Call of Juarez

"Ju know what ju are Blondie? Ju're a filthy son of a..WA-OH WAOH..WA WA WA...."

As a basic rule of thumb, spaghetti westerns are GREAT. They're grand. The moral ambiguity, the noir like quality, the masculinity, or more appropriately, the "machismo."

Call of Juarez sets out to throw you, the gamer, into the proverbial spaghetti western. Does this game deserve the spurs and horse it rode in on? We shall see.

STORY: Here's something, the story is actually fairly good. There is character development, a big shocker for most people playing video games. There are plot twists, which are not really surprising due to how the plot progresses. The basic premise and storyline emulates a spaghetti western very well. I really think the story was actually a great point of this game. The dialogue, impressively, was written with vernacular accent in consideration, so the lines themselves are incredibly appropriate to the setting. There are some little stretches in the plot, but they are quite fitting to the overall feel of the game. Nothing here should put you off.

The basic storyline revolves around your two main characters, Billy and Reverend Ray. The action all begins from the day Billy returns to his childhood home, the rundown, decadent, corrupt town of Hope. Billy is a bit of a little punk. He's a sympathetic punk. He's had a tough life. And you of course as a gamer playing, know through situational irony exactly how bad his life will continue to be.

Reverend Ray is Hope's preacher. He was once a very very naughty man. He used to be a violent gun fighter, but now lives in disgust with the corruption in his parish. If you've read the seminal Preacher, you too will probably think Reverend Ray looks and sounds an awful lot like the Saint of Killers. And I would agree with you. He's that full of awesome sauce.

Convenient plot development, something happens, and Billy must run for his life , while Reverend Ray must once again take up his guns and chase Billy down.

GRAPHICS: The backgrounds are well rendered, the lighting and shadows all work very well. The colour palette is most fitting. It looks like you've been slammed into a Sergio Leone film. The characters are mostly well rendered too. They feel like individuals. The developers have really put in a great amount of effort into making the game look like like a spaghetti western. Dusty towns, broken down mines, Mexican pueblos, and even some weird locales that will make you think,"Hey, haven't I seen this in one of those games about raiding tombs and wearing hot pants?"

SOUND: The music overall was good. It appropriately sets the mood, changes tempo to match the feeling of the in-game events. It would have been an interesting touch if the developers had tried to find an appropriate emulation of Ennio Morricone. The voice work was very well done. The dialogue was written using accents, and the voice acting believable using those accents. The voices are amazing and very fitting for each character, and making each one feel unique. Particular points go to the voice of Reverend Ray. His voice completely compliments the feel and atmosphere of the character. Think like Keith David voicing Spawn. PERFECT.

Sound effects are also well done, guns fire and crack like thunder, people grunt and cry when shot or otherwise disposed of. Fire crackles and roars. Animals make realistic noises. Everything works very well in the sound department.

GAME PLAY: This is a well designed First Person Shooter for a console. As a rule, I try to avoid FPS' on consoles, which do not offer the same accuracy nor ease of aiming as using a mouse. I do make exceptions with gun peripherals. The 360 does not have this. The regular controller will suffice, so in effect throw your mind back in time a few years ago, probably on a Wednesday, because the past always lands on a Wednesday, to when you may have tried a little James Bond title, Goldeneye. The game operates pretty much like that.

Continuing on, I was impressed with the depth of the game play. You need to reload, and each gun has a set limit for how many rounds go in, but also about gun quality. Gun quality will affect things like, how many times it can be fired before it explodes, accuracy, reloading time, and of course damage. There is a variety of weapons, each with a mostly unique feel, and of course a change in how you play the game. There are melee options as well, however melee is not the focus of the game. I would have liked to have seen more opportunities to use it though.

Billy and the Rev each have their own unique weapon sets. Billy, being a bit young and inexperienced, is not very good with guns. He has access to more stealthy ways of attacking, specifically, the bow and the whip. The bow offers Billy a style of concentration that slows everything down and allows him to take careful aim before making his target into a pin cushion. Billy is also quite nimble, and you will notice that playing as Billy offers a unique challenge to play the game more like that great game Thief from Eidos way back in the day, probably also a Wednesday. His game play is sneaky and requires more thought and observation on your part. But before you get too frustrated with slinking around and being sneaky...

The Reverend Ray is a seasoned gun fighter. He is not quite so agile, being an older guy. He does have a wealth of skill and tricks that really spice up the shooting parts of the game. He can use pistols quite well, having the option to use them regularly drawn, to change to a one handed quick shot mode, which lets you fire off many rounds in a split second, or also the quick draw mode. The quick draw mode is great, you holster you weapons, draw them and concentrate, this slows down the time and allows you to independently aim and fire off either of your guns using the respective triggers and analog sticks. Another great thing about Ray, he can use a gun and his bible at the same time, sewing the seeds of confusion amongst those that would obstruct your path.

Those are the main differences, there are also rifles and shotguns to use, as well as dynamite. Dynamite is more difficult to manage, but it can be used effectively. There are also some mounted weapons, a gatling gun and a cannon, that offer some good cathartic big boom action.

Another interesting feature are the duels. In effect, I like the idea of the duels. The execution was a bit sloppy in my opinion. You must time it right, drawing, aiming, then firing. The problem is, the aiming suddenly becomes completely over responsive, making it nigh impossible to hit where you are aiming for, but you become more accustomed to it as you play. This system, problem worked on the computer version, but not so well on the console version. I felt it would have been better to perhaps make it a button tapping thing, or perhaps just hitting some buttons in a series to match a screen prompted action, somewhat like many action games are using these days.

Another not overly well designed portion of the game was horse riding. I love having the option, it's much better for the setting of the game. The problem is control, I often found myself unnecessarily dieing because my horse wouldn't run in the direction I was directing it. It's really aggravating to have to mix and match two different analog motions at the same time, AND shoot at some banditos.

One final point of irritation, was using the whip. It's great that it can be used to climb and swing and so forth, it's very annoying that you can't actually do those actions unless the icon pops up telling you, it's okay, you can do it now. This really limits the game play, and does not encourage exploring the evironment and your options.

OVERALL: This is a fantastic game, with interesting characters, a pretty good, even though it is overly predictable, story, and several interesting game play features. While it is not perfect, it is an excellent FPS title for the 360, and a grand little slice of the idealised wild west. Should it be purchased? I would say, if you love shooters, you will want to add this to your collection. I haven't experimented with the online play, but completing the game does add more missions to the game, giving you more things to do. Using the leader boards on the live service, you can also see who's the baddest gun slinger in the digital wild west. There's also the hidden wanted posters, and the higher difficulties awaiting you. If you are looking into trying a shooter, or you are a person who isn't normally predisposed towards playing Shooters or FPS' in general, at least rent it and give it a go. You might change your mind.

A 7 out of 10. It's fun, and a very grand experience, that suffers from some slight problems with controls in certain parts of the game. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the one day I put into completing the game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/09

Game Release: Call of Juarez (JP, 02/28/08)