El Matador

It's impossible to deny that El Matador is a Max Payne clone. However, the game is still plenty of fun. A pure action experience, with loads of guns and bad guys to shoot. This game hits all the right notes, and maybe it is not as iconic as the game it is clearly copying, but that shouldn't deter you. If you like Max Payne styled games and don't have a lot of money, but you need a bullet riddled blast fest right now, El Matador is the answer to your prayers. The voice acting in this game is bad, but in that good cheesey way. These actors won't be winning an Oscar anytime soon, but it sounds like they were having fun while voicing their characters. The story is basic but gets the job done, and the gameplay is tight and solid action from start to finish. A great game for Max Payne fans on a budget!

If you like 80's action movies with badass main protagonist and cliched plots you will enjoy this one. There are some flaws like slow motion mechanic that is pretty much useless and enemies with pin point accuracy but it is a very short game and it will never get too annoying.

Some of the reviews mention the B-movie-ness of El Matador; but let's not forget that MP was gloriously at ease with being the B-est of the B-Movies - if there was a movie theater in MP featuring B-Movies, it would have El Matador in 12 feet high letters on its marquee. Basically, it's a D- or E-movie that takes itself way too seriously. What made MP special to me was the secrets, and the set pieces - Mona sniping the baddies while Max was caught under a metal beam, the stadium at the beginning of MP3 - the way they pulled off pure camp in the first two parts, the live action shots turned into even more camp comic book panels, the perpetually constipated look on Max's face in part 1. All of that is missing in El Matador. If I'm happy to re-play a segment that I just finished just because I thought I could up the cinematics, like I would in MP, that's high praise, to me. This, also, is missing in El Matador. It implements the MP2 bullet time, but while I could score a handful of headshots in a single dodge using the Desert Eagle(s) in MP, aiming and hitting is notoriously less accurate in EM. The difficulty ramps up mostly through mass spawns (MP2 had a bit of unfair spawning as well, granted) and the lack of our own accuracy when contrasted with the opponents'. Every now and then there's a miniboss identified by a mugshot and a health bar appearing, and a real boss that's essentially a bullet sponge with a name badge; once despatched, the next scenario loads. I expect most potential Matadors to come here in search for "more Max". If you can boil that experience down to 1:1 MP2 bullet time implementation (and engine), then you will find a solid 4h here to keep you entertained - and let's be honest, it is priced to sell, and the developers did take a lot of time to craft some beautiful environments, in addition to a few throwaway ones. Keeping all of the above in mind, I did have an experience that - for the right kind of audience expectations - I will recommend.

Take Max Payne, add sun and Colombian setting, remove the good story and you have EL MATADOR!

If you are expecting something very polished and high budget you will be very disappointed. For a low budget game that was clearly capitilizing on the success of a different game at the time this one is fun. The music is great. The voice acting and lines are cheesy but also serviceable. For about 2.5 hours of content I think my $1.50 was well spent. I would recommend putting on god mode, giving yourself all weapons and infinite ammo. The game isn't particularly difficult to begin with but if you just want to shoot some dudes and have a good time I recommend it. Plus some of the weapons are very fun to use but ammo can be scarce.