El Paso, Elsewhere

Pretty unique lofi/surreal twist on Max Payne, with an an enticing premise and a fantastic presentation. The actual gameplay wobbles between feeling trivial (slomo+pistol headshots) and absurd troll traps (triple enemy spawns that can one-shot combo you instantly if you dont know whats coming and have the right weapon ready). There's also a LOT of animation locks and nothing cancels anything, which makes stuff like melee (which is occasional mandatory or your last resort) pretty janky and riskier than it should be. Bullets dont trace from your camera, but from your characters gun with a significant offset, so occasionally hitting something directly under your crosshair can feel awkward. Most of the arena/exploration encounters are really fun. Theres also two boss encounters, i really didn't like the first and the last one felt a lot easier (and better, with better checkpointing) by comparison.

Super cool game honestly. It has a distinct atmosphere, where it combines early PS2 aesthetics with the uber pulpy Hunter the reckoning and gives it some Max Payne noir storytelling. It works a lot better than it should, especially given how limited the level settings can be. There are fifty fairly short levels, and you only explore a couple of types of environments like a motel, a graveyard, and some tombs. It helps that the presentation is top notch. The aesthetic is distinct and lends the cut scenes some surprising gravitas. The music is awesome, too, with fully performed music that calls to mind stuff like the Gorillaz being used to give everything a propulsive but off beat tone. The story is surprising, too. What starts as a strange monster hunting story turns into something surprisingly personal. The acting for the central characters is all excellent. It's a real gem, and I'm excited to see what they do with the sequel.

A great, retro self-contained run and gun, very fun .

A phenomenal experience given how no one has ever come this close to Max Payne ever. From the voice acting to the level design, the atmosphere and the gunplay hit just as right if not better than Max Payne 2 (maybe not the level design but that’s what sequels are for). Give it a whirl, totally worth it at full price in my opinion, the devs deserve it.

Their is a wonderful character to this game. Interesting story and fun combat that reminds me of Hotline Miami. It wears its Max Payne influence on its sleeve yet manages to create something completely original.

It would be worth recommending if it was a quarter of the length. 50 levels is far too many when none of them are particularly standout in layout or design, and all 6 - very simple - enemy types + 1 equally simple recurring miniboss are introduced before the halfway point. The game also never really raises the enemy density to throw an actual challenge at you, so it just gets really boring really fast. And then the final boss is a reactionary fight against a single bullet sponge with no ads at all...questionable choice at best. The game's vocal tracks are great and the highlight of the playthrough, but because of the inane number of levels, they end up feeling really few and far between.