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Published Oct 15, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT
Giovanni Colantonio is a video game journalist who has covered the industry for two decades. He was formerly a senior editor at Digital Trends and has contributed to publications like Inverse, Fanbyte, and Hard Drive. His specialty is criticism, as he’s focused on a modern approach to video game reviews that’s focused on the nuances of how interactivity communicates to players. He is currently a member of the New York Video Game Critics Circle.
El Paso, Elsewhere 2 just got a free demo ahead of Steam Next Fest
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In 2023, Strange Scaffold had a breakthrough moment thanks to El Paso, Elsewhere. The Max Payne-inspired vampire shooter launched as an indie darling, helping an eclectic studio find the right audience for its games. It was even successful enough to pique the interest of LaKeith Stanfield, who was tapped to star in a movie adaptation announced in 2024. So it’s no surprise that Strange Scaffold is returning to that world next year with El Paso, Elsewhere 2.
Currently scheduled to launch in 2027 on Windows PC and Xbox Series X, El Paso, Elsewhere 2 looks to stick close to the original while shaking it up in some key ways. You can see that for yourself starting today in a free PC demo available ahead of Steam Next Fest. If you loved the first one, the good news is that the sequel is filled with more guns, monsters, and slo-mo.
Set a few years after the first game, El Paso, Elsewhere 2 continues the story of James Savage, a vampire hunter who set out on a quest to stop his ex-girlfriend from performing an evil ritual. Savage has reckoned with an addiction problem since the first game and no longer needs to take pills to heal. Unfortunately, Savage is faced with a new betrayal when a confidant sells him out to an Eldritch God by burying him alive and sending him to the monster-infested Void.
In a hands-off preview with press ahead of the demo’s launch, director Xalavier Nelson Jr. explained exactly what’s different this time around — and what’s still the same. First off, Strange Scaffold isn’t ditching the low-poly aesthetic of the original. The goal was to still pay tribute to the PlayStation 2 era, where game developers would iterate on games by remixing existing assets rather than starting from scratch. The only thing that’s gone for good is Savage’s trench coat, which Nelson said was a technical necessity because of how buggy it was in the first game. (“May it rest in hell where it belongs,” he said.)
Image: Strange Scaffold/Frosty PopThe sequel is still similar enough on its surface, with players shooting monsters and activating slow-mo bullet time to perform diving kills. The difference, though, is that it no longer takes place entirely in the claustrophobic halls of a cheap motel. The demo throws Savage into a dingy swamp with lots of space to move around. There’s more verticality to fights as Savage can perform a sort of vampire double jump, a handy move for taking down flying gargoyles. Nelson describes it as “the Quake to El Paso, Elsewhere’s Doom.”
The Quake inspiration is apparent in the twitchy shootouts, but there’s even more DNA from other classic games packed into the sequel. Castlevania was an influence, which is clear from the game’s wider cast of monsters. Players will now fight zombies, cauldron-stirring witches, mafioso vampires, and more. Nelson also cites Resident Evil 4 as a jumping-off point, pointing to a tense shootout in an abandoned town.
For Strange Scaffold, part of the sequel’s goal is to make players actually use all of Savage’s tools this time. He has a larger arsenal of guns at his disposal, including a Tommy gun modified to shoot stakes. More importantly, his method of healing has changed to reflect the fact that Savage himself has changed. Rather than popping pills, he can now use a glass stake to turn monsters into “Capri Suns,” as Nelson puts it.
The scope of the project has changed too. The first game was ambitious for the small studio at the time, featuring 50 levels. The sequel will cut that number down to 20, with Nelson saying that the team is focused on making sure each level introduces a new idea of some kind, rather than offering more of the same old shootouts.
Studio sustainability seems to be at the forefront of Strange Scaffold’s mind on the sequel. Nelson noted that the first game was a bit of a Hail Mary at the time, saying that it was nearly the studio’s final game. While its success breathed new life into Strange Scaffold, Nelson believed that any idea of a sequel would have to die in order to let everything else the team was working on live. A long-term collaboration with publisher Frosty Pop helped salvage the dream of a sequel, one that looks to be a bit more focused this time around.
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Thankfully, one thing hasn’t changed: El Paso, Elsewhere 2 will feature more Pill Cop. One standout feature of the first game was the fictional in-game radio program that satirized tortured cop stories like Max Payne. Pill Cop’s story will continue in the sequel, as he has to confront a classic hostage situation on the ledge of a building. Nelson said he initially struggled to write the story in a way that felt like it had a satirical edge, but he eventually had an important eureka moment.
“Victorian orphan,” he said with a mad man’s confidence. I’ll let you find out what that means when you play the full game.
El Paso, Elsewhere 2’s new free demo is available now on Steam. The full game will launch in 2027 for Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
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