El Paso, Elsewhere Review (Fingerthing)
I flip-flopped on whether or not to recommend this game or not. On one hand: The writing and acting is superb, the cutscenes stylishly directed despite the lo-fi aesthetics, and a varied (and long!) score which bounces between witch house bangers and the developer's best CLIPPING impersonation. On the other: Dull, monotonous gameplay that largely misses the point of what made Max Payne and bullet-time fun. Compounded by a somewhat bizarrely bloated runtime. (Seriously, you could have cut out 15 levels here for a dramatic improvement to the pacing.)
What ultimately tipped the scale for me was a bit of news that came out while playing. There's a film adaptation in the works, starring LaKeith Stanfield. Assuming it comes out, and retains Xalavier's writing chops, it will be a much better way to experience this story. Admittedly, I'll miss the likely absence of the protagonist's murmured, intimate and very-closely-mic'd narration, though not so much that I'll miss how tedious this game was to play at times.
To get into some more detail about the failings of the gameplay, the key mistake here is the game's insistence on nearly every enemy being a melee attacker. This decision laid bare for me one of the fundamental appeals of Max Payne. Bullet Time, and the Dive, exists to counter *ranged* enemies. Even more specifically, hit-scan enemies. You dive into a new room to throw your attackers aim off, because if you get shot more than like three or four times, you're smoked. The dream, then, is to dance across the battlefield as bullet trails soar past you with inches to spare, and land a decisive shot before it's too late.
Diving in El Paso makes you an idiot. No reason to do it, no bullets to dodge. There are enemies that shoot slow-moving projectiles, which you can largely dodge in normal speed if you're awake. The closest the dive comes to being essentialized is the Knight enemies, which have a large weak-spot on their backs -- easy to target if you dodge past them -- but why do that when they easily go down to a stake or a well-placed frontal shotgun shot?
So instead you quickly discover that the best method is to use the slow-mo, stand still and play point-and-click on enemy heads before they can get close to you. And if you're out of slow-mo, just kite backwards!! They can't do anything!! Because they don't have guns!!!!
This results in gameplay that outwears its welcome by around 90 minutes, which seems bad for what should be a brisk 6-8 hours. My friends, my 6.8 hour playtime felt every bit its length.
As I suggested earlier, cutting 15 levels would be something of a remedy, as every third level or so presents some fun gimmick, either in visuals or audio, in a way very reminiscent of, uh, Remedy. Keep those, cut the Doom WAD filler. While we're at it, change the combat. Shoot, maybe remove it altogether. The cutscenes are all great, so maybe make it just that? And then also have actors emote the story, using their faces. Then give me a big bowl of popcorn. Wait a minute...
This story spoke to me a great deal, which is why my tone is a little snippy. I earnestly, truly, hope that the film adaptation is able to retain the stylish edge and intimate feel that El Paso, Elsewhere has, while doing justice to its love of violence in a way the game could not. Then I could recommend it with my whole chest.