Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is an interesting little first person shooter from Ubisoft. I was bored the other day and I couldn’t find any other games to torrent, so I was delighted when I noticed that this had a few thousand seeders. I just couldn’t help myself! It’s also apparently the prequel to the other Call of Juarez game which I haven’t played.
What makes this game interesting is that, it’s not in WW2, the future, or any other cliché FPS settings. No, it’s in the old west. Isn’t that awesome? There’s like cowboys and horses and stuff. This game plays like a bad western movie, except that it’s actually entertaining. The two main characters, brothers Ray and Thomas McCall, are total badasses. They go around shooting all kinds of interesting people including Union soldiers in the Civil War, cliché western types, deputies, Mexicans, Comanche, among others, riding horses (Usually while shooting people), engaging in one on one duels with bad people, saving pretty girls, and then shooting some more people. Of course, it’s an FPS. What do you expect to be doing?
The presentation in the game is top notch. Cutscenes are frequent, but are usually short and to the point. The graphics are pretty, but not Crysis. Sadly you can’t turn off the shadow effects though, so owners of crappy PCs are going to be angry. I usually turn off shadows anyways because the lowest setting is usually all my computer can handle so shadows look like blotchy blobs of shittiness. Some of the desert environments seem a little boring, but it’s a freaking desert. What do you expect it to look like? The mountain forest area is awesome looking. Water also is quite pretty to look at, as is the game’s primary female Marisa. Sound effects seem about right and the voice acting is pretty well done. When I’m playing PC games I usually don’t listen to the music in them so I don’t know what that’s like.
As I said before gameplay is quite standard for an FPS. There are a few neat little things about this game that are somewhat interesting, however. In between the game’s missions you can opt to do some little side quests that add a bit of variety to the game. Unfortunately, because it’s an FPS, these tasks usually just involve killing people; then getting money, which you use to buy shinier guns. Yes, I mean that literally. The best guns in the game are shiny. Speaking of the guns, there’s an OK variety of them. Sadly there aren’t that many different kinds of them though. Basically every gun in the game is a rifle, a shotgun, or a revolver. Each character also gets special weapons (Thomas gets a bow and some throwing knives while Ray is able to pick up Gatling guns and use dynamite). However I’m sure they could have added a few other kinds of guns. Like CROSSBOWS! They totally used crossbows in the old west. Alright alright, I guess the developers used what they had available with the time period. I can’t complain about this. Another bit of a nice touch is how each of the different brothers plays. Ray is a master of killing stuff up close and can use two pistols; he’s also strong and can blow stuff up. Thomas on the other hand is more agile and is more dangerous from a distance and can also kill silently with the knives and bow.. He also has a lasso! And a kickass beard, and that’s why I always used him. Also, both of the brothers can do this neat little bullet time like move where everything slows down and they shoot things super accurately. One on one duels with the big bad guys are also frequent, as you master the art of moving the mouse quickly and then clicking.
The storyline isn’t going to be winning any awards, but it’s pretty interesting at least. The two brothers start as soldiers in the Civil War on the Confederate side and you kick Union ass. And then they desert and go home to visit their mom, only to realize that they place is being raided by Union soldiers. They grab their little brother William then go out west to do cool old west stuff, where they get caught up in all kinds of mischief before they finally hear about some legendary hidden treasure and things just go from there. It’s all about the quest to find this hidden treasure so they can rebuild their gigantic farm back in Georgia. I like how the game’s main characters aren’t really “the good guys.” They’re generally not very nice fellows and just kick ass for money and help whoever can help them. Their little brother William is a preacher so he’s always going on and on about God and Jesus and stuff, trying to get his brothers to turn to the ways of Jesus and stop being assholes. Of course they refuse because they are total badasses and badasses don’t need the power of Jesus; they have the power of badassery. Other interesting characters include Barnsby, the crazy ex Confederate colonel that’s determined to hunting down the brothers and hanging them for deserting the South in the war. He’s a bit of a nutjob. Also there’s Marisa, the pretty Mexican girl. She’s really just a pain in the ass, but so are real women.
Of course the game isn’t all good. If it was good I’d probably have been using lots more words and going on and on about how great it is. And here’s where shit gets critical. My biggest complaint with this game is that it’s too god damned short. What is up with these game developers thinking that a 6 hour main quest is long enough? They could have done a lot more with this, it really makes me angry. The next equally annoying thing (Which I guess might not be a bad thing to some) is that it’s too easy. The game tells you exactly where to go and exactly where to go all the time. You don’t have to find anything for yourself, except for the little bonus secrets scattered throughout the game. The AI ranges from being smart enough to being complete bumbling morons who can be staring right at you and not do anything. The CoD-like health system also seems a bit off. Furthermore while the fact that there’s two characters, they really aren’t that different. Aside from having different weapons and you have to do different stuff in the story with that character there really isn’t much that separates the two. Personally I would have loved an option to play as William and destroy my enemies with the power of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Hopefully the people who make mods are reading this. I would also like to add that the game claims to be open ended, but the open endedness amounts to being able to do a few side quests between missions to get some extra cash to buy shinier guns. If you’re going to jump on that bandwagon at least do it right. Another tiny complaint is that this game is LITTERED with clichés. My favorite one is how whenever one of the characters makes a comment about how quiet it is, AMBUSH. However I’m almost quite sure that this is done on purpose, but it still makes me angry. One on one duels kinda suck and basically amount to a bit of luck and fast clicking. I can’t even imagine how much they suck on consoles. The banter between the two brothers also gets kinda old fast.
I didn’t get a chance to test the multiplayer yet because I am a cheap ass and torrented it. Anyone want to see if we can get a game working on Hamachi?
Overall, it’s a good game. It’s not going to reinvent the FPS genre, but it’s a nice little diversion for six hours of your time. With a few minor improvements it could have been something wonderful, but in the end it ends up being good, but nothing special. I enjoyed it and may buy it if the multiplayer is good enough (Which is why YOU should get your ass on Hamachi and play with me!).
I’m going to give it a 7.5 / 10 for the awesome presentation, refreshing setting, cool characters, and average yet entertaining gameplay.
