Call of Juarez

When I was little I remember playing cowboys and Indians in my old neighborhood nestled away in little ole’ Kentucky. I don’t know if it was ever planned but the cowboys ended up winning more times than not, and it’s about the same for this new western-based FPS from Ubisoft. Call of Juarez puts you in the role of both the hunter and the hunted; an old beat-up preacher with a dirty past name Reverend Ray, and a young, fit and very stealthy Indian named Billy Candle.

The game begins with Billy, a returning Indian to a little town called Hope to visit some family. He has been on a trip to find a legendary treasure of Juarez but has returned empty handed. After visiting a “friend,” Billy ticks off the wrong people who basically force him out of town. Reverend Ray, in the meantime, is busy preaching at church. He gets the news that his brother’s farm is in trouble. When Ray arrives he sees Billy running from the scene and breaks his vow of peace after 20 years to track Billy down and bring justice.

The rest of the game will be spent as alternating characters, which also means alternating play mechanics. Billy’s missions are based more on stealth and platforming with a whip, bow and arrow, and occasionally a pistol. But most of the missions require you to sneak and kill because you are almost always outnumbered to the point of running in with guns blazing is more like running to commit suicide. There are a few times where the stealth is enjoyable (especially seeing arrows stuck through enemy’s heads) but most of the time it takes 30 minutes to kill everybody because you have to sneak and wait, and then sneak and shoot.

To be honest, Ray’s missions are a lot cooler. The actor that plays the Reverend makes the missions worth playing as he spits scripture verses of hail and brimstone at enemies before killing them. Ray's missions are a lot more run and gun. He usually dual wields some pistols (which he likes to call equalizers) but can carry a few other things as well.  Ray can even bust out the bullet-time effects in what is called “concentration mode” and put the smack down with even more accuracy. One other not very original game mechanic is the dual sessions you have with bosses. It’s set up sorta like a drag race. A timer counts down and you can’t draw until it hits zero. After that you move the mouse to unholster your gun, then set your sights and fire. It’s not the most tweaked gun system I’ve seen, but it’s still pretty fun. The idea of having two starkly contrasting play mechanics is a great way to keep things different and interesting, but the game does neither mechanic perfectly.

Call of Jaurez is a pretty good looking game. I didn’t have a chance to try out the DX-10 addons but the texture work and old western environments is really cool. The character models are a bit klunky and stiff but again, the texture work is very impressive. This comes at a price though. You’re going to have to have quite a nice PC to run it with everything on. It’s also worth noting the loading times are a little longer than average but they seem shorter with the story being told from voiceovers of the character your about to play.

Last but not least the multiplayer is nothing special. To be honest I really didn’t enjoy it much and didn’t seem as faced paced as other shooters. I think it was a combination of being used to rocket launchers and machine guns as opposed to revolvers and shotguns, as well as some of the map layouts. I would have much rather the team taken out the multiplayer and polished up the single-player campaign. That would have made this western the quickest draw in the West.

Gameplay: 8.0
About 9 -11 hours of gameplay that explore an often-forgotten genre and makes it fairly enjoyable with only some minor drawbacks

Graphics: 8.7
The texture work is amazing although the character modeling is quite blocky and stiff

Sound: 7.0
Music and voice acting are great. The sound effects are average.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Concept: 9.0
Westerns are hardly ever taken a chance on and I’m glad to Ubisoft for giving us a chance to explore a forgotten time.

Multiplayer: 5.0
Not that fun, many modes but all feel the same: Slow, a little boring, and lack of intuitive design.

Overall: 8.3
The game is pretty fun for Western fans. Just be prepared for some frustrating stealth mission and a couple minor clipping issues.