El Paso, Elsewhere Review (Crentin Dalbs)
i hope to change this review when i finish the game, but right now i'm rather disappointed.
the style, music, story, voice acting, cutscenes between levels, and the Pill Cop radio play are great so far. but you put all this effort into remaking/refining max payne's shooting/dodging/pills mechanics, but then the One Enemy for the first five levels is just a melee enemy that walks at you? there is almost literally no reason to ever shoot dodge. when they introduce the second enemy it's a little better, since they can at least jump at you kinda fast, but still completely kite-able. max payne was built around diving into rooms containing other people with guns. the shoot dodge was to make it less likely for enemies to hit you with bullets, it has barely any utility against melee enemies.
another max payne staple was that, although most of the enemies were just Some Guy, they had some great personality to them - you could often eavesdrop on petty and funny little conversations before diving in and clearing out the room. enemies also had a very distinct bark for when they took enough damage to die, which was a fun way to let you know when to stop shooting. again, the enemies in this game are identical, monstrous, non-speaking, melee-only generic guys, who only run directly at you (with less-than-great pathfinding around corners), and their death noise sounds just like the noises they make while they're chasing you (and are clearly just a guy whisper-grunting into a mic).
at least there's hit markers, which is something that doesn't bug me in games. there are red weakspot hit markers for heads, etc, but it doesnt actually affect how much ammo you use to take them out all that much. the base zombies take 2 or 3 bullets depending on the gun, and werewolves can usually be taken out with one shot from any gun. weakspots are, then, pretty useless - if weakspots were an insta-kill they'd be really fun to aim for, and it would make the more hectic encounters a fun practice in target-picking.
the levels are okay, if a bit samey. i was excited when the hotel gave way to a cemetary, but then the next level was *also* a cemetary, so i took a break.