I think I love this game? It does have flaws, sometimes glaring ones, but the combat flows so well and the story really hit for me. This is definitely not a game for everyone, the early levels are pretty repetitive and it takes a little too long for the game to really find its footing, but once it gets going it really goes places. It tells a story about abuse and addiction in a way that I found refreshingly honest, if a little clumsily handled in one or two instances. Overall a great game to spend a couple afternoons on if you can muscle through the game's slow opening.

In a seedy motel down in El Paso the lord of all vampires, Draculae, has opened a rift to Hell and is ushering in a ritual to end the world. A drug-addicted monster hunter, James Savage, ventures into the bowels of the motel to stop it, knowing that this adventure may be his last; but hey, he can’t let his ex-girlfriend destroy the world after all.

El Paso Elsewhere wears its influence from Remedy’s oeuvre on its sleeve. The opiate popping hardboiled detective soliloquizing in between shooting down enemies in John Woo slo-mo clearly hearkens to Max Payne and the motel’s hellish depths of dimensional shifting corridors filled with supernatural aberrations are akin to a fusion of Max Payne 1’s nightmare sequences and Control’s eldritch halls of The Oldest House. El Paso uses these elements as a springboard to make its own identity though.

Mechanically the game is similar to Max Payne though its focus on tighter corridors and mix of melee and ranged enemies does bring its own sense of hecticness that sets it apart from Max. You have a full arsenal of weapons here ranging from stakes, which you can only hold a limited amount and guarantee an instant melee kill on any basic enemy, shotguns, molotovs, and rifles. I was constantly switching between weapons throughout the whole game as they all have their uses; even the basic dual pistols stay viable throughout as they are fairly long-range, accurate, and good for getting critical hits off of headshots.

Narratively the game does an actually real good job being a supernatural neo-noir. Max Payne 1 and 2 were mainly just noir pastiche, purposely goofy in a way that didn’t give its cast much depth beyond archetypes. El Paso actually manages to be a quality character study of abusive relationships and addiction through a noir genre lens. James yearns for the past, that one perfect day of his relationship as he puts it; even though he knows nothing but pain and self-destruction awaits him down that road. Affection and care had devolved into abusive control and thinly-veiled threats of violence as true characters were revealed. But like the drug addict he is James still can’t stop trying to regain that impossible high. All of this is well portrayed through the quality voice-acting in between levels as James is transported to each floor through the dimensional elevator. The game also has some levity with its Remedy-esque easter eggs like the continuing adventures of Pill Cop that you find throughout the levels.

It does have its share of flaws and jank though. One thing is it takes some time for the game to actually start taking off, the game has fifty levels, and for around the first fifteen or so you’re basically just fighting basic vampires and werewolves where you're not going to really have to bother using slo-mo that much. The first boss is also a bit of spike and I think they probably could give you a bit more ammo for the strongest weapons for him. I still managed but just be sure to rebind the roll onto something where you can hit it faster and easier for that fight.

Despite any missteps El Paso Elsewhere is still a genuinely great game and I actually like it over most of Remedy’s games aside from Control. Definitely worth checking out.

I loved the rap songs. Every time one of those played it really boosted the atmosphere. Voice acting and story were also pretty cool. The rest of the game was just alright. It's repetitive but the gameplay is satisfying and fun but definitely not fun enough to justify the repetitiveness. End of the day I had a good time with it but didn't leave too much of an impression. Wish I had more to say :( the game oozes cool but there is something lifeless in the core gameplay. The main dude IS cool but he doesn't make ME feel cool playing as him.

El Paso Elsewhere is more than just a love letter to the original Max Payne games, it manages to carve out its own diverse lore, that feels wholly unique. The writing is incredible, from the opening cutscene, right until the emotional crescendo at the final moments. The gameplay itself is a little flawed, and there are some levels here that do feel a like a little filler, but the story alone was more than enough to carry me through those parts that were lacking. If you like noir adventures, and want to explore the dynamics of a mentally abusive breakup, this is definitely worth checking out ASAP.

El Paso, Elsewhere's mix of emotional sincerity and over-the-top action result in a fairly unique experience; despite the game wearing its influences very openly on its sleeve. The gameplay loop provides plenty of fun fast-paced action as you traverse through some well-crafted maze-like levels, serving as a great representation of James's reflection on his failed relationship with Draculae. The writing and voice acting are both great, often shifting effortlessly between heartfelt monologues and witty one liners. The game’s visuals are striking despite the low-poly art style with vibrant effects that do a fantastic job of contrasting many of the gloomy mazes you’ll find yourself shooting through. The soundtrack can feel a bit hit or miss and I expect this may be a point of contention for a lot of players but I found it to generally do a good job of invoking what I perceive to be the heart of the game; the punchy hip-hop tracks pairing well with the chaotic action sequences and the more atmospheric, dissonant tracks complementing the introspective moments.

