Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Call of Juarez – Bound in Blood is the sequel to the original FPS Western Call of Juarez. The game revolves around 2 brothers who abandon their posts during the civil war to return home and ensure their family’s safety. Along with being deserters they become outlaws causing trouble for themselves everywhere they go. As they go in search of a hidden treasure, their other brother, who is a priest, follows pleading for them to see the error of their ways.
The game is split up into chapters, each chapter you get to choose to play a Ray or Thomas. Each character has their own pros and cons. Ray can use dynamite, break down doors, and is better at short range combat. Thomas can climb up to places Ray can’t, use a lasso and is better at long range combat.
The game starts off with a battle from the civil war. The battle is intense and feels more like a Call of Duty game instead of a western. This level also plays sort of like a tutorial for the game. You learn about all the typical controls, plus the cover system, and the concentration mode.
The cover system is a pain to get used to, but really neat after you get the hang of it. It works in a way that you basically stick to cover as soon as you push up against it, and you can then use the analog sticks to look over and around it. It’s completely freeing compared to other pop-out cover systems, and you don’t get stuck in cover like other games.
The concentration mode is basically your slow time function. You can freeze time for a couple seconds and mark all the enemies in your sight, once you run out of time your character will immediately gun down all of the enemies you marked. It’s a neat take on a tired feature.
There are some other very unique features to FPS games. There are gun shops in the levels where you can purchase new weapons, also there’s a showdown mode which allows you to have a good old fashion wild west showdown.
The showdowns involve circling your opponent to keep him in your sights. At the same time you have to keep your hand as close to your gun as possible without touching it. When the bell rings you have to grab your gun and fire. Usually you only have a second which makes it an exhilarating mini game.
The game’s story is decent and had a good western feeling to it, but there are some annoying elements to it. You play as two brothers who have abandoned their squad in the war to return home. Hunted as deserters they become outlaws, roaming from town to town getting in trouble. Eventually they decide to go in search of a lost gold treasure in Mexico and their priest brother tags along. The story is told from these 3 characters. The voice acting and script really suffer here the main two brothers are pretty lifeless, and the priest is just annoying.
All in all the levels are well designed and make for a very fun game. The change of setting and the unique aspects of the game make it stand out from other FPS games, and there’s a ton of western style shootouts.
There’s no co-op mode which is a little strange as much of the game seems like it would work very well for it. In fact most of my problems around the game come from the fact that my partner couldn’t keep up with me. A lot of times, I’d be waiting at a door I know I’m supposed to break down, but can’t do anything for 30 seconds until my partner catches up. Also there seems to be a lot of witty dialogue between the brothers, but I can’t make out most of it. I’ll hear something really faint, and my character will respond with a snaky comeback quite loudly. This really ruins it for me, as this kind of stuff really makes a game interesting (think Uncharted, Gears of War, or Republic Commando).
Finally my last gripe and it’s a VERY annoying one. This might not be the case on 360, but on PS3 every time I hit a checkpoint (which is often) the game freezes for around 5 seconds. You can’t move or shoot, even lines of dialogue being spoken are cut off and continue after the freeze. Talk about breaking flow. This really pulls you out of the experience.
The single player mode has a set of secrets to collect, and you can replay each level with the other brother. There’s also an online multiplayer mode that seems like a lot of good work went into it. That makes for some pretty good replay value.
Final verdict, I think Ubisoft went out of their way to try and create an AAA fps game. It lacks a certain amount of polish and the partner stuff could have been done much better, but it is a really fun experience. There’s a lot of game here and it’s worth putting some real time into.
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