‘El Paso, Elsewhere Review
Developer: Strange Scaffold | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 11:55 | Platinum: 12:10
It’s been a while since I’ve been so conflicted on a game. I’ve been long forward to this since I played El Paso, Nightmare - a first person bitesize version of the main game. Playing this main game, I absolutely adored the story, presentation, atmosphere and all that - the gameplay drove me mental.
Starting with the good - you play as monster hunter James Savage - depressed and pill addicted, he makes a one way trip to a small motel in El Paso. There, he intends to stop his ex girlfriend, the vampire Draculae, from destroying the world. The relationship between these characters is surprisingly deep and nuanced with details in the cutscenes between levels and in projectors collectibles the player can find throughout the levels. Each is unlocked linearly so you see the progression of how things came to be.
Something that probably won’t get the praise it deserves is the framing of cutscenes, voice acting and dialogue. The script is moody and noir, often having James narrate the state of things here and in his life up until this point. The cutscenes change scene and framing constantly that provides a cool disorientating vibe and the voice acting (I believe done by the game director) is absolutely stellar, it really sells the mood.
Beyond the shift from a first to third person perspective, the changes to the gameplay range from alright to middling. Never bad but not good either. The game is level based opposed to horde based but at 50 levels - even with their changing visual styles, it just feels the game goes on too long. Could cut maybe 10 levels and still have the same cohesion narratively and make for a tighter experience. In most levels you’re tasked with saving hostages located around the level which just involves holding the action button down for a second or two. Once the hostages are saved (or killed) the elevator at the start of the level reopens and you can progress. Some levels don’t have hostages and are simply a case of getting from Point A to Point B. The most you’ll get in the way of variation is levels having colour coded doors of which you need the corresponding colour heart to progress. I’m not saying the game needs puzzles because it doesn’t, it’s a third person shooter it knows what it is, but maybe a tiny bit of variation would help alleviate tedium.
It seems mechanically the games primary inspiration is the Max Payne series. The player has the ability to roll, dive and slow down time while doing so. The only problem is and this may very well be a me problem, I felt like I had to go out of my way to use these abilities. The roll I only ever used at the end of missions to get to the end point as fast as possible. The dive and slow-mo I never found a way to integrate into the fast paced nature of the game. It might have made things easier as the game is difficult but alas/. On the topic of the difficulty, the game has it’s default setting that has many sliders - max ammo, invincibility, number of healing items and whatnot. I kept it at the suggested amount but didn’t realise until level 40 something of 50 that the default enemy damage is 2x, which is why I felt like I was getting melted all the time. I played that much at the 2x enemy damage so I felt I may as well continued but I guarantee I would have had a better time overall at the 1x or even 1.5 damage multiplier.
if you adjust some settings, you’ll have an enjoyable third person shooter with a stellar story. If it’s still not your thing, I recommend watching the cutscenes because the artistic direction here shouldn’t be ignored due to the hit or miss g(to me personally) gameplay. Overall, I think my experience was worth it.