Unfortunately, the lack of enemy variety and unique environments result in the game feeling quite repetitive and unexciting at times. I understand that the game feeling drawn out may be at least partially intentional in order to really sell the feeling of drudging through James's seemingly insurmountable amount of baggage but I still can't help but feel that a portion of these chapters could have been cut, with the narrative feeling tighter and the pacing feeling more succinct as a result. That being said, getting through some of these rougher moments is well worth it as both endings are quite solid and memorable.

There's so much of me that wants to give this game a higher score than I did. El Paso, Elsewhere has so much going for it in its atmosphere and its insanely well-written story. However, its gameplay doesn't hold up to the same level of quality, leaving it to stick out like a sore thumb.

It's less that the gameplay is outright bad because it's not. It does enough to carry you from point A to point B, but that's it. It features all the tools that make third-person shooters like it great, but rarely knows how to use those tools to the fullest effect.

The kryptonite to that is the difficulty, which only rarely provides any sense of challenge. The few glimpses of it feel incredible, but 95% of the time you'll never find a reason to use half the weapon roster, let alone the iconic slowdown mechanic of games like Max Payne.

I'd say this is still more than worth picking up for its incredible story alone, but you should be aware of what you're getting into. You need to be ready for the story and atmosphere to pretty much carry the game on its shoulders.

El Paso, Elsewhere is fucking incredible. All I was expecting was a Halloween flavored Max Payne send up and while I definitely got that I think it's unfair for this game to live in that shadow. It takes so much from that series but rearranges and tweaks those things to achieve it's own identity.

I love urban fantasy. Dresden Files, Vampire The Masquerade, Blackwell. A supernatural underworld just below the surface of humanity. Often treating humans like cattle or at least disposable for their own purposes. I find it so interesting and El Paso is no exception. The little bits of worldbuilding we get paint a similar picture but this one is much more abstract.

You play James Savage who is currently in a three-story motel that just got a 46 story expansion all heading down, courtesy of his ex, Draculae. She's taking part in some sort of ritual that will end the world and has plenty of hostages. Whatever this ritual is doing is causing The Void to warp reality with trauma into a nightmarish thrill ride all the way to the bottom where they'll confront everything that made their relationship come to this.

All supernatural chaos aside their abusive relationship manages to feel very real in the little ways they interact and the voice acting helps this exponentially. It's clear to me the writer knows what this kind of relationship feels like. It's not afraid to poke fun at the melodrama of two ex lovers confronting each other either. These two characters the story revolves around are flawed and fleshed out and I really enjoyed them.

James' descent into this hellish motel feels incredible. Diving past ghouls, rolling through their slashes and slow mo blasting them in the head. Saving hostages in between brief bursts of violence and popping enough pain pills to kill himself 50 times over just to tank through The Void's horde of supernatural horrors. If you hold down the dive button you can stay on the floor until you're out of ammo and need to get up to reload. Like I said it's Max Payne. The one main tweak in the gameplay besides enemy variety is an instant kill stake that you get 5 of and break various pieces of furniture to get more. Break shit, kill people. That's the gameplay loop and god is it addicting.

Which brings me to the music. It's pulse pounding and intense in a way that feeds perfectly into the gameplay. Other times moody or relaxing but always experimental and playful. Any time a track with lyrics comes up feels like a treat. It's one of those total package things where the visuals, sound design, gameplay and music are all working together perfectly. The entire OST has me seriously considering getting the vinyl.

