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| A Matrix / Max Payne moment? | The Policia hard at work |
So the South American continent (more specifically Colombia), a large number of suspicious looking white powders and a mountainous pile of guns all come together for a gaming reunion. Not the most original concept going but it’s certainly one to provoke a lot of unnecessary yet entertaining explosions and general bullet ridden mayhems.
This preview version of El Matador while lacking in any story continuity still gave me a taste of what it’s like generally to be Mr Corbet. I had three chapters to choose from each showing three distinct locations and their environments, the first is a tight and cramped town with narrow streets. The next is the Colombian jungle with some trail trekking and finally a built up depot.
The graphics as they stand now are certainly at a preview stage, with some being too much and others hardly anything at all. The games engine incorporates rag-doll physics which can lead to some really good gun fight scenes. Though arguably it also detracts realism and as a consequence adds a little humour at times whether intentional or not.
For gamers looking for blood, you’ll get a lavishing here and there as you blast through cartel foot soldiers. Not all the effects have been hammered in just yet, as a barrel of fire gives off large yellow and orange pixels instead. Other explosions also look weak showing there’s quite a bit left to do on their checklist.
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| Fire… coming soon | Your average criminal jungle base |
The basic crux of the game seems in place but now it’s just a case of refinement, polishing up and sanding down the rough edges. El Matador does want to give a good show with tuned support for Creative’s X-Fi mega soundcard monstrosity. Given the number of things left to comb through I can’t be sure if all or most audio elements were included within this preview version. Regardless it’s probably going to be impressive if it takes full advantage of that cards functionality.
With these types of games player manoeuvrability is paramount especially as bullets will be flying everywhere. Some generally let the player take quite a beating and they can survive by picking up a med pack every little while. El Matador doesn’t seem to be as forgiving, meaning you’d better make use of cover or your health will quite easily plummet. Most of the enemies I engaged were packing a variety of machine guns.
The view is in the third person so you can visibly see yourself being pummelled. With the graphics the way they are my computer was struggling to keep up which didn’t help with intense situations. Generally I found myself just strafing and spraying bullets everywhere in a bid to hit someone in a critical soft spot. I hope though the full game will encourage better tactics and not just promote a “blast all” mentality.
You get allies helping you out but in certain areas especially if I hadn’t seen them arrive, they got a taste of my gun collection too instead of just the crooks. Fellow good guys need to be labelled better I think, as otherwise you can just waste your ammo before you realise who your shooting at.
The developers seem to boast of “next-gen” AI which in itself actually means nothing and is the usual gimmick we come to expect. Though I did notice some were actually finding some decent places to take cover and move about with survival in mind, but I still saw many just standing out in the open firing hopelessly.
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| That …must of hurt some | I see you buddy |
I said before there wasn’t much of the story to follow so whether we can expect to see an immersive and engaging plot is yet to be seen. The action itself doesn’t stand apart from most others already out there but perhaps there’s something hiding from us. If you like the action shooter genre and don’t mind the average game once in a while, then keep El Matador on your watch list otherwise I don’t see many staying invested. Still there’s plenty of time to wow the communities and prove it isn’t “just another” title.
