Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

April 9, 2010

Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood - PC Windows Box Art

Join the McCall brothers on a treasure hunt in this entertaining wild west first-person shooter.

Story

The McCall brothers Ray and Thomas fought in the American civil war before deserting in order to protect their home farm. Deserting from the war made them criminals but since the war ended they are no longer chased by the government. But this doesn’t stop the former Colonel Barnsby from going after them.
When the brothers reached their farm they found that their mother had been murdered. So they decide to take their younger brother William along with them as they escape from the vengeful Colonel. After hearing about the “Call of Juarez” (a curse that fills its victim with tremendous greed) and the whereabouts of an ancient lost treasure, the brothers set out in hopes to get rich, but whom can they trust on this journey?

The Game

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is in many ways a standard first-person shooter type game, but it does have a few features that sets it apart from the rest. First of all, it takes place in an American Civil War setting and features open areas to explore and shoot it out on. As you start the game you are almost immediately given the choice to play as either Ray or Thomas – these are the main characters of the story. The difference between them is that one is more of the stealth and long range kind of guy while the other one is pretty much the opposite. They also have differently abilities which can be used at times to overcome obstacles such as climbing and kicking in doors. Regardless of whom you choose to play as the game plays virtually the same; getting the objectives done is what matters and these can range from breaking someone out of jail to taking out a local bandit gang.

Content

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood takes place during and after the American civil war, and as such some levels take place in America while the majority of the game takes place in Mexico. You will be traversing great plains and highlands on either foot or on horseback and you will be making short visits to various small villages in Mexico. Some of the more interesting locations are mining colonies, Native American villages and mountain sides. And as expected you will be facing a lot of bandits and Indians as both enemies and friends.
To get you through all this opposition, you have a wide range of pistols, shotguns and rifles. The character specific throwing knives, bows and dynamite sticks also make short work of the enemies. You can also find better weapons as well as buying them from local merchants. All weapons share the same set of attributes and it’s easy to compare which ones are better. Getting money on the other hand can prove difficult as you have to do optional missions or take out rogue bandits to get a fist full of bucks. Better weapons are also visually better looking; the guns will be shinier and the more fancy ones will even have golden ornaments on them.
The game is somewhat on the short side, with a single-player campaign of only four to five hours, but the game does make up for it with its fun multiplayer aspect allowing for many more hours of wild west action.

As mentioned the game can be played with two different characters and in between chapters you are given the opportunity to switch character. The game doesn’t drastically change as you are still going to be shooting bandits and so forth the majority of the game. What changes though, is which parts of the story you are going to experience first hand. At certain parts of the game the two brothers will split up for a brief moment and depending on who you play as the game changes accordingly.
The single-player campaign can be played on a few difficulty settings following the basic Easy, Medium and Hard setup, and completing the game will unlock the even more difficult Very Hard. During the single-player campaign you can find secret scrolls that unlock artwork and “memories”, which are short, but fully voiced sound clips from different parts of the story in which the characters are sharing stories with one another.

Controls

Controlling Ray and Thomas is rather simple. Using the default W, A, S, and D keys- and mouse control scheme you will be exploring and shooting bandits in no time. There are a few new tricks that you can perform however. First and foremost is the Dynamic Cover System, which is a new take on the “lean out of cover” mechanic found in many other FPS games. The Dynamic Cover System lets you lean out of cover by simply moving the mouse, and this will let you peak around corners, over obstacles and so forth in smooth motions. This works well at times and can indeed spare your life as you are dodging bullets, but at the same time it feels rather redundant on lower difficulty settings.
The game uses a health system where you automatically recover after avoiding getting hit for a short period of time. The game doesn’t have any healing items whatsoever so you are stuck in cover for a while now and then, but this does not slow the game down however.