El Paso, Elsewhere is a must play. There's so much I didn't mention because I want you to unravel the rest of this one for yourself. I'll definitely be trying to 100% this in the future and it's safe to say I'll be replaying this for many years to come.

a flawed gem that's greater than the sum of its parts but ultimately is held back by those scuffs

what is immediately obvious is that this game is less a tribute to max payne and the shooters of its time and more an ode to remedy as a creative force
it captures what makes their games so evocative while entirely being its own thing
right down to the full embrace of being a video game ass video game and not letting that hold back the work's ambitions
the little audio snippets that are solely there because the devs wanted to throw some funny shit in this otherwise overwhelmingly bleak experience
unless it's actually functioning as a narrative bolster, in which case
just as the majority of el paso, elsewhere's narrative
it's very effective

the reason to play this game is not because of its gameplay, not because that gameplay is bad but because it's simply pretty good in the face of some of the best story telling you'll see in a fully voiced indie game with like
two, maybe three voice actors
control rings heavy in the way shots are composed and the general approach to cutscene structure, but where el paso elevates is in its frankness
because while the story itself isn't necessarily the show stopper it's still got meat
james savage is addicted to painkillers, an addiction specified to have either started or have gotten way worse after leaving a harrowingly abusive relationship
unfortunately, his ex was fucking dracula(e)
in the pits of the void, she is conducting a ritual to take over the world, and the only person aware of it and able to do anything is the man she abused
fueled by a never ending, body destroying supply of opiods and experience as a monster hunter, he plunges deep on a one way trip to stop her
this element of addiction, trauma, and how they often fuel or occur in reaction to each other is the game's most overt theme
it does not sugar coat anything about it
i could be flowery and describe this game's cutscenes, how great the neo-noir writing is and all that shit, but i saw just a random one on twitter and was immediately convinced to give this game a go - something i otherwise would not have done
they're good, and they are absolutely worth the price of admission on their own
the performances from both leads are fantastic in spite of some scant few scenes stepping into melodrama territory made somewhat more apparent by how both leads (the two voices you're going to hear the most) are definitely playing against type
the protagonist is a black man voiced by a white man and it is immediately and jarringly obvious that this is the case
my white ass doesn't have a word to really say about it ethically given that this game is written and directed by a black man, but i will say that it was
once again
very obvious

which also branches into the first of my two biggest complaints with this game
the score is, partly, pretty damn great
the partly is, unfortunately, tragicly because of many tracks being what i can only describe as e-boy rap
there's shit on here that sounds like corpse husband is rapping on it and i fucking loathe it
no, this is not because i dislike rap music, the year is 202X of fucking course i like rap my guy
on the contrary, i've heard significantly better appear in video games (rap in video games often having a nerdy vibe in the first place) so when the same fucking voice that plays your main character is rapping about breaking shit and both of these vocal performances are going on at the same time it's extremely distracting
so i just really notice that i do not like these songs
it's not even just the vocals, the production sounds noticeably worse on these tracks
i cannot get past it, it completely sucked me out of the experience every time one showed up
and that's primariiy why i'm frustrated: everything else is working in this game's favor in terms of presentation and tone (even when the game's being overtly ridiculous, that shit's just funny)
so when one singular element that was very easy to leave out is just proding my brain over and over it's just
very annoying
i commend the effort, a lot of work went into these songs and given that the person who made them was the sound designer and also voiced the main protagonist (among others), that's a lot of shit to do
i've heard WAY worse - corpse husband's music is so much fucking worse than what's in this
but the vibe is the same, and it absolutely does not fit
a massive shame

the game's other big issue is that it's way too long
this is probably thematically relevant given that there's a lot of talk of the endurance of this journey taking its toll on james
but when the game's level design rarely gets all that varied or interesting, you're left with a gameplay loop that's good
but simple
i said before you don't wanna get this for the gameplay and that's because max payne this really isn't
it reminds me more of painkiller with a shoot dodge in the backrooms
and just like painkiller and other games like it unfortunately can be, it's repetetive and gets long in the tooth
this is a six-seven hour game and it could've easily been about four
what carried maxy payne was great level design and spectacle, neither of which this game has (most of the time)
which is honestly okay, this is NOT a bad game to play
i enjoyed most of my time with it
but combined with how easy this game generally is, i was counting down the remaining levels
there are fifty of them
i started doing this at about thirty
i stuck with this game because i loved how this story was told and i enjoyed how this game nailed the fundamentals
it felt good to shoot shit, so it wasn't really a slog
but still, way too long

but really? this game being ovwhemingly praised thus far is deserved
what it does well it does extremely well, and that effort should be commended
a story that centers a victim of domestic abuse that is also a hardboiled neo-noir gunslinger isn't something that you often see, let alone something that takes the former element as deadly serious as this game does
it feels personal and i love that
this game overall feels very personal and i will always appreciate that over what you often see in video game story telling
this feels like the game everybody working on it wanted to make
i hope that's the case, at least

definitely one of the highlights of the year, just don't let the comments of "it's just like max payne!!!!!" mislead you
it's not the same, and it's not as good

but the storytelling is, if not better

What an incredible journey this game is. Your Ex is the Lord of the Vampires, and she is about to destroy the world. You go on a pill infused journey to stop her.
The storytelling and soundtrack especially are world class. There were so many times I couldn't put the game down, as I felt a strong need to see what happened next. You learn about how you were with Draculae, how you'd speak to each other, past dramas, your inner struggles as you are faced with a decaying body, and wanting to go back to a simpler time, while still feeling the need to keep going to stop the world from ending. It's enthralling. The cutscenes are shot perfectly, the voice acting feels very real, and the soundtrack lifts the entire experience to the next lvl. Despite the game's indie budget, it feels incredibly AAA (in a good way) in these departments.

