El Paso, Elsewhere is an early 2000s/very late 1990s third-person boomer shooter with Max Payne slow-mo diving and a level based structure. You get a bunch of guns that all feel good and the maps are pretty well designed too.
Then you have the aesthetic, which is this weird noir lo-fi vibe mixed with really good voice acting and great (if slightly campy at times cough cough the raps ) music. Pretty cool. The story came across as a bit self-serious and borderline pretentious as first (but maybe a fun, intentional kind of pretentiousness?) but evolved into a really interesting/compelling story involving vampires I won't spoil.
The levels are pretty snappy, like 5-10 minutes apiece, and mowing down vampires and paranormal creatures is overall really fun. If I had one criticism, it's that 50 levels was a bit exhausting for the story they wanted to tell. I would have preferred the 30 best/most important ones carrying a more tightly-paced narrative with the less critical 20 being relegated to optional bonus levels you can unlock.
Ultimately, a super cool game that has put Strange Scaffold on the map for me as a studio to pay close attention to. I also wonder if this game could be a model for smaller devs making a 7-10 hour third-person action game campaign in the future. Really nifty!
Then you have the aesthetic, which is this weird noir lo-fi vibe mixed with really good voice acting and great (if slightly campy at times cough cough the raps ) music. Pretty cool. The story came across as a bit self-serious and borderline pretentious as first (but maybe a fun, intentional kind of pretentiousness?) but evolved into a really interesting/compelling story involving vampires I won't spoil.
The levels are pretty snappy, like 5-10 minutes apiece, and mowing down vampires and paranormal creatures is overall really fun. If I had one criticism, it's that 50 levels was a bit exhausting for the story they wanted to tell. I would have preferred the 30 best/most important ones carrying a more tightly-paced narrative with the less critical 20 being relegated to optional bonus levels you can unlock.
Ultimately, a super cool game that has put Strange Scaffold on the map for me as a studio to pay close attention to. I also wonder if this game could be a model for smaller devs making a 7-10 hour third-person action game campaign in the future. Really nifty!
Fun homage to Max Payne which lives up to its neo-noire inspiration, despite one very frustrating boss fight (you'll know it when you see it) and repetitive gameplay that slightly outstays its welcome. Worth playing for the style, the story and the music alone.
There's a decent Max Payne homage here, but it's buried beneath a game that doesn't know when to stop. The level designs, enemy roster and weak gunplay (the shotgun being the exception) aren't enough to keep the game feeling fresh through its 50 levels.
The narrative is so self-indulgent in its drowsy mood that it becomes hard to care about any points it might try to make about the abusive relationships and vicious cycles the characters go through. A shame the trippy visuals and cool soundtrack can't pick up the slack, either.
There's an ok game here if played in short bursts, but it just doesn't come together in the end.
The narrative is so self-indulgent in its drowsy mood that it becomes hard to care about any points it might try to make about the abusive relationships and vicious cycles the characters go through. A shame the trippy visuals and cool soundtrack can't pick up the slack, either.
There's an ok game here if played in short bursts, but it just doesn't come together in the end.
Imprudent gunplay, enemy, and level design, supplied with a laughably cringe soundtrack bog down a well-written piece of gritty cop noir mixed with deep-seeded mystical relationship drama.
the writing is excellent and the gameplay is fun, would recommend for someone who is obsessed with this as a speed game
The Game is obvious enough about Its influences when the game director is also the main character, but now triple down by also voicing the main character and singing his own rap tunes on certain levels.
That amount of boldness and self confidence just let me respect the game by itself.
besides that, Gameplay's a really good take on the Max Payne formula, though in a more relentless approach by having enemies bum rush you, taking pot shots or a combination of both, which makes you be quick on your reflects on killing everything before they even get a chance, its quite similar to Hotline Miami on this approach, though with more mercy with all the pickups you can find on its intended difficulty, luckily the devs actually lets you fiddle on how hard you want the game to be.
i say the most shocking aspect of the game itself is the soundtrack, with a great a variety of tracks with really good stand out tracks, though your enjoyment on someone's amateur hour with their rhymes will depend on your patience.
its quite a game with a lot of soul and personal input put into it, just wish it didn't stretch itself so thin with so many levels, if they're trying really hard on making each one of them unique by themselves, its a game that feels better at short bursts.
