I got the El Matador demo, but it was so full of bugs and it wouldn't start properly. However I found El Matador on the torrents, and I gave it a shot. Wow, that game sucks. It's basically Max Payne without quality + cheesy 80's movie drug story + crap graphics + terrible gameplay. Other than that it's pretty much a cheap rip-off of Max Payne. It really feels incomplete too.
Mind you, I'm talking here about a year and a month later here and all -- so, for the hell of it, I picked up Boiling Point and El Matador, for dirt cheap -- $4 a pop each.
El MatadorEl Matador does indeed feel like a lesser Max Payne game. Actually, I'd say it feels like two games combined, which are much better than this one. It really does feel like a cross b/t Max Payne and Far Cry, when it comes to the gameplay (feel like Max Payne's action) and the settings (feels like Payne early on, now it feels like Far Cry in the jungles and all). Unfortunately, El Matador's storyline, dialogue and characters are nowhere even close to being as interesting as Max Payne 2's. The voice-acting isn't bad here, it's actually quite decent -- but, who wrote this damn game?? The writing is worse than the original Max Payne's writing!
Though, I do have to admit -- the graphics are good (especially in the jungle areas) and the action's pretty good. These are the best two things this game got going for it. As far as action goes, you really can't go wrong here -- since there's non-stop killing and lots of blowing up stuff.
Difficulty settings -- People talk about Normal being too easy in Halo 3. Well, in El Matador, we go to the other extreme where Normal is ridiculously hard. Yes, even for shooting game vet like myself who've played loads of shooters! El Matador's Normal setting makes Max Payne's Hardboiled difficulty look like Easy! I played it for around a half-hour, getting just about nowhere in the first nightclub level; barely out the first room! These guys just don't miss -- and when they hit you, you get slammed! So, I was very frustrated. I decided to start over and put it on Easy and that's not too bad -- you still got shot like holy hell, but you ain't getting creamed on damage, as much. I die here and there, but nothing like on Normal. There should be another setting, b/t Easy and Normal, since there feels like there is still a huge gap b/t the two difficulties. Y'know, I don't even wanna picture how tough the game will be on even Hard or Nightmare...
Here's an oddity w/ this game -- Anytime you hit the ALT key (it acts as if you hit ALT+TAB, sometimes), this game freezes up or switches you to your Desktop. Weirdness. That's the only technical issue I've had w/ this game, as I'm running this w/ the newest patch of the game and all.
Boiling Point: Road To HellWell, well. I finally get my hands on this one...FINALLY. Been wanting to play this, for a while -- despite all of the technical issues it is known for. Let's begin at the first point here -- pretty much, we all know how bug-ridden and how horrible the game performed on most new PC's at that time, BP was straight up canned by the world, being released in pretty much an "Alpha" state when it was. So, even after US Patch Version 1.1 came out, which did fix a lot of issues, most said it was still a nasty mess; more like a "Beta", after Patch 1.1, many said. Funny enough, this was the last version officially released by Atari for the US Version of the game; though, Atari released the Euro Version 2.0 -- and so did Deep Shadows (the game's makers). Atari never released a US Version 2.0, oddly enough.
From what I've read on message boards, it is recommended for everybody that runs BP to run (official patch) Euro Version 2.0 Patch, regardless of whether you have the USA or Euro version of the game. So yes, you can slap this Euro patch right over the USA version of the game; it actually won't screw anything up, if you do. Given that, it makes me wonder -- why the hell didn't Atari just let this Euro patch out also for the USA version of the game?
Not a good way to support a game that you published, guys. They sure let out this patch for the Euro Version of the game -- and it works fine for the US Version, so not putting even that same exact file for the US Version is really poor tech support on Atari's half. Yeah, like that's anything new from Atari.....
After playing w/ BP Version 2.0 and looking through Version 2.0's wicked long laundry list (in the 2.0 Patch's README) of bug fixes, additions to the game (improved physics and mechanics for driving, for one), etc etc -- holy cow!!! How come Atari didn't just wait to release this game in THIS state in the first place, is way beyond me!!! The game runs quite well, in 1024x768 for me -- never dropping below 30 FPS (even w/ a lot of stuff happening on screen where there's cars on the road, numerous enemies on-screen shooting and tossing grenades). Most of all that graphical stuff is turned on, too. Car driving is fine w/ the keyboard, control-wise -- you can use the mouse to steer, also. And, you can switch b/t 3rd and 1st person viewpoints, while you're driving. The FPS action itself is pretty good, which feels a lot like STALKER -- but, of course, minus all the creepy horror elements. I even feel like I did in STALKER, as I'm barely into the Boiling Point game, yet I've seem to be standing back and letting shootouts go, then I'll be taking a lot of weapons and equipment off dead bodies that get caught up in shootouts!!!
The game itself does feels like a cross b/t both STALKER (open-ended gameworld with a handful of factions yo join and do missions for) and GTA (we have car-driving elements here). I can definitely see the STALKER style of gameplay here w/ a handful of factions to join and a good number of quests to do. BP feels like STALKER in the regard that just out of nowhere, you'll have some big shootouts happening while you're out in the open-world b/t some factions. Makes sense, since some who worked on Boiling Point actually did work at GSC Game World (which is even noted on Deep Shadows' website).
So far, I like this game. I will need to spend more time w/ it. So far, it's good with patch 2.0 installed.