The gameplay itself has you running around, shooting monsters. You have a full arsenal of guns, a dodge-roll, and a slow motion mechanic (that I forgot to use throughout the entire game, oops). You can also dive, which I also forgot to use. Oops.

Despite the simple premise, the game is quite satisfying to play. The enemies are placed in ways that make you really have to think about who you want to prioritize. Shooting werewolves in front isn't going to be of much use when you re being sniped by energy-balls from the back.

That said, what is holding this game back from being a full 5/5 stars, is its pacing in the gameplay lvls. While the story pacing is great, you can often feel like the game drags on. The game spends a very long time between introducing new enemies, so you are stuck fighting just a basic enemy that runs towards you for a good hour or so. Then they'll introduce one more enemy, and it once again takes forever before you see anything new. After everything has been introduced, the same issue persists, it takes too long before something special happens. That's not to say the gameplay isn't fun, I think more the issue is that the devs did not have enough resources to make everything they wanted to.

A side-complaint I also wanted to mention is that for most of the game it is simply too easy. Out of all the levels, I think I only died on 3 of them, one of which being the first boss, and one of my deaths was because I got stuck in the geometry and was unable to move. While not a huge issue, I would have loved to see a difficulty mode where they don't necessarily boost any numbers, but make resources and ammo a bit more scarce, forcing you to use your whole arsenal while not having instant access to healing, and without the slow-motion bar. While I played the entire game without using the slow-motion, if I were to use it it would completely invalidate any challenge in this game if I were to use it.

Usually when a game offers a slow-motion mechanic, the enemies and world design is balanced around it. For example, the enemies that charge energy-balls are very easy to locate and take out, even with full-speed gameplay, before they ever get to shoot. They could have made it a lot more interesting if the player was forced to use the slow-motion to deal with situations like these.

It feels like there should have been more enemy types, it feels like there should have been at least one more environment to explore, and it feels like there should have been more secrets. Because of what I can only assume is budget constraints, they had to do the best with what they had. They wanted the story to have this length, and they wanted you to have this amount of time between the hard hitting story beats, so instead of making something new, they remixed what they had. While not a big issue, it can sometimes feel like the game drags on a little too long before new things are introduced. It does get repetitive.

Personally, with this many levels in the game, there should have been more enemy variety. Once you overcome the challenge of one enemy, and how they are combined with other enemies, throwing more of the same at the player is ultimately pointless. They should either have added more variety, or cut down on the repetitiveness.

That said, the game is full of awesome moments, unique setpieces during the lvls, and the main character's monologues never get old. In the end, "I wanted more game" is probably not the worst critique a dev can get.

I really hope this game does well so they can make a sequel. I need to know what happens next.

Played 2.1 hours, wish I had refunded on Steam a few minutes before.

The first Max Payne remains is my favorite PS2-era action game, I have had a passionate love affair with PC-first low budget indie games since Minecraft's original launch, due to the ability that format gives the developers to pursue unconventional ideas, and take the time necessary to adequately execute on a concept. The best of that format (Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium, The Case of the Golden Idol) offer novel, polished experiences that, outside of occasional Nintendo releases, we almost never see in the AAA or even AA space.

This game is not low-budget, it's cheap. The 2.1 hours I have spent with it feel more like 10, due to the grating, repetitive nature of the level design. There are a total of 2 repeat enemies so far, with single encounters with 2 others. Each of these has exactly one mode of attack, and is used in the same 2-3 ways throughout the levels. The levels themselves have so few assets, recycled so gratuitously, that they often feel like pre-alpha leaks. They do not build one another, offer twists or new obstacles, or even any particular strategic challenge in the combat. The 4, generic weapons so far are just as effective against each of the enemy types. The reason Max Payne's combat worked so well was that the slow-mo diving changes the approach to combat against ranged enemies a great deal. With these melee enemies, the slow-mo ability hardly makes a difference. It is a surface-level aesthetic imitation without a basic understanding of the foundations.

