El Matador

It's really fun, and not as hard as some people say it is on normal. Though, tjere's a caveta with that. I've played this like a tactical TPS, while utilizing the slo-mo mechanics for cinematic purposes as well as taking on multiple enemies. It's a Max Payne inspired game after all. Though, being able to somewhat ADS and abuse corners whilst cutting the pie to land headshots on enemies worked much better then diving through the air. This game is a lot of fun. There're plenty of worse ways to spend your money, and I did not regret picking this up on sale for $1.99.

Let me start with saying this: El Matador is not a casual game. You might think that, given that slowmo and cool looking jumps is this game's entire gimmick, but no. Enemies hit hard, jumping around in slowmo only gives you small buffs (if any at all) and jumping blindly into the action or one false move can either deplete your health really bad or outright kill you. Which is fine, since you and your enemies are on a mostly equal power level. Their guns hurt as much as yours do and so it comes down to utilize the environment to your advantage, peak around corners and become good friends with the F5 and F9 keys. Unfortunately, this whole system comes crashing down with boss battles. Some of them feel good, but most of them are an excercise in frustration, since they do way more damage than regular grunts, they take a lot more hits and ressources are sparse. And while you slowly get a good feeling about how to play the game and what you can get away with, when you should save and when you should go looking for a medic bag, bosses destroy that flow entirely and rely on you cheesing the fight. That said, they, and the AI in general, are not that stupid. Enemies relocate during a fight, they try to flank you, some try to rush you and bosses usually start throwing grenades when you camp on the other side of the map. It feels a bit like the FEAR AI and can catch you off guard, when an enemy suddenly moves in a different direction after a reload. Content wise, there is enough. You have 6 chapters with multiple levels each, giving the game around 20 levels. Weapon wise, you have the usual suspects. A regular pistol, a Deagle, a Mac 10, an Uzi, an MP5, M16s and AKs, a shotgun and rare special weapons like an LMG or an RPG. Which leads to another criticism of mine, because only the assault rifles feel viable, because they have the best mix of accuracy and fire rate. Every other gun is lacking in one of those and even the Jackhammer has an abysmall fire rate. Still fun.

This game is a low budget max payne clone. The levels are designed to be full of enemies that shoot you before you can even see them, making the game an experience of trial and error until you learn where they are going to spwan. And the reason for this is that the game is really short, like 2 or 3 hours. The story and acting is really bad too.

I have a theory that group of devs wanted to make a game like Max Payne, but did not want to use a lot of money. Action, guns, sounds and gameplay are terrifiengly close to MP:s but everything else is way off. Story could be a rip off from a film script made by 10 year old - you play El Matador a DEA cop who busts whole cartel eliminting its members one by one filling up every single cliche there could be. Even the fewest of twists are so ridilulously set that I thought almost that it was comedy but did not find myself laughing too much. The plot is rambling nonsense and all what matters is that you go guns blazing and fight around the world. I almost would like to take 1 more star away for El Matador's only pro is the copied gameplay, but yet again bullet time is not patented feature and it surely is entertaining even when everything else is not much more than crap. I'd buy that for a dollar, but not spent a single penny more!

Pour un jeu sorti en 2006, il est de toute beauté. Les graphismes sont vraiment agréables tout comme les effets de lumières et ombres qui sont très réussis. Nous avons de l'interactivité avec le décor : on peut pousser certains objets ainsi qu'en détruire d'autres. C'est peut-être rien mais des jeux récents ne font pas cet effort ! Nous avons aussi des impacts de balles qui restent tout comme le sang qui ne disparait pas tout de suite. Petit regret : pas de blessures sur les corps ! Dommage, c'est toujours cool ! Les animations ne sont pas en reste ! Elles sont très réussies et variés. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi il n'y a pas de système de couverture, l'IA semble pouvoir le faire : pourquoi pas nous ? On peut juste se mettre derrière des obstacles et tirer à travers via un bug en visant. C'est la seule manière de tirer sans s'exposer... Est-ce normal ? IA qui est au passage incroyablement suicidaire : elle foncera sur vous. Ou ne se mettra pas à couvert ! Elle peut cependant renvoyer vos grenades : bien ! Un Bullet-Time à la Max Payne est à votre disposition : c'est cool. Mais pas vraiment utile fut qu'il est plus sûr de se planquer. La musique est OK, c'est pas vraiment mon style mais elle n'est pas déplaisante. La version française est de bonne qualité. L'histoire est moyenne. C'est très clichée et le héros sans charisme se promène dans des couloirs. C'est sympathique de mettre des "boss" mais quand cet ahuri ne semble pas être indisposé par vos tirs à la tête... Alors que vous : quelques balles et c'est cuit. Frustrant ! (Parce ce que mine de rien : il est pas si simple, on meurt assez vite si on est pas prudent !) Bon point : on change parfois d'uniforme entre les missions. C'est super, ça rajoute de la variété tout comme les environnements qui ne sont pas toujours les mêmes... Durée de vie : compter entre 3 et 4 heures... C'est pas folichon ! El Matador est un titre que je conseille, bien que court, on passe un bon moment. Que demander de plus ?