Is it a blast in the Wild Wild West, or just a so-so snooze fest?

by dkpatriarch

© 2009 David Hilton

In a shooter game-scape dominated by modern warfare commandos, zombies and space marines it’s refreshing to return to the Wild West.

The Western has made a few forays into video games but this gen seemed largely absent.

With Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption delayed and the steampunk Western Damnation a failure, Ubisoft’s second Call of Juarez (subtitled Bound In Blood) has the cowboy field to itself. But is this one ”yee haw”, or just a great big “neighhhh”.

• Bound In Blood Teaser

Part of the attraction of this first person shooter game being set in the Wild West is that it’s a simpler time when the law was made with your own gun and ambition rather than a noble cause, when greed was good, and when the bad-guy leaders didn’t always run off and escape when the going got bad for them and instead would stand out in plain sight for you to draw at high noon and shoot them down in the street.  Nothing worse than fighting the same boss over and over!

The Western is all about cliches.

You have the cowboy, an ex-warrior for the South in the American Civil War who has nothing left and so takes his sulky seething anger out West to beat on other cowboys and Indians and find his fortune.

You have the seemingly good-hearted girl with bad luck who has basically become a whore to stay alive.  You have the hard drinking tough talking outlaw desperadoes who do anything to make money and control the rickety wooden towns.

There are the spiritual mono-syllabic Indian savages (as they were known then) who may be noble but are destined to be wiped out as they fight each other as well as the invading white man.

All these are present and accounted for in the game.

• Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood Trailer

The myth lives on

Still, the myth of the Wild West makes for entertaining gameplay when done well, and luckily here it is.

Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood is not a sequel to the first game released earlier in the 360’s life, but more of a prequel.  It actually tells the backstory of bible-thumping Ray from the first game.

Though the story isn’t terribly original or the twists that surprising, the game’s plot is one of it’s strong points because it perfectly moves the action forward in a coherent fashion.

The game begins in the middle of the story with a scene of the three brothers at each other’s throats, showing the disintegration of their family relationship, before going back to the beginning to explain how and why they became ‘brothers in arms’.

The story is narrated by the youngest of the three McCall brothers, William, his Southern drawl telling how his two older brothers Ray and Thomas fought in the Civil War in 1864, which turns out to be a fantastic gameplay environment which is like a twist on WW2 games of old.

Brotherly love saves the day

Inevitably the two brothers pass through fields of destruction, baptisms of fire (okay, enough Dire Straits…) and this changes them.

Thomas, who was a religious young man who stayed home, later comments that “war made them cold and violent men who took what they wanted without care or conscience”.

When the family mansion comes under threat from the Northern “blue-bellies” who are intent on pillage and destruction, the two brothers go AWOL to save their mother and younger brother, starting a revenge quest for their commanding officer who later blames them for the fall of Atlanta (hey-they were good fighters, but not that good!).

Inevitably they arrive too late and decide to head out West to find their fortune and rebuild a past that no longer exists.

What follows is lots of shooting, treasure hunting, gun-running, horse riding, fighting over women….and good ‘ol Western fun.

While there may be more technically advanced games out there, this one outdoes many of them in the fun stakes (I’m personally thinking of Killzone 2, but that’s a personal observation).  The game moves at a nice pace and provides enough diversity both in objective and location to keep my interest for the whole game, something that many games lately fail to do.

Stage coaches, rapids & Civil Wars

From explosive Civil War charges, to speedy stage coach escapes, to canoe white water rafting, to shooting up a fort, the game often feels like a theme park ride.

A lot of that feels a bit passive like a theme park ride as well, but when you do take control of the action the shooting gameplay is tight and sounds right.  Though the ’sprint’ seems a bit slow, the aiming and movement is great.

Unfortunately the melee or close combat sucks pretty badly, with the player having to switch to knives….it’s better to back off and shoot but if you need to reload you need to find cover quick.

Enemy AI is up to the task, throwing dynamite from cover and moving around to try and surprise you.