Even if the game has just one more level to go, I don't want to see it. Writing this review was more stimulating.

El Paso Elsewhere is one of my favourite games of this year.

It is a game that caters to the nostalgia of the player, with mechanics and storytelling nods to the first two Max Payne games, but is also about the concept of nostalgia, in the form of how one remembers and thinks about past relationships and how this inflects upon who you are today.

This combination is neat enough as the premise for a game but it layers on:
- very tone-appropriate voice acting with some very good overly wrought noir feelings,
- great music tracks that aren't just a nod to what you would find in a Max Payne,
- some pretty interesting levels that, while 'simple', feel thematically interesting and make use of the game concept well
- includes adjustable difficulty sliders to adjust for people who either want a more pure narrative experience to glide through the combat or to scale up the difficulty to punishing is always a plus in my books

The ideal way of approaching playing it is to pick it up for 10-20 minutes at a time and get in a mission or two and then taking a break. I think taking breaks to do other things really helped improve how playing this game felt because as others have said, it is a bit repetitive in some ways but I never felt that get to me because it was nice to settle back into for each session.

Enjoy the elevator ride to nowhere; sometimes its about the journey your body takes and sometimes its about how your mind fills in the blank spaces.

This game is A Lot and so it's kind of hard to fully put into words what it felt like to me by the end.

Starting with the gameplay: It is indeed heavily inspired by the old Max Payne games. However the enemy selection feels a lot more like it's from an old 90s FPS like Quake or Unreal. Meanwhile the level design, quick kills and soundtrack make it feel a litle bit like Hotline Miami. All in all the levels get a little bit tedious, but I got around most of that by bumping up the enemy damage and item healing to 1,5. There are a lot of genuinely satisfying moments in the game where you perfectly line up a headshot right at the critical moment. Even better is when you enter a room, enter bullet time, land 6 headshots in a row so fast that your resource bar is still full afterwards and cleaning up with the shotgun. While some of the levels do drag on a bit and there are a lot of them... these Perfect Moments make it feel all worth it to me.

At the start of the game you have a kind of heavier, surreal take on From Dusk 'til Dawn to wrap up the early vibe. Max Payne, Quake, Hotline Miami, From Dusk 'til Dawn... those influences kind of wrap up the aesthetic at the start. Though of course not quite because Hotline Miami has an electronic soundtrack. El Paso, Elsewhere pumps an electronic hip-hop OST and boy does it work. Not all of the tracks are instant favourites but some levels are kind of defined by how PERFECT the track is. "BREAK SHIT" being my personal favourite. Even if it's not your usual favourite genre I'd say it's worth sticking with it just for those absolutely Perfect Moments.

So the real story behind the game starts to become clear about halfway through and it gets pretty heavy. I won't spoil anything but there's a recurring theme that ties in with the protagonists substance addiction. Basically the protagonist has gone for a very long with something that was terrible for him in the chase after those Perfect Moments. Interestingly, the game makes a point of saying that the chase for Perfect Moments doesn't have to be a bad thing in and of itself. As he says at the very early stages: A good death is almost no work at all, you just need to pick the right moment for a just suicide mission. A good life is something you have to commit to every day. It's easy to find one quick perfect moment and commit to it, even knowing that it will only get worse. Yet picking the harder option will lead to many more Perfect Moments down the line.

The game is also very obviously limited in terms of production resources and it shows. While some will complain that this makes it feel cheap, I think it's truly impressive how beautiful the game looks at times. A lot of levels do not have any roof, which I assume started as a result of time constraints. The game even acknowledges that this is a thing and kind of explains it away as a part of the entity that's creating these levels. Rather than feel like lampshading though, this feels like the most natural thing in the world. Even if you had your doubts on that one, you do find maps with roofs later on and the protagonist even comments on how this makes his life more difficult. When there's no roof you can scout rooms ahead, you can snipe flying enemies, you can navigate to the pillars of light that mark your level objectives. With a roof? No such luck. On top of this, the game has some of the most surprisingly beautiful shots that I've seen in gameplay since Bloodborne. The player perspective, props, level architecture and skybox sometimes line up to make something absolutely beautiful and you'll almost feel silly that you doubted the game's graphics in the face of these Perfect Moments.

