It's been a long time since I had a game experience more mixed than Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. There's lots to like, some things to hate, a fair amount that's on the border, and even something I hated and then came to like. Playing this game was like riding an emotional roller coaster as I went from mildly interested to mildly annoyed and back again. OK, maybe not really a roller coaster so much as a see-saw in the kiddie playground, but you get my point. There are some thrills to be had, but also some jarring landings.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the prequel to a game I never played, nor do you need to have played it. It's a perfectly competent first person shooter set in the Old West, full of two-fisted six-gun action and horse riding and even a lasso or two. You play alternately as Tom and Ray, defending your car repair business from angry public radio listeners who haven't received their tote bags yet. Or rather, Thomas and Ray, two nasty Confederate soldiers who abandon their posts to try and save their farm from the evil Sherman as he marches through Georgia. That doesn't work out too well, and the brothers end up fleeing to the wilds of the West, their preacher little brother William in tow. There they hear tell of lost Aztec gold, both fall in love with the same Mexican seductress, fight various tribes of Indians, and have their pasts come back to haunt them. There's a lot of shooting.
The story is a strong point of Call of Juarez, but it's very uneven. I suppose we're meant to feel some sympathy towards the brothers in the early levels of the game, set during the Civil War. On a purely personal note I find it pretty much impossible to find sympathy for any Confederate soldier, and I don't really know why anyone would feel sorry for them when their “farm” that they've been whining about for two levels turns out to be a ginormous plantation and they think it's equally possible that either the slaves or the Union soldiers are responsible for the damage. Good for the slaves and Union soldiers, I say.
Not only is the story not enticing in those early levels, but the Civil War game play is pretty crappy too. I wanted to put the game down, but this was for review, so I soldiered on. I'm glad I did, because it really hits its stride once Tom and Ray ditch their uniforms, head West, and embrace their outlaw selves. Each level you can choose between the tough Ray, who uses twin pistols and throws dynamite, and the more stealthy Thomas, who specializes in rifles and bows and knives and has a lasso to climb up on things. I found Ray the more interesting of the two to play and the more compelling character – he's definitely the more menacing of the brothers, but I appreciated that he relishes his outlaw role, where as Thomas is a mealy-mouthed, backstabbing cur. But that's just my opinion.
The game play is pretty standard first person shooter fare. The use of period weapons slows things down a bit, which I actually enjoyed. There's a concentration mode that lets you go into slow-motion to target multiple enemies and then hit one button to watch your character blaze away and hit them all – it's pretty satisfying. There's also Showdown mode, which I discuss at length over at Gamma Testing. It does a good job of recreating that iconic, high-noon style gunfight, but it takes some figuring out to move from super-frustrating (which was my first impression) to pretty fun. There's also a pretty solid online multi-player game with several modes that definitely adds some replay value to the overall package.
When the shooting's done and the dust settles, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is an OK game. If you're a fan of the Western genre, you'll probably enjoy it even more. The story is solid and engaging for the most part, although preachy (literally) in a way that both fits the source material and bugs the hell out of me personally. There are some strange decisions – why is there both a place and a character named Juarez? – but it holds together through to the end. If you're jonesing to unleash your inner Man With No Name, then check it out. If you're looking for a finely tuned, fast-paced modern shooter, this might not be your huckleberry.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is available for the X-Box 360, Playstation 3, and PC.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2009.