September 6 is Going to be a Big Day for Shooter Fans and PS5 Owners

PlayStation 5 owners who love third-person shooters should mark September 6 on their calendars, as a recent, critically-acclaimed addition to the genre will make the jump to Sony’s latest console that day. This particular game sadly skipped PlayStation 5 upon its initial 2023 release, but fortunately, Sony fans will soon be able to play the third-person shooter on their preferred platform in less than two months.

The PlayStation 5 has no shortage of amazing third-person shooters, whether they’re multiplatform or exclusive to the console. Some games in the genre, like Fortnite, The Division 2, Warframe, and Helldivers 2, offer PS5 owners a great multiplayer fix. Other titles, meanwhile, focus on delivering engaging stories and action set pieces in thrilling single-player campaigns. Control, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End are great examples of this. One great single-player game from this genre that hasn’t been available on PlayStation, however, is the acclaimed, Max Payne-inspired shooter El Paso, Elsewhere.

El Paso, Elsewhere is Coming to PlayStation 5 This September

Created by indie developer Strange Scaffold, El Paso, Elsewhere is a retro-styled third-person shooter that was first released on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 26, 2023. The game received glowing reviews from both fans and critics, many of whom lauded the title as a worthy homage to the Max Payne series while simultaneously praising it for its originality. Due to all the positive buzz surrounding it, its absence on PlayStation consoles was rather unfortunate at the time. Luckily, Strange Scaffold provided an update on this matter recently, as the developer just revealed that El Paso, Elsewhere would finally come to PS5 on September 6, 2024, roughly a year after the game’s original launch.

El Paso, Elsewhere Will Reach a New Audience on PS5

Despite the high ratings it received on Steam, Metacritic, and the Microsoft Store, El Paso, Elsewhere was arguably one of the more overlooked games of 2023, in large part due to the lack of a major marketing push behind it. As such, the third-person shooter getting a new lease on life on PS5 is great news not only for PlayStation fans but for Strange Scaffold as well.

El Paso, Elsewhere is Inspired by Max Payne

One of the big reasons PlayStation 5 owners may want to check out El Paso, Elsewhere is that it emulates the formula of one of the defining pillars of the third-person shooter genre, the Max Payne games. Developed by Remedy Entertainment, the first two entries in the Max Payne franchise are widely regarded as some of the most influential third-person games of the early 2000s. They not only laid the groundwork for mature, stylized storytelling in the genre, but they also popularized the use of bullet-time combat.

Unfortunately, though, there haven’t been many games like the Max Payne series on PS5 lately, especially not ones that replicate the Remedy-developed franchise’s neo-noir aesthetic and slow-motion, bullet-time gameplay. To make matters even worse for PlayStation players, the second game in the series and its Rockstar-developed sequel, Max Payne 3, are currently not playable on PS4 or PS5. At the very least, when El Paso, Elsewhere comes to the latter of the two consoles in the near future, this void will finally be filled.

El Paso, Elsewhere Mixes the Max Payne Formula With the Supernatural

Despite being heavily inspired by Remedy’s iconic franchise, El Paso, Elsewhere still manages to distinguish itself from other games in its genre. This indie third-person shooter takes the slow-motion gunplay and dark, brooding atmosphere of Max Payne and imbues them with surreal, supernatural elements. This is reflected in the game’s plot, which chronicles the adventures of a drug-addicted vampire hunter named James Savage, who has to make his way through waves of monsters in a reality-shifting motel in order to find and stop his vampire ex-girlfriend from destroying the world.

With how unique it is, El Paso, Elsewhere likely won’t appeal to a mass-market audience on PlayStation 5 when it’s released on the platform later this year. Even still, Strange Scaffold’s unusual third-person shooter might end up becoming one of the best indie games on PS5 in the eyes of some owners of the console.

PlayStation 5

Sony’s PlayStation 5 is part of the ninth console generation and debuted with a launch lineup that included Demon’s Souls and Astro’s Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital-only edition is also available for a cheaper price.