14 DAY TRIAL // 
Introducing El Matador, I?m going to take a closer look at the recent 8 September release of this third person tactical action game published by Cenega and developed by Czech Plastic Reality studios. Bearing a similar feel with Max Payne, you are a member of the Columbian DEA and your quest for revenge will bring you to destroy one of the largest drug cartels in the area.
Story
You walk the earth as El Matador or, should you prefer, the killer. Stern in his mission, El Matador is to take the bull by the horns and forever kneel it, while the DEA plays the toreadors and the not so majestic bull is Narcomafia, one of the most influential South American crime syndicate. For proper motivation, it all becomes personal once the Narcomafia kills your brother, along with the rest of the Bogota-stationed agents after their descent at DEA headquarters. With vengeance on your mind, and a gun in your hand, revenge will see your story moving forwards through unexpected twists and dramatic developments. After your going through your training camp procedures, you find yourself descending upon the Barracuda nightclub where kidnapped District Attorney daughter is believed to be held captive. Drug lord, club owner and probable kidnaper Alberto Marcia is definitely going to put up a hard fight, along with his many guards.
Gameplay
One of the first things you notice is that the game does not allow you to go in Rambo style and instead forces a less frenzied attack scheme where positioning and good sniping skills are required. Most of the time you can just crouch and take the opponents one by one with carefully placed head shots instead of storming the room hoping to outperform five gunmen NPCs. Unfortunately your AI buddies are rather useless, since they can?t properly take fire in your stead, neither can they start a barrage of fire to take down targets or at least provide some shelter. As the game progresses, you?ll naturally move along with your team, but it doesn?t necessarily mean you can?t go back to check the perimeter some more. One would naturally assume the coast is clear, but they?re wrong, since the AI is oblivious to the enemy fire and often enough forgets to clear strays. The whole situation leads to a feeling of frustration since you have to kill everything by yourself, yet you?re forced to wait up for the strike team, like being imprisoned in a cage too small.
Be advised that often enough you will need to save your bullets in order to properly finish a mission. At certain points you?ll run out of ammo and guns if you just follow the story as intended. Saving ammo is crucial, especially if you have specific weapons that can take down structures. Large structures that are scripted to be destroyed occasionally change appearance. Should you enter a building that needs to be demolished, it?s a possibility you will already see it demolished and the blow it up again for some nice firework animation. More of the same inconsistencies are encountered throughout the game.
El Matador is not called a tactical action game for nothing. A wide variety of gadgets are associated with the completion of stealth based missions, thus the best way to finish a stage may not be with guns blazing. Different ways to end a mission are a slight dent in an otherwise linear playing game, providing a sense of excitement in the face of the unknown. Skulking and sneaking will do that to you. To keep you entertained developers though some boss battles would be in order. El Matador drug lords can sometime be hard to best, since they can order their escorts around with great proficiency, just like in the real world. Thus the AI come sin different qualities, as some NPCs are smarter than others.
Concept
Level after level you?ll gradually change locations, away from city clubs, to drug lord mansions and off to the depths of the South American jungle. Frequent cutscenes link your past and current actions to the main story and give precious information in your quest for revenge. The rather cinematic experience deepens both plot and player immersion, in what begins to shape up as a plausible yet merciless world with rules of its own. Forget about the tenuous learning curve associated with highly scripted games, since El Matador presents fluid gameplay across each mission. The objectives are very straight forward which denotes linear gameplay, but that?s not even an issue. While it?s true the game does not present high replay ability, you should be satisfied going through the plot once.
Video
I was having my doubts when I saw Czech developers undertaking the task to create a realistic South American universe, complete with voices, ethos and full graphics. I thought the cultural differences would lead to the title?s definite downfall, yet it wasn?t the case with El Matador. The jungle has never been depicted in so much graphical detail! The landscape is simply breathtaking and you are overcome by the high level of detail. Shadows play a complex game and lights can be clearly seen, unlike other titles that abuse shaders to the point where textures can hardly be distinguished. High resolution textures add to the passive eye candy and the general feeling is that of a beautifully designed environment.
The game has unbelievable high system requirements that will most certainly bring your computer system to its knees. Although El Matador was tested on a high end system, maximum detail coughed out some measly 15 frames per second. It?s not unplayable yet I can?t help but wonder what kind of machine you need in order to see the game in its full glory. Beware of alt+tab because it corrupts graphics to such an extent that you?ll most likely need to restart the game. Time will tell if it?s the engine?s fault altogether, or if it?s possible for developers to solve the problem via patch.
Sound
El Matador is a game dealing with South American gangsters and the subsequent reality steaming from the drug cartel lore, thus one would expect Latino accents, bad tempers and gun happy madmen. While some of the feeling stays true to the archetype, I can?t say the Czech team encompassed Columbian street atmosphere all too well, on account of poor voice acting. Voices are rather unprofessional and dialogues are lacking in depth. It?s like Miami Vice on a lower level, where characters just curse and act nervous, and issuing self evident orders to henchmen. In addition, music can become tiresome at times with its less than impressing beats. Fortunately, El Matador scores good points with the story and sound is not a game breaking effect in shooter titles.
Multiplayer
The game features no multiplayer capabilities.
Conclusion
By no means a perfect game, El Matador presented itself as a Max Payne clone, only to gradually raise above this status with a voice of its own. We?re talking about a unique title that will carry you through the depths of the jungle in search for revenge, as well as a journey of purification through blood and fire. While the story plays out nicely, often enough you?ll pause for a moment to inspect the beautiful landscape in addition to planning your strikes carefully in this third person tactical shooter. The bottom line is that El Matador is a fun and entertaining experience and at the end of the day you won?t be sorry for giving it a try.