The game will sometimes allow you to rush into areas and rooms under a slow motion effect, for maximal cinematic experience. During these events you are no longer in control of your aim nor your movement. Instead, you are merely in control of the guns in your hands; left mouse button for the left hand gun and right mouse button for the right hand gun.
Another feature that stands out is the so-called Concentration Mode. When activating this mode, the game goes into slow motion and during this time you can easily take out several targets at once. You gain access to this mode by killing enemies in various flashy ways, for example head shots are worth more than regular hits. Once you use the Concentration Mode the gauge will empty itself and you can start accumulating it once again. Not using this opportunity within 30 seconds after its gauge reaches max will cause it to empty itself, making it impossible to save for later.

Every now and then, when the story calls for it, you are challenged to a Duel. During these duels you can only walk either left or right in a circle. You can also move your hand closer your gun, but moving it too close before the bell rings will cause your character to momentarily move their hand away from the gun. When the bell rings you are, of course, prompted to draw and fire your gun before your enemy does. Keeping yourself positioned correctly is key, and through visual effects such as the opponent being shown as either blurry or sharp you’ll know exactly where you are to stand. You reach for the gun by using the mouse and when your characters grabs the gun you’d push the mouse upwards. This is awkward at best but it sort of grows on you and does come to have a nice feeling to it. The duel ends when someone is shot and one shot equals death during duels. Thankfully the game gives you saving checkpoints before any duels so replaying isn’t an issue but at the same time it does reduce these duels into being little more than mindless and repetitive mini games.

The game does have multiplayer support for both LAN and online play which makes this game a good candidate for both local and online multiplayer fun.
There are five different game modes including the old favorite Deathmatch, but under a different name: Shootout. One game mode that stands out is the Wild West Legends-mode. It will allow you to experience some of the famous battles from the American civil war. Here you are given different tasks that you are to complete to assure your team victory.
The multiplayer mode features a class system which means that you may pick a class for your character, and this determines which weapons and equipment you are qualified to use. There are 13 classes to choose from including Gunslinger, Spy, Rifleman and Sniper. The classes all have two attributes: Health and Mobility. Choosing the right class for the right job is crucial. Killing enemies and completing tasks will earn you money which you can use to upgrade your class, and this in turn increases your attributes.
There are eight multiplayer maps in total (not counting the extra four maps that are available for download), but the maps are mostly rather large and well designed. To add to the mayhem, you can download custom maps from various fan communities making for almost endless content.
The multiplayer is great fun with many various game modes to try out and whether or not you are playing in a full server or not the game still remains fun. Simply put; the replay value here is quite good.

Graphics

The game is powered by “Chrome Engine 4” and it does a great job at producing some good-looking graphics. While the game is a little lacking in both facial and body animations, it excels in portraying some breathtaking and wide environments. The landscapes are well detailed with trees, bushes, rocks and so forth. The same goes for the many villages and towns – they are well designed and look exactly like you would imagine. The characters are also well detailed and even the regular bandits keep the standard high. The effects such as gun blasts and explosions look great, making for a really good looking game overall. There’s not much to complain about, really.

Sound

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood has an amazing and original soundtrack which fits the game and it’s setting perfectly. Acoustic- and electric guitars and trumpets in the same song? Enough said.
The voice actors do a fairly good job. There are some minor hiccups as some of the actors just can’t seem to figure out how to act like their character. The McCall brothers however, all do a good job as they banter with each other during firefights and boast about who is the better gunslinger. The firefights sound realistic enough to suck you into the atmosphere, but at times it’s underwhelming. The way the characters interact with each other does make up for the otherwise stale performance.

Summary

Following a rather uninteresting story, the game does throw a couple of twists in the player’s direction to keep things interesting and flowing. The shootouts are where it shines and the evidence is the multiplayer aspect of the game. While the single-player is very much an enjoyable experience it does feel rather thin a couple of hours in. The amount of replay value that this game offers is certainly worth mentioning though, as it makes up for a lot of the shortcomings. For the amount of content this game brings to the table, it’s a good choice for any FPS fan and even more so if the wild west strikes your fancy.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is certainly not groundbreaking but it does come bundled with a lot of fun.