Overall most helpful review

Posted on: December 6, 2023

Bloodrunsclear

Games: 1219 Reviews: 143

Mirrors Are More Fun Than Television

This is a BLATANT love letter to Max Payne, specifically the original game. Gruff voiced protagonist, early 2000s graphical style, slow motion gunplay controlled by a meter, dreamy locales and noir influence, you use painkillers to heal...etc. It wears the influence on it's sleeve with inside jokes in the dialogue, you find an old cop show that starts reflecting your life, and when even you quit something like the 'I was too tired to go on' question is asked before you can get to the desktop. But there's some innovations too. This isn't just hunting gangsters, it's hunting vampires and other monsters. In addition to you firearms you can actually break the environment to acquire stakes that deal a lot of damage in melee. It adds an element of practical exploration when you're looking for a table to smash for a one-shot damage booster. Slow motion and diving are not the same thing so you need to activate one then the other which is a little awkward but it does make slow motion less of a crutch when it takes an extra button press. Enemies seldom have projectiles so you're really just buying time to keep them from closing the distance and hitting you, or giving you time to negotiate the large swarms of foes you get in later levels. Also you get to rescue hostages which is gratifying (thankfully the monsters focus on you over them). A few issues crop up. Hit detection is a bit sloppy. You can't tell an enemy is injured or even dead until it rag dolls. You don't make any noise of any animation if you're injured either so it's easy to die, but thankfully death is pretty inconsequential: you just zap back a couple screens and start again. There's no map and levels can be maze like but there's almost no backtracking. The music is very high quality: jazz, original hip hop, moody techno. Almost feels like a Persona game at times. So if you're an old school Max Payne fan and always wanted to see him fight vampires, this is your chance.

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Posted on: January 4, 2024

BambamCZ

Verified owner

Games: 854 Reviews: 5

Got your Nocturne in my Max Payne

Overall a good game with some blemishes The biggest strength of the game is its story and the presentation of that narrative. The way story is told is the combination of short scenes between levels and the levels and their designs themselves. The writing is a lot of fun, it does harken back very much to the Max Payne series, especially Max Payne 2, telling a story about overcoming the past, finding the strength to do right by yourself and not just others. Some of the reveals and topics are things rarely touched upon and were intrigueing to see them handled here with decent amount of grace and subtlety, as much as the noir horror styling allows, all wrapped up in a lo-fi artstyle Gameplay is very much, Max Payne 1/2, the main downfall being the arsenal which while serviceable and not having any really bad weapons, comits the cardinal sin of just being boring, even if it's funny seeing enemies being propelled into shadow realm by the shotgun. The levels can be a lot of fun, especially some that are designed to go along with a ''theme song'', usually those relating to the different story beats. The issue comes from the game having a lot of filler levels that don't really stand out, don't move the story forward and feel like they are there just to keep the game length up. I'd be fine if the game was just 3-5hrs of really well paced noir horror without the fluff, instead of around 7-10hrs that at times didn't grab me as much. When it comes to encounters most of them are a lot of fun, needing the use of your entire kit, what bogs them down the is the complete lack of feedback on your part to damage, there were several encounters I've finished on low HP with no idea how I've lost all that HP. This turns up the frustration to 11 during the game's few boss fights. But still the game is insanely stylish, confidently told story and overall super fun game to go through over the weekend, especially at the price point it usually sits at.

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Posted on: April 28, 2024

Louard_le_Barbare

Verified owner

Games: 294 Reviews: 124

Max Payne, but he’s John Constantine.

As promised by its marketing, EP,E is an unabashed, supernatural-infused tribute to Max Payne 1 and 2, committed to faithfully mimicking their mechanics… for better and worse. For the most part, it is a perfectly fun and functional action romp. The guns and slow-mo action are satisfying, the levels are well-crafted. It’s quite repetitive, but not really in a bad way: there is something blissful in the gameplay loop that, for me at least, keeps the boredom away. Still, while the controls and mechanics are overall sleek and well thought-out, there are some janky elements - some of which were forgivable 20 years ago in Max Payne, but much less so in a modern release. The hit detection can be a bit off, it’s not unusual for the camera to freak out... and the “shoot-dive” mechanic make little sense here, as there are no bullets to dodge!!! The campaign is dragged out and has too few enemy types, most of which not all that interesting to fight. I also encountered technical issues (achievements that wouldn’t unlock and heavy stuttering in random levels), but maybe that’s just me. So, if it was only for its combat, I would have recommended EP,E in a lukewarm manner, as a decent but flawed throwback shooter... Fortunately, this game is elevated by its presentation. It's the type of action romp you'd expect to have a mindless plot thrown in for good measure, but.. it's not the case. The high-quality noir-inspired voice-over, the impeccable cutscene direction, the soundtrack full of bangers, the gorgeous visuals mixing low-poly, surreal environments and neon lighting... It all wonderfully comes together, turning this story about a poor dude who got in the pants of the wrong blood-sucking goddess into a strangely compelling, memorable and powerful experience. For all of EP,E’s flaws, if you’re as fond of slow-mo gunplay as I am, you’ll probably like it. And if you’re looking for an indie shooter full of heart and unafraid to do its own weird thing, you’ll probably love it.

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Posted on: March 3, 2024

Rianq

Verified owner

Games: 797 Reviews: 28

A love story

Incredible presentation, voice acting, narration, sound design - goosebumps all the way down. The gameplay is very solid, but despite the devs' best effort to remix the few enemy types, level types and weapons they had, it does get a bit repetetive.

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Posted on: April 6, 2025

IronGuy410

Verified owner

Games: 357 Reviews: 17

Some good decisions, some bad

I was tempted to round this up in my head because it's an original work from an indie developer that stayed generally fun to play pretty much all the way through. My issue is that almost every good choice the dev makes is counterbalanced by bad ones. Take the writing: Most of the story is told in either moody monologues by James or very brief conversations between him and one other character. Most of these are well-written, but because they're short and limited in scope, neither the characters nor the plot felt like they ever took off and felt fully fleshed out, resulting in a character and a story that only ever felt like they got 2/3s of the way towards feeling substantial. Tonally, the game is consistently bleak and macabre, which is fun, until I found a radio out in the world or one of the game's many original rap songs started playing, subjecting me to some of the worst comedy bits and corniest lyrics I've heard in a modern game. The gameplay feels functional, tight, and Max Payne-y for the most part, but then there are decisions that an indie dev should really know better than to make: An enemy type that is small, can teleport, and one-hit kill you, a mid-game boss fight twitchy and undertelegraphed enough that I considered dropping the game for a while, a length of 8 hours and 50 missions in an engine that feels like it can support about half that for one solid playthrough. I did finish the game and had a good time. It is a shame, though, that a game with the promise of a tight, brisk action horror campaign couldn't resist reaching for some overindulgences and ultimately landed on a story that could have used 5 or 6 more cutscenes and about 10 or so fewer levels.

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