It took me awhile to get used to the limitations of old-school weaponry, especially slow shooting and so much reloading, having played so many modern shooters recently, but it makes for a more challenging experience.

You can upgrade your weapons too by collecting cash and then visiting one of the gun sellers some of the more open levels provide.

Sounds of gunfire ‘ting-ziing’

Sound is pretty spot on for a Western with the appropriate gunfire and ‘ting’ sounds when bullets ricochet.

Background noise like bugles during the Civil War section, dogs barking in towns and church bells all add atmosphere. The repeated dialogue by your brother or enemies gets annoying though.

Most levels of the game give you a choice between playing as each of the older brothers.  Ray is strong, deadly at close range with dual wield, can smash through some doors Thomas can’t, can carry a Gatling gun and use dynamite.

I chose to be Ray most of the time for this review, but it gives the game replay value that there are other ways to play and other routes when you choose the other brother.

Thomas is more agile, has better long range aim, can access high areas using his lasso, can use a bow, and can throw knives.

Both brothers use different “concentration modes” when you’ve built up enough kills to get slow mo.  I preferred Ray’s mark ‘em and shoot style to Thomas’ quick shot style, but it is nice that there are differences.

The ‘quick draw’ showdown, which is used to kill all the bosses, is interesting the first few, but it gets tiring having to move yourself around, keep your hand close but not too close to your gun, and then draw accurately and quickly when the bell sounds.

Action slows as does the scenery

The showdown slows the action pace to a sudden stop.

At least when you die you just start up with the draw again.

The game’s design is interesting but perplexing in some areas.  It really does have an open-world feel to some levels where you can explore whole towns or wander off into the Arizona desert, but there really is little reason to do so.

They are mostly empty lifeless areas and the reality is that this is a linear corridor shooter often without the corridors.  It’s great for immersion and feeling a part of a bigger environment, but it’s only for show.

There are a couple times when you can choose to do side quests like catching cattle rustlers or saving ranch owners and their daughters for extra cash, but they seem a bit randomly thrown in for a bit of variety and to enable you to earn cash.

The horse riding is adequate, but feels a bit loose and unwieldy.

Giddy-up there ya nag

Still, what good Western game goes without horse riding?

The game looks, for the most part, really good.

There are a nice diversity of environments often having foliage swaying in the breeze, rocks tumbling down onto your trail in canyons, sun rays shining through the shadow of the forests, and lovely birdies and butterflies flying amongst the death and ruin of Civil War battlefields.

You can actually shoot some of those birdies too if you are a gun-happy anti-animal type (not like me)! Towns are quite detailed and buildings don’t all seem the same as in some other games.

There are different times of day on different levels which shows the illusion of time progressing and each location looks affected by the different light.  When you emerge from a dark environment to a light one you are temporarily blinded, which is realistic.

There are a variety of items that enhance the immersion like bottles shattering, pumpkins splattering, chairs splintering, lamps igniting, mini-dust twisters twisting, and items moving when shot or hit.

That’s not to say all is perfect though.

Break out the hair-cream

People’s hair in the cut-scenes look like they used buckets of grease in them- the hair is that shiny!

The foggy/dusty ghost town level (which is murky inside houses as well as out) isn’t very attractive but does serve to hide the enemies.

I did have a guy I shot get his whole head stuck in a door (actually through the wood…) which was funny-looking but just wrong, the game stutters when it saves and at some other stages, there is a bit of pop-in, especially when riding a speedy horse, there is a bit of clipping of guns through cover boxes, and bodies mysteriously disappear which detracts from immersion.

The game has system link and online multiplayer, which, along with the ability to play most levels as the other brother later, adds a bit of re-playability.  The multiplayer is mostly team focused with “Outlaws” versus “Lawmen”.

I enjoyed the first Call Of Juarez, but this one is better.  The story keeps it more cohesive and moving forward into a variety of typical Western locals and there is plenty of action to entertain.  A perfect remedy for sick-of-marine-itis, this game is well worth a play.

© 2009 David Hilton

“7.5/10

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