That amount of boldness and self confidence just let me respect the game by itself.
besides that, Gameplay's a really good take on the Max Payne formula, though in a more relentless approach by having enemies bum rush you, taking pot shots or a combination of both, which makes you be quick on your reflects on killing everything before they even get a chance, its quite similar to Hotline Miami on this approach, though with more mercy with all the pickups you can find on its intended difficulty, luckily the devs actually lets you fiddle on how hard you want the game to be.
i say the most shocking aspect of the game itself is the soundtrack, with a great a variety of tracks with really good stand out tracks, though your enjoyment on someone's amateur hour with their rhymes will depend on your patience.
its quite a game with a lot of soul and personal input put into it, just wish it didn't stretch itself so thin with so many levels, if they're trying really hard on making each one of them unique by themselves, its a game that feels better at short bursts.
Let’s get this out of the way: El Paso, Elsewhere is the least weird Strange Scaffold game yet, and as far as I’m concerned, their games’ weirdness is directly proportional to their value. In terms of gameplay, El Paso, Elsewhere is Max Payne with too many parts, a series of recycled combat encounters within a handful of very dark, mostly non-descript levels. Strange Scaffold stole Max Payne’s gunplay, its attitude, its ‘healing item as addictive drug’ mechanic – hell, it even steals the level intro ‘BOOM LEVEL NAME’ thing from Control, another Remedy game – but, bizarrely, leaves behind the chatty NPCs, the non-combat sections that made those games’ pacing work, and the conspiratorial stuff that drove the plot forward. To try and remake a Max Payne game without these things would be like stealing McDonald’s recipe for hamburgers but leaving out the bun and the toppings.
What El Paso, Elsewhere really is, is a mumblecore take on Max Payne with vampires. The game’s narratorial voice is less Raymond Chandler and more Mark Duplass. Gone are Sam Lake’s flowery, gloriously tacky monologues about fallen angels and fear giving men wings, replaced instead by whispery, whispy dialogue in which no two characters ever finish a line of dialogue because they’re always too busy nervously cutting one another off. All of this is underscored by a soundtrack which sometimes bites off more than it can chew, particularly on the tracks which feature vocals, which – I don’t know how else to put this, but it all sounds a whole lot like two people trying to recreate Death Grips tracks from over a decade ago, which is fine, but this was ultimately a miss for me.
So far, Strange Scaffold have proven to be at their best at executing on high concept stuff. The higher the concept, the better. An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs? Fine! A perfectly fun, surreal little experience. Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator? Perfect, extremely cool and strange, a thoughtful criticism of capitalist exchange expressed beautifully through game mechanics. The studio have proven they can do a whole hell of a lot – romantic drama, as it turns out, is not one of them.
What El Paso, Elsewhere really is, is a mumblecore take on Max Payne with vampires. The game’s narratorial voice is less Raymond Chandler and more Mark Duplass. Gone are Sam Lake’s flowery, gloriously tacky monologues about fallen angels and fear giving men wings, replaced instead by whispery, whispy dialogue in which no two characters ever finish a line of dialogue because they’re always too busy nervously cutting one another off. All of this is underscored by a soundtrack which sometimes bites off more than it can chew, particularly on the tracks which feature vocals, which – I don’t know how else to put this, but it all sounds a whole lot like two people trying to recreate Death Grips tracks from over a decade ago, which is fine, but this was ultimately a miss for me.
So far, Strange Scaffold have proven to be at their best at executing on high concept stuff. The higher the concept, the better. An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs? Fine! A perfectly fun, surreal little experience. Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator? Perfect, extremely cool and strange, a thoughtful criticism of capitalist exchange expressed beautifully through game mechanics. The studio have proven they can do a whole hell of a lot – romantic drama, as it turns out, is not one of them.
EL PASO, ELESEWHERE...
Yeah this game is over-indulgent and weird. I like that it's emulating the old third-person "bullet-time" shooters. But...that's about it. Anyway now to write about my beloved Prey.
Yeah this game is over-indulgent and weird. I like that it's emulating the old third-person "bullet-time" shooters. But...that's about it. Anyway now to write about my beloved Prey.
Never wrote a proper review for this
Style and writing are incredible..besides disco it’s one of the honest to god better written games I’ve come across…I love Max Payne and what remedy has done over the years but they never really nailed noir at least on the prose side…this game delivers on that for sure
It just needed to be tighter..the combat is too samey and despite it being a short game it feels kind of long…not sure what that means but overall I liked it a lot
Interested to see if they actually turn this into a competent film or whatever
Style and writing are incredible..besides disco it’s one of the honest to god better written games I’ve come across…I love Max Payne and what remedy has done over the years but they never really nailed noir at least on the prose side…this game delivers on that for sure
It just needed to be tighter..the combat is too samey and despite it being a short game it feels kind of long…not sure what that means but overall I liked it a lot
Interested to see if they actually turn this into a competent film or whatever