little to no attention.
if you jack in with 5 other characters and a filled up arsenal and 1 car 3 bike your data warning will be off the hook. Wherever you jack in there will be a lvl 5 allert being sent from Agents to get to your locations. (depending on the locations you jack in certain equipment this will reduce the heat by 1 level and in other case it will increase the heat of 1 level.) (jacking an old tank next to a military warehouse or in a museum warehouse can decrease the heat level, spawning a helicopter outside of a helipad triggers instant anomaly warning from the matrix.)
(there can be joke planted in the code as if you jack in with a flying saucer in area 51 your alert level is only at 1.)
On lvl 4 alerts agents start possesing civilians nearby so guess what happen at 5... max heat lvl in this would be around 8. very hard to move from 7 to 8 if you get to 8 i will simply write it off like in borderlands 2. "you.will.die"