The reason that I keep emphasising those Perfect Moments in both the game and the narrative is that I kind of feel like they are meant to be tied together. You put up with some tedious gameplay for those Perfect Moments. You put up with the somewhat generic ambient score in order to hear the next track from the "Real" OST. Just like the protagonist you have to decide whether the hard parts are worth the payoff and you have to decide whether sticking with it is an addiction or a productive project.

I don't entirely know whether this was even deliberate but I have to assume it was at least partially so. Certainly I feel like the story did not need as many levels as it did if they wanted to only serve the gameplay. Either way I find it hard to even say whether I like that they did the game this way. It's hard to say whether the tedious stuff was worth putting up with just for the game to make its point about Perfet Moments. Yet then the fact that I am even pondering the question kind of validates the choice, right? Was the game more like the Perfect Moment that comes from getting yourself ice cream as a reward for going through your hardships or is it closer to the Perfect Moment that comes from being seduced into an addiction? I have to believe that its the former.

El Paso Elsewhere takes elements usually found in walking simulators, and mixes them into a short but satisfying Max Payne-esque third person shooter. It's one of those kinds of games that if you vibe with every part of it, it'll feel like one of the best games ever- but if you're not keen on any singular part it won't feel as good.

The shooting mechanics are solid, but don't push any boundaries. The slow-mo, dodge roll, and dives are fun to play with, but ultimately it was easier for me to blast them away with the shotgun up close, or hose them with the repeater rather than engaging in close combat acrobatics.

The level design is equally serviceable, feeling more like a chaotic funhouse maze than an explorable environment. There are a couple of large setpieces that help break up the monotony from time to time, but they were few and far between. It fit the story quite well, as you’re trapped in a twisted liminal space conjured from the antagonist’s tormented past, and the repetition was an intentional game design choice to highlight James’s struggle against the void. Making the level design more ‘fun’ would have created a disconnect between what the player is feeling and what James was. El Paso, Elsewhere is meant to be a struggle, and while that limits its replayability and fun factor for people who don’t vibe with the plot, it made everything feel far more interesting for me. It’s also fairly short, so the drudgery never became a true negative.

The collectables were a neat highlight, but few and far between. The projectors were a neat window into James & Janet’s deteriorating relationship, but the radios and their hilarious non sequitur pill cop episodes or one-off jokes provided small bouts of levity that inspired me to actively seek out on every level. Unfortunately, some are pretty hard to find, so I didn’t get them all.

Visually, El Paso, Elsewhere belongs roughly 18 years in the past, with low-poly models, visibly pixelated textures, and modernized lighting that creates a very brooding, liminal aesthetic that feels both unique and nostalgic. There’s a very distinct visual style and intentionality to how El Paso, Elsewhere looks that I think helps set it apart dramatically in a market that went past oversaturation years ago. Some people might dismiss it for looking archaic, but I personally love how it looks.

The OST is in two parts- the background music which is solid score with a surprisingly number of tracks. I’m not kidding, there are more songs than levels to the game- and while a lot are pretty short, the sheer variety present really helps break up the intentional monotony of the core gameplay loop without undercutting the immersion.

The second part are 11 tracks of experimental rap songs that kick in during pivotal moments of the game. As someone who rarely listens to rap/hip hop, I found myself rather drawn to each song as they played, as they’re quite catchy and due to their tailor-made nature fit the gameplay of each moment perfectly.

The story is where El Paso, Elsewhere really shines through however, told through a series of skits and monologues during gameplay and between levels, where James reflects on his life while traveling through the void on an old hotel elevator. They’re very raw, emotionally, and I could not help but be sucked into James’s mixture of self-depricating humor, genuine regret at a life lived poorly, his enduring love for Janet, his rising resentment towards the void and its denizens, and his compelling acceptance in the face of his looming death.

I didn’t expect to empathize with James as much as I did, and now that I’m finished I feel an odd sense of relief and loss. On reflection, I think it’s because most protagonists tend to be blank slates and everyman type characters, so having a game where you play as a distinct and distinctly broken person felt like an incredible breath of fresh air for me.

Ultimately, the El Paso, Elsewhere wasn’t particularly deep, nor did it go particularly far, and it didn’t need to. Instead, it delivers one of the most emotionally immersive experiences I’ve ever seen in a game. On a pure gameplay level, it loses its novelty after the first hour or so and drags on for another six, but every other core element of the game carries it hard for the rest of the duration. It’s an art house film in gaming form, with all the benefits and handicaps that brings, and even though I only finished it a few hours ago I’m already craving more- both of games of a similar caliber, but also from Strange Scaffold as well.