El Matador

Action game franchises have come and gone but few tread in the footsteps of the well-crafted and darkly told narrative of Remedy’s Max Payne. For one company, though, Max Payne was a starting stone for a game that crosses boundaries, and borders, to bring gamers something a little different from the rest. Plastic Reality Entertainment is finalizing a project called “El Matador”. The game features intense squad-based combat, similar to Rainbow Six, except with the John Woo antics of bullet-time and shoot-dodging. The game’s story is as follows from the El Matador website:

“All agents at DEA South-American headquarters get killed in a brutal assault. The new drug gang called La Valedora stick to their aim - become the most powerful drug mafia in the area - and everybody who gets in their way is eliminated with no grace.

When standard procedures fail, the DEA send their best men.

Victor Corbet is a special mission agent, whose task is to eliminate the boss of La Valedora and destroy this drug cartel. His fellow fighters are members of Bogota Anti-drug Department - captain Carlos Enterador and lieutenant Mia Rodriguez.

Together, they need to face the drug mafia in a bloody single-winner fight.”

Like Max Payne, Victor can defy gravity and the laws of physics to firefight his way through exotic locations and tropical environments. The game is running on an engine with in-house built physics, advanced lighting, shadows, clothing and texture features. Already this game looks like it may be a great alternative to other action games out there. But to get a bit more insight into the gameplay aspects of El Matador, we had our questions answered by Plastic Reality’s Petr Smilek. Check out the Q&A below.

VG Core: How long has El Matador been in development?

Petr: El-Matador took about 2.5 years to develop.

VG Core: El Matador looks to have elements of Rainbow Six infused with Max Payne. What originally inspired the creation of this game?

Petr: During development of El-Matador we have experimented with quite few different gameplay mechanics \ elements. At the beginning the game was tuned more towards stealth and tactics, but during development we decided to lean towards strighforward Max Payne action gameplay model. Max Payne always was great inspiration for us. Some people call our game “Max Payne in a jungle” – we like it.

VG Core: The game looks to have a unique take on shootouts, from what I've seen. It's cool that gamers will have the ability to take cover and use the environment as a shield. Yet at the same time, there's the option to dive in bullet-time, adding a bit of a John-Woo flair to the firefights. What was the primary goal of achievement for designing the shooting mechanics?

Petr: Shooting is major feature of the game. It was tuned to its final form in many iterations. Primary goals was create simple, but still enjoyable solid mechanics which looks and feels good. Most fights in the final version of the game are really intense (smiles)

VG Core: Will there be a limit on how much bullet-time players can use? Or will it be unlimited, or will it only come into effect when tumbling/dodging?

Petr: Bullet-time ussage is limited, but you can extend its duration by effectively killing enemies while bullet time is active. There are also special moves like ‘shoot-dodges’ which happens in slow motion mode. Ussage of this special moves is unlimited.

VG Core: Certain parts of the game looked like it contained hand-to-hand combat. Will players have any other attacks besides shooting?

Petr: We have experimented with hand-to-hand combat in the early development stages, but it did not work out well, so we throwed it away. You can eliminate your enemies by either shooting them directly or for example by shooting to nearby flamable\explosive barrels (which often generates large chained explosions which can kill many enemies at once). You can also use grenades very efectively (but so does enemies !).

VG Core: In the description of the features, it's listed that El Matador has a physics engine that was built in house. What are some of the engine's functions, and does it support the rag-doll effect?

Petr: Yes, we use in-house created physics engine which is very deeply integrated into gameplay mechanics. It has all the features that modern physics engines have, for example cloth \ breaking glass \ ragdolls simulation and many more.

VG Core: Will the game support the use of vehicles?

Petr: There are vehicles (like cars or helicopters) which are controlled by AI or scripts, but players cannot use any of them.

VG Core: Players will get to experience some very exotic locations. How did the team narrow down where the game was to take place and what sort of locations would appear in the game?

Petr: Yes, El-Matador has VERY diverse locations and this is something we like very much. Building levels was very hard and painfull iterative work. We have re-worked all levels many times until we was really satisfied with result. Game has indoor, outdoor or combined levels which are located for example in streets of the Medellin, abandoned factory, jungle, night-club, inside cargo ship and many more.

VG Core: How will the levels be setup? Will they be linear or open-ended?

Petr: Levels are scripted and linear.

VG Core: Will El Matador support any multiplayer features?

Petr: Unfortunately there is no multiplayer mode in game.

We thank Petr Smilek for answering our questions about El Matador. The game will be suited for release in September for PC. For more information regarding El Matador you can visit the homepage at www.elmatador-game.net . Be sure to stay tuned in with Vgcore.com for more updates and news information as the release draws near for El Matador.

Article By: Cyguration