izigame.me

El Matador - cheap short TPS (third-view shooter) Max Payne rip-off. It felt no that good even in 2006 when it was just released, and it is utterly hopeless now. Especially considering so many troubles with the proper booting the .exe file, which is not that simple as usual. El Matador is unplayable at the notebooks or laptops with the GPU chip on the motherboard. Even if you have some good discrete graphics card altogether.
(There is a solution here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/289280/discussions/0/154644349174336913, but it was not of any help with my notebook).
Anyway, some words about the game. It is very short, only 3-4 hours long on the maximum difficulty. There is some peculiar physical model, which allows using of the ricochets in the combat, for example... but you'll never use it. Even the obvious MaxPayne-style slow-mo is not so good, thanks to the system of the hits calculation. You see, in Max Payne, every bullet has its way from the barrel of the gun to some point where it stops, with the ballistics applied. There, in El Matador, you'll not have such a fortune. Bullets are not visible to the eye and flying as straight as the rays of a laser, and the only consolation for you is the buggy opportunity to shoot at enemies through cover. Not through their covers, no. You can basically just thrust the barrel into the wall or the iron block behind which you crouched in the shelter, and without getting up, to aim the enemy and kill him by shooting straight through the wall!
The story in the game is way too lame and primitive. You're some hotshot DIA operative, fighting some cartel in Colombia with the help of local police. That's all. Despite some staged and properly scripted briefing scenes - all the plot is about 1000 letters long. Certainly not the "Narco" (which is not that well-staged serial itself).
The only thing that can please modern player is about constantly (all 6 missions) changing backgrounds. However, even there some things were borrowed from Max Payne - for example, passing through the door, disguised as a wall cabinet. In 2006, I liked the level with the jungle, it was pretty bright for the shooters of those years, but now - of course, it's terrible. The only thing that pleased me even now, in 2018 was a shootout in the Nazi museum. Right in the middle of the exhibits. Well, a few small level-design details at the level with favelas were amusing (in a good way) as well, but besides those - it is still a damn short shooter game, where you are running from one corridor to another. And sometimes have to make your way through the vent pipe (like it was not overused in Half-Life and Nakatomi Plaza games).
I kinda like the glasses there, they were made quite realistic, and it feels good to dive through some glass wall while trying to dodge some bullets and shooting the villains... But hey. You can't see bullets there, so those dives weren't anything close to Max Payne. Sure, the glasses are good, but everything else - no.
My mark is 4.99/10. RIP, another generic Cenega useless shooter. If you ever feel like "I want something like Max Payne game" - just play the Max Payne game. From the wannabees that can provide at least somewhat originality, I can name only John Woo's Stranglehold. And even Chou Yun Fat-impersonated title was not as good as the original Finnish game. Which is fun, knowing it was based on John Woo's cinematics like "Hard Boiled" in the first place (same with the Matrix references and the Matrix TPS games).
PS: Technically, El Matador was released before Rockstar's Max Payne 3 title, and it's a game which could be the basis for some ideas (like, it is South American setting in the first place). However, the only thing where El Matador and Max Payne 3 are anything close - is about blasted unskippable video inserts! Oh, how I hate them!