El Paso, Elsewhere

Super cool game honestly. It has a distinct atmosphere, where it combines early PS2 aesthetics with the uber pulpy Hunter the reckoning and gives it some Max Payne noir storytelling. It works a lot better than it should, especially given how limited the level settings can be. There are fifty fairly short levels, and you only explore a couple of types of environments like a motel, a graveyard, and some tombs. It helps that the presentation is top notch. The aesthetic is distinct and lends the cut scenes some surprising gravitas. The music is awesome, too, with fully performed music that calls to mind stuff like the Gorillaz being used to give everything a propulsive but off beat tone. The story is surprising, too. What starts as a strange monster hunting story turns into something surprisingly personal. The acting for the central characters is all excellent. It's a real gem, and I'm excited to see what they do with the sequel.

Really fun PS1 style callback to games like Max Payne, but there are a few things that really elevate it above it's inspirations. FIrstly, the story, acting and the music are fantastic editions on top of it's visual style. Really great stuff. Would have been easy to just have some run-and-gun-guy you've no attachment to, but for me it really sold me on it's protaganist as a realistic & nuanced character. Which wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do when you're mostly interating with things by John Woo diving while shooting! Great stuff! Great music too, didn't expect some of those tracks to get stuck in my head. Some really nice visuals aswell. There's a simplicity to the levels, which is a complement! No extra frills, just exacly whats needed without anything unnecessary. It's intended to just have plenty of areas to have interesting combat encounters. There's only a few enemy types, but in different combniations and different areas makes combat really engaging. Now much and all as I enjoyed the game (which I really really did), and this sounds like it would not be worth complenting, but it really is; the difficulty sliders are fantastic. Nearly every option in the game can be tweaked to your preference. Less health to infinite health, or maybe you just want to ajust the speed heal animations, or change how much you heal by. Enemy health, speed, slowmotion, just everything. It's the gold standard for difficulty and preference sliders. Just fantastic stuff!