When Max Payne first came out in 2001, a hefty chunk of games media was predicting how bullet time would become one of the next big trends in gaming industry. Considering that we were still coming off of the initial Matrix high, and combined with the praise for Max Payne, it was kind of a no-brainer. And indeed, we had a ton of games afterwards that borrowed the bullet time from Max Payne, but none of its other signature aspects, such as the over-the-top neo-noir tone and dialogue. We haven’t even had any odes to it in the indie games scene, even with the “boomer shooter” revival. But that’s where Strange Scaffold comes along with their upcoming game El Paso, Elsewhere, which I was lucky to get a recent taste of.
Almost immediately, El Paso, Elsewhere lets you know just what kind of craziness you’re in for, what with you playing as a character named James Savage who has to travel to a desert motel in order to slay his vampire ex-girlfriend before she ends the world. We get a nice glimpse of James' comically troubled past as we flash to the sheer amount of bottles of pills in their motel room, right before they talk directly to us, the player, asking us to believe that they’ll actually travel to the motel so that the game can get started. And then we descend into the motel only to find an endless void, setting a stage where reality is out to lunch. It’s absolute insanity, and I love it.
The first level encountered starts off by twisting the mundane around on its head, as you hunt for innocent survivors to save in an endless maze of bathrooms. Yes, endless bathrooms. Trails of blood lead you to explore every room as shambling beasts and werewolves lurk around every corners, a few hide in stalls, and you face whole hordes of them at once. The low-poly graphics actually look astounding, helped out by impressive lighting and visual touches that make things pop and give everything this sort of dark, gritty feel while still perfectly leaning into the gleeful bizarreness of everything.
Gameplay-wise, El Paso, Elsewhere is simple, yet insanely fun. It’s pretty much a classic shooter where you aim, shoot, pop painkillers for health, and do slow-motion dives and dodges while shooting at biblically-accurate angels. You also have stakes that you can collect, which deliver instant kills on enemies with a melee attack, and can be used to smash up scenery where possible and gather more stakes. In fact, this is even more like a classic shooter in this area, where you’re encouraged to explore and open up every bathroom stall and random room in order to find stashes of ammo, painkillers and other useful goods. All while James keeps up the hard-boiled narration.
Alas, there’s a reason while I could only offer a taste of things right now, and that’s because El Paso, Elsewhere might suffer from performance issues. You’d think that an ode to early 2000s gaming wouldn’t have such problems on a modern PC, but weirdly, this game may actually be too fast at times, as things started to chug and stutter as it tried to keep up, mainly during combat (notably, when using the slow-motion skill, there were no issues). And considering that some precision is required when shooting or using stakes, that harmed things. It also seemed to struggle with gamepad compatibility, in that it gave incorrect buttons during its tutorial, which was an issue.
Still, even with these issues, brilliance shines through in El Paso, Elsewhere thanks to its impressive action, over-the-top style, and throwback aesthetics and gameplay. All it needs now is more polish, and this should make for one heck of a stay when it comes out later this year.
