El Paso, Elsewhere
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
El Paso, Elsewhere Trailers
El Paso, Elsewhere - FINAL TRAILER
El Paso, Elsewhere - DRACULAE TRAILER
El Paso, Elsewhere - OFFICIAL STORY TRAILER
Critic Reviews for El Paso, Elsewhere
Demake visuals are the perfect match for a game that's both direct and gloriously weird.
El Paso, Elsewhere combines simple yet delicately balanced action with an engrossing story about vampires, love, and the end of the world.
The actual gameplay of El Paso, Elsewhere didn’t really impress me. It’s an interesting twist on Max Payne, but it falls short in a lot of ways. Its story, though? Hoo, gosh. I’m going to be chewing on this for a while.
El Paso, Elsewhere is a fun throwback that tells an interesting story, but the shooting and diving gameplay just doesn't hold its own.
El Paso, Elsewhere does nothing new as a videogame - the whole point of it, in fact, is to do everything old. Despite revolving around the nucleus of a Max Payne homage and flatly refusing to flesh out the mechanics of a game from 2001, El Paso manages to transcend its skeletal concept thanks to an arresting presentation and brilliant story. Incredibly written with themes that speak to me on a deeply personal level, it compensates for its weaknesses as a game by simply being a brilliant piece of media.
El Paso, Elsewhere is a fun throwback to a simpler time in video games. All we needed was dual pistols, a slow-motion dive and some gruff narration and this game checks all those boxes. While I was not blown away by the PS1-esque graphics; I am sure that there will be those that will enjoy them. But it’s the story that folks should come for, the tale between these two lovers is something worthy of a sad opera. Despite its shortcomings El Paso, Elsewhere surprised me quite a bit and could end up being quite the sleeper of 2023.
That El Paso, Elsewhere works at all as a drama is a huge achievement. It tackles weighty topics with a maturity that’s rare in gaming, and which is all the more impressive given that it does so within the framework of a shooter that suggests a Halloween attraction as curated by John Woo. It’s emblematic of the game as a whole—a bizarre amalgamation of parts that shouldn’t work yet manages to form something cohesive, soulful, weird, and deeply personal.
Once you understand what the game’s chilling, intimate story is saying and how it’s reinforced by gameplay and aesthetics, you’ll have a hard time putting it down. El Paso, Elsewhere is one of the most captivating indies of the year. It might make you uncomfortable, but that’s very much the point.
