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 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