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By Keith B (4th Apr 2007)

A new publishing house, a game with so many influences it’s almost criminal, and I don’t have much in the way of expectations as it loads up. A few minutes later and I’m running all over the place spraying bullets and discovering it’s actually a whole lot of fun.

You play DEA officer Victor Corbet, who goes on a bloodthirsty trail of revenge following the assassination of an entire squad from his department. Cue lots and lots of guns, bullet time gameplay, and, well, that’s about it. The story isn’t the main selling point of this game, and while the cut-scenes are actually good, it’s the never-ending rollercoaster of mayhem this game was made for.

Father?

Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne were the blockbuster successes they were based on a few simple things �" great story, great visuals, and a new feature called bullet time. Well, El Matador is sort of the spiritual offspring to Max Payne, and contains all the above features, bar the storyline.

Visually, El Matador is a work of art considering its humble beginnings. Some of the locations are truly mesmerising. Racing up through a warehouse complex with dual Uzi’s spitting flaming death in front of you is quite a rush, and it’s all done very well onscreen too. The locations are believable �" from stockyards to city locations, forests to riverside locales, it’s all beautifully rendered and the lighting is impressive.

In fact, El Matador has more in the way of diverse locations than some other blockbuster titles, and your journey whisks you off to a wide variety of settings that are, for the most part, beautifully done.

This is my boomstick

The action is the real selling point for this game, and is certainly delivers. With no thought for real world restrictions, our hero can carry around 20 weapons at once, ranging from Desert Eagle handguns through to sub-machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, stun weapons, and the kitchen sink. Almost. You get the picture �" carnage all the way, and a different flavour weapon through which to wreak it upon the drug gangs.

The physics are also pretty good for a debut game, and with all the weapons at your disposal, you’ll soon have the enemy ragdolling all over the place, blown like a skittle hit with a 12-gauge. Other objectives require a little more tact, where concealing yourself and taking out enemies one at a time is the order of the day. These are quite playable too, and don’t fumble too much after a heated action sequence.

The third person perspective gives a few small camera issues when the action really hots up, but nothing that would make the game unplayable. But, and yes, there is ALWAYS a but, the action, on which the game is sold, can become frustrating.

Certain missions will see you move along with a squad, AI controlled. However the AI was developed, the end result is it’s awful. For example, when in the middle of a gunfight it is highly likely that one of your squad will run over to your corner and force you out into the open. This is because the AI has a very obviously scripted pattern to their movements. It’s all trigger based, and blatantly so. It’s nearly fist-through-the-monitor time when you get yourself placed well in an alcove, only for your tool of a teammate to squeeze you out.

Why, oh why?

Other imperfections come to the surface too, and take away from the overall impression of the game. The enemies don’t react realistically to being shot, or shot at (taking four rounds in the chest and still shouting the same taunts, and ducking into and out of cover in the most predictable fashion). Clipping is poor and sometime your friends or adversaries run straight through objects. The audio is very dodgy, and occasionally drops out for most of a level.

The enemy AI isn’t that much better either, if you actually put some brainpower into think about it. For example, in one of the earlier levels you track a guy down to a church-like building. Your team and you burst in the front door and all hell breaks loose. Excellent. The guy you’re after is up on a balcony overlooking the floor where all the combat is taking place. Well, instead of taking on his gang down below, you can run up a stairs and end up on the opposite balcony. From there you can shoot him all you like and his men will not come up the stairs. What was potentially a tricky situation becomes a walk in the park.

There’s also the linear nature of the game, which is probably unfair of me to comment on as even the best have a linear path. But this has one that I couldn’t help notice. There are gates that are ajar which you can’t open, but look like you can. There are long corridors with enemy triggers placed along them, which dilutes gameplay. There are ladders you can’t climb, and others you can. Linear.

Not a kick to the head

But it’s hard to write it off as a failure, because it isn’t. Providing you’ve got a machine that lets you play it with the visuals jacked up, then it really is an entertaining jaunt. It would be harder to play if you have other games like F.E.A.R, Half Life:2 all waiting for a spin before your eyes, but if you’ve got spare time on your hands and want an action packed blast, it’s worth a look.

If a big publisher released El Matador on a platform, it could have been an awesome shooter. It has all the ingredients, just not finished to a standard that would have been demanded at a big publisher. Could have. Should have. Unfortunately, didn’t. Buy it in the bargain bin when it gets